ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2020
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Views: A Triple Crossover Trial of Visual Abstracts to Examine Their Impact on Research Dissemination.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed.
- Optimizing the use of twitter for research dissemination: The "Three Facts and a Story" randomized-controlled trial.Journal of hepatology · 2021Trial
- New visual culture of science: analysis of graphical abstracts in the life science journal "Cell".History and philosophy of the life sciences · 2026Article
- Multimedia Approach to Living Donation Education for Transplant Professionals: Building a Professional Society Multimedia Work Group.Current transplantation reports · 2025Article
- Do infographics 'spin' the findings of health and medical research?BMJ evidence-based medicine · 2025Observational
- Analysis of the Highest Altmetrics-scored Articles in Emergency Medicine Journals.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Development of the Reporting Infographics and Visual Abstracts of Comparative studies (RIVA-C) checklist and guide.BMJ evidence-based medicine · 2024Article
- Curriculum Innovation: A Resident-Created Multiple-Choice Question of the Week to Augment Case-Based Learning.Neurology. Education · 2024Article
- Post or perish? Social media strategies for disseminating orthopedic research.Journal of orthopaedic research : official publication of the Orthopaedic Research Society · 2023Review
- Video abstracts are associated with an increase in research reports citations, views and social attention: a cross-sectional study.Scientometrics · 2023Article
- The evolution of social media in nephrology education: A mini-review.Frontiers in nephrology · 2023Review
- Peer-reviewed visuals and auditory - isn't it time to incorporate?Renal failure · 2023Article
- Social Media for Research Discourse, Dissemination, and Collaboration in Rheumatology.Rheumatology and immunology research · 2022Article
- Screen-based digital learning methods in radiation oncology and medical education.Technical innovations & patient support in radiation oncology · 2022Article
- Seeing Is Believing: The Effect of Graphical Abstracts on Citations and Social Media Exposure in Gastroenterology & Hepatology Journals.Journal of Korean medical science · 2022Article
- What's in a tweet? Optimizing social media impressions.BJUI compass · 2022Article
- How do people use and view infographics that summarise health and medical research? A cross-sectional survey.BMC medical education · 2022Article
- Designing Infographics: Visual Representations for Enhancing Education, Communication, and Scientific Research.Journal of Korean medical science · 2022Article
- Users' passivity in accessing digested scientific evidence through social media: cross-sectional insights.BMC research notes · 2022Article
- Researchers in cardiology - Why and how to get on Twitter?International journal of cardiology. Heart & vasculature · 2022Review
- Bursting out of our bubble: using creative techniques to communicate within the systematic review process and beyond.Systematic reviews · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA visual abstract is a graphic summary of a research article's question, methods, and major findings. Although they have a number of uses, visual abstracts are chiefly used to promote research articles on social media.
objectiveThis study aimed to determine if the use of visual abstracts increases the visibility of nephrology research shared on Twitter.
methodsA prospective case-control crossover study was conducted using 40 research articles published in the American Journal of Nephrology (AJN). Each article was shared by the AJN Twitter account in 3 formats: (1) the article citation, (2) the citation with a key figure from the article, and (3) the citation with a visual abstract. Tweets were spaced 2 weeks apart to allow washout of the previous tweet, and the order of the tweets was randomized. Dissemination was measured via retweets, views, number of link clicks, and Altmetric scores.
resultsTweets that contained a visual abstract had more than twice as many views as citation-only tweets (1351, SD 1053 vs 639, SD 343) and nearly twice as many views as key figure tweets (1351, SD 1053 vs 732, SD 464). Visual abstract tweets had 5 times the engagements of citation-only tweets and more than 3.5 times the engagements of key figure tweets. Visual abstract tweets were also associated with greater increases in Altmetric scores as compared to citation-only tweets (2.20 vs 1.05).
conclusionsThe use of visual abstracts increased visibility of research articles on Twitter, resulting in a greater number of views, engagements, and retweets. Visual abstracts were also associated with increased Altmetric scores as compared to citation-only tweets. These findings support the broader use of visual abstracts in the scientific community. Journals should consider visual abstracts as valuable tools for research dissemination.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.