Seeing Is Believing: The Effect of Graphical Abstracts on Citations and Social Media Exposure in Gastroenterology & Hepatology Journals

Abstract

Background Graphical abstracts (GAs) have recently been included as an essential element in various journals, including those in the field of Gastroenterology & Hepatology. However, there has been no study on the effect of GAs on the impact factor (IF) of journals, and the citation index or social media exposure of individual articles. Methods We investigated the presence of GAs, total citations and social media exposure of full-length original articles in the top ten journals of gastroenterology and hepatology for three years (2019–2021). Citations and social media exposure were evaluated with the Web of Science citation index, Altmetric Attention score, Dimension recorded citation count, and PlumX index. Results A total of 4,205 articles from ten journals were evaluated for three years. First, journals that have adopted GAs demonstrated significantly higher IF increases for the past three years than those of journals without GAs. The longer GAs have been utilized in a journal, the higher IFs the journal had. Secondly, individual articles with GAs had significantly higher Web of Science citation counts (median 14 vs. 12), more social media exposure (median 23 vs. 5) and more Altmetric.com tweet counts (median 15 vs. 7) than those of articles without GAs. In multiple regression analysis, the inclusion of GAs was particularly effective in increasing the number of Web of Science citations (β = 14.1, SE = 1.9, P < 0.001) and social media exposure (β = 13.3, SE = 6.1, P = 0.030) after adjusting for journal IFs and topics. Conclusion GAs are effective in increasing IFs of journals in the field of gastroenterology and hepatology, as well as increasing citations and social media exposure of individual articles.

The current state of graphical abstracts and how to create good graphical abstracts

“…According to a study published by Yoon et al [9] in 2017, the number of journals adopting the GA system increased by 350% from 2011 to 2015, a trend also evident in the fields of geography, sociology, psychology, economics, and political science. The same phenomenon was also observed in Korea: ever since the Journal of Korean Medical Science introduced the GA system in Korea, more than 10 medical SCIE journals based in Korea have introduced the GA system from 2021 to 2022, including the Korean Journal of Internal Medicine [13].…”

“…According to the aforementioned study on online engagement, healthcare professionals interacted more actively with the inclusion of a GA rather than an abstract or an article title (45.3 times vs. 29.4 times or 28.8 times, respectively). The effect of GAs encouraging online engagement in social media has been confirmed in several medical disciplines, including orthopedics, nephrology, psychiatry, and gastroenterology [13,[17][18][19].…”

Graphical abstracts are associated with greater Altmetric attention scores, but not citations, in sport science

“…The effect of GAs on citation counts is unclear, largely due to the conflicting results presented in the research, with some studies reporting a negative association (Aggarwal, 2021;Bennett & Slattery, 2022;Pferschy-Wenzig et al, 2016), the present study no association, and one a positive association (Kim et al, 2022). Why GAs would have a negative effect on citations is unclear, but Pferschy-Wenzig et al ( 2016) provided potential explanations (Pferschy-Wenzig et al, 2016).…”

“…A recently published pre-print using a cross-sectional design demonstrated that articles published with a GA were associated with lower Altmetric attention scores and citations counts than those published with a GA in three high ranking sport science journals (Bennett & Slattery, 2022). Lastly, Kim et al (2022) found that articles published with a GA in the top ten journals in the fields of gastroenterology and hepatology were associated with higher Altmetric attention scores and citations than those published without (Kim et al, 2022).…”

“…Like Aggarwal (2021), articles with a GA were associated with lower citations, and lower Altmetric attention scores, than those published without a GA (Bennett & Slattery, 2022). Conversely, Kim et al (2022) found that articles published with a GA in the top ten journals in the fields of gastroenterology and hepatology were associated with higher Altmetric attention scores and citations than those published without (Kim et al, 2022). While the exact reasons for these findings are unclear, it could be partially related to the fields of research explored, where it may be that some topics are more appealing to academics and/or consumers than others (and vice versa).…”