Graphical abstracts: a taxonomy and critique of an emerging genre

Abstract

Graphical abstracts---visual representations of the central concepts in an article---are emerging as a genre in STEM fields. Originally used in Chemistry to represent the primary molecules and reactions under investigation, graphical abstracts have spread to other science and engineering fields, and in the process have evolved significantly, adapting for different disciplines and contexts. In this paper, we describe the emergence and current ecology of graphical abstracts, and develop a multi-layer taxonomy for analyzing how graphical abstracts function visually and rhetorically, in relation to the rest of their associated article, and to their mediated context. Using this taxonomy, we begin to suggest ways for authors, editors, and publishers to align the functions more productively.