Introducing graphical and video abstracts

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, putting across a complex idea in a much clearer and concise way than words are able to. This is something that’s very useful for scientific research, when complexity is unavoidable and necessary word restrictions limit the information that can be provided in a written abstract.

That’s why we now allow graphical abstracts to run alongside our articles. These will appear both in print and online – indeed, you’ll be able to spot one in this issue; Santana-Calvo et al. use the power of image to demonstrate their new FRET pair.

Further to this, we also now accept video abstracts, where even more information can be passed onto the reader in a concise format. While we cannot (yet!) include these in the print issue, we hope you’ll enjoy them online.

For authors interested in using either of these options, we provide a comprehensive guide to creating graphical or video abstracts in our author guidelines, which are available from the website. What’s more, we can also provide services to help in their creation.

For queries about the graphical or video abstracts, please contact the Managing Editor Joseph Martin at [email protected]. Find the author guidelines at www.biotechniques.com.