Do you want to raise the visibility of your research articles but don’t know how? One way to make your work more visible online is to create a video or other visual description of your work and post it online. A text link to your paper may be buried on page 43 of a Google search, but a visual link (image or video) is likely to be ranked higher (and possibly featured on the first page of search results if there are few competing visuals on your research topic).

A number of journals and scientists are using video or visual abstracts to promote papers, but it can be a challenge to create a visual abstract from scratch. So I’ve been working on a template to help those researchers who would like to create a visual abstract for a journal article. I finally finished it and am making it available to everyone.

I created the visual abstract template with Prezi and posted it on the Prezi website where anyone can reuse it. You will need to set up an account (free) on Prezi (or purchase an upgrade if you want to work on your computer). The template has a basic design for a visual abstract and contains media and text placeholders, which allow someone to easily substitute their own material. Instructions are built into the template so that the user can follow along and understand how to modify the template and create their own visual abstract. There are tutorials on the Prezi website that provide additional instructions for using Prezi.

I’ve embedded a player window below so that you can view the visual abstract template (be sure to select full-screen for best viewing):

If you would like to use this template, go to this webpage and download it. Once downloaded to your account, you will be able to make whatever changes you like—even change the entire theme, if you wish.

You don’t have to acknowledge me as the source of the template (although that would be nice) but please consider retaining the link and embed code for the template so that anyone viewing your abstract will know where to find the template for their use.

More Resources and Guidance for Creating Visual/Video Abstracts:

1. The Scientist Videographer eBook (contains more in-depth guidance and tutorials on developing a visual abstract)

2. 8 Steps to a Good Video Abstract (another embeddable slide show with more dos and don’ts)

3. Getting Started with Prezi (official guide to using Prezi–good for beginners)