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Video Abstracts

This guide provides an introduction to Video Abstracts and outlines some of the ways the Library helps to support UQ researchers to make these videos.

What are Video Abstracts?

Video Abstracts are brief 3 - 4 minute videos that summarise research presented in journal articles. You can harness the power of these videos to enhance the engagement with, and impact of, your research. 

Once you have a draft script ready, get in touch with the Scholarly Publishing team who will support you in getting your Video Abstract made.

Although the first Video Abstracts began to appear in 2010, it has only been since 2017/2018 that Video Abstracts have begun to gain the attention of journal editors and article authors.

According to Spicer (2014 p.3), Video Abstracts are:

“A video presentation corresponding to a specific research article, which typically communicates the background of a study, methods used, study results, and potential implications through the use of images, audio, video clips and text”.


Video Abstracts offer the opportunity to communicate your research through a more personal, media rich way that is better adapted for sharing your research, especially if some of your audience is outside of academia.

 

Spicer, S., 2014. Exploring Video Abstracts in Science Journals: An Overview and Case Study. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 2(2), p.eP1110. DOI: http://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.1110

Altmetrics and Engagement

Research on the impact of Video Abstracts has shown that there is a noticeable impact on the full text downloads for articles that have Video Abstracts.

According to Wiley, articles they have published that have Video Abstracts have seen:

  • 447% higher Altmetric Attention scores;
  • 111% higher full text views.

When talking about the impact and engagement with articles, it's important to note that we can only talk about full text views and not citations. This is because there are a number of factors that lead to a divergence between downloads and citation counts. 

Moed and Halevi (2015) provide a more detailed explanation of this in their article "On full text downloads and citation distributions in scientific-scholarly journals".

The main thing to note though is that the more full text views of your work, the more likely there is to be an increase in citations.

The Library's guide to Metrics has a section on Altmetrics, or for further information contact your Liaison Librarian.

Where do they go?

Most journals or publishers have a YouTube or Vimeo account where they host Video Abstracts. In some cases, the Video Abstracts are also embedded with your article on the journal's website.

There are some publishers, Wiley/Blackwell for instance, that do not allow you to submit your own Video Abstract as they offer a paid service to create them for you. This does not prevent you from making use of the Library's support and creating a Video Abstract with us, it just means that the Video Abstract would be hosted by UQ, rather than the publisher.

If your journal or publisher does not put your Video Abstract on YouTube, it is worth asking your editor if you can put the video up on one of UQ's YouTube channels. This is because Altmetric currently only tracks YouTube, and any video that is hosted on a site other than YouTube will not be included in the Altmetric Score for this paper.

If you are putting your Video Abstract up on a UQ YouTube channel, make sure to include the DOI of your article in the video's description so that it can be tracked by Altmetric.

Once the video is hosted on YouTube, it's important to share the link through any social media platforms you wish, just make sure to always include the DOI of your article in any social media posts you make about it.

What do they look like?

The UQ Library has worked with the Office for Marketing and Communications to develop a program to support UQ researchers make Video Abstracts.

Library specialists work with researchers to develop their scripts, and then continue to support researchers through the filming and editing stages. 

Here's a couple of examples of what these Video Abstracts look like:

 

When can I make one?

Video Abstracts can be made at any time, but are best made just as, or just after, your article is published.

You can make a Video Abstract for an article that has already been published, but it would work best if the article has been published no more than 3 years ago.

Drafting a Script

When you are ready to make a Video Abstract the Library has prepared some materials to help you draft a script.

The Video Abstract Script Guide runs through some of the things to consider when writing your draft. It also has the transcript of one of the videos above so that you can see how they are written and laid out for the teleprompter.

The Video Abstract Script Template will help you to make a start on your script draft.

Once you have a draft script ready, get in touch with the Scholarly Publishing team who will support you in getting your Video Abstract made.