The Benefits
of the Video Abstract as a
Newly Emerging Academic
Genre.

Las ventajas del video abstract como
un nuevo género académico emergente.

Abstract
After detailed research done on the existing literature, the present article aims at conceptualizing
the genre video
abstract by
focusing on its defining characteristics
and the benefits it may bring to both researchers and also the non-academic community. This newly emerging type of scientific summary presents some technical, material and social characteristics which will
be developed in this paper. As multimodal artifacts, video abstracts
provide authors with the opportunity to make use of an array of semiotic resources in order to convey meaning and communicate research findings. Having insurmountable semiotic potential, this
genre offers several advantages, but one of the most relevant ones
for the scientific community
is the possibility of using the video abstract to propel the dissemination of science and knowledge to a wider audience.

Keywords: Democratization of knowledge; discursive genre; Academic
research; multimodality; semiotic resources; video abstract.

Resumen

Después de realizar una investigación detallada
de la literatura existente, este artículo apunta a la conceptualización del
género video abstract, enfocándose en las características que lo definen y en los beneficios que puede traer
para los y las investigadores/as, y también
para
la comunidad no académica. Este nuevo tipo de resumen científico presenta
algunas características técnicas,
materiales y sociales que serán
desarrolladas en este artículo.
Como artefactos multimodales, los video abstract proveen a los/las
autores/as la oportunidad de hacer uso de un despliegue de recursos
semióticos para transmitir
significado y comunicar hallazgos de investigación. Al
tener un insuperable potencial
semiótico, este género
ofrece varias ventajas, pero una de las más relevantes para la comunidad científica tiene que ver con la posibilidad de usarlo para
fomentar la divulgación de conocimiento
científico a una audiencia
más amplia.

Palabras clave: Democratización de conocimiento; género discursivo; investigación
académica; multimodalidad; recursos semióticos; video
abstract.

Sumario:
1. Introduction. 2. What Is a Video Abstract? Attempts to Define the Genre. 3. The Benefits of Video Abstracts. 4.
Conclusion.

Como
citar:
Accastello, L. & Quinteros, L. (2023). The Benefits of the Video Abstract as a Newly Emerging Academic Genre. Ñawi: arte diseño comunicación, Vol. 7, núm. 2, 21-33.

https://nawi.espol.edu.ec/ www.doi.org/10.37785/nw.v7n2.a1

Esta obra está bajo una licencia
internacional Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial 4.0.

1.
Introduction

Nowadays with just a click, researchers are able to
explore other fellow researchers’ ideas, exchange opinions, maintain constant feedback
and dive into the grand narrative of academic investigation swiftly. However, these valuable results or findings may be brought closer to different spectators who are not directly involved with the academic community. Even though “information access is recognized as a fundamental human right”
(Oliveira, 2019, 3), it is argued that when it comes to the dissemination of scientific productions to the
general public, the academic world
struggles since “science is too
isolated from society” (Holbrook, 2019, 1), and, therefore, scientific productions generally remain trapped inside the academic
sphere. As a result, as researchers we could ask ourselves how we can achieve the
fostering and promotion of scientific investigations and awaken an interest for knowledge in the general public. An answer to this concern could be found in the idea of open science. According to Britt Holbrook,
Open Science may be defined as
“an effort to close the gap between science and society by democratizing scientific knowledge” (2019, 1), which is directly connected to the concept of open access as it
involves the “making [of]
scholarly publications (and other products,
including data) freely available
for anyone with an internet connection to read, download, and reuse for any purpose that accords with community
standards” (2019, 1). Therefore, new ways to outstretch the
academic sphere and connect to a
more heterogeneous and different audience
should be sought. In this
regard, “social media and other digital
spaces have been increasingly used by researchers and institutions to share
their research with society, changing
the way
we measure
the social
impact of academic production” (Oliveira, 2019, 2). In fact,
“technologies allow us to not only increase the visibility of science
related to traditional science assessment spaces, but also serve as a space for
democratizing scientific knowledge” (Oliveira, 2019, 5).

One of such ways is the use of videos. In the current online world, audiovisual productions have emerged as a content-share
bandwagon. “Given the potential of
online videos for the communication of science” (Luzón, 2019,
2), academic publishers and professionals are increasingly relying
on this fascinating genre to theorize, analyze, characterize and discuss a large variety
of content from diverse fields. These videos are uploaded in an array of massively popular platforms which are accessed by users from around the world, who may or may not be part of the academic field. Thus, communities are formed and individuals
are able to expand their knowledge on a topic or simply get informed about it for the
first time. In this article, the video abstract
will be developed as an example of
how videos can be used to promote the dissemination of scientific
knowledge. However, before delving into defining and characterizing this genre, two other types of videos will be provided as examples of audiovisual productions working as vehicles
of scientific content.

A widely known, non-profit organization which is “devoted
to spreading
ideas, usually in the form of powerful
talks (18 minutes or less)” (TED. Ideas Worth
Spreading)” is TED. Technology, Entertainment and Design. The main
aim of
this organization is to disseminate
content and propel discussions about a myriad
of disciplines
while connecting people through concepts
and encouraging
critical thinking. This platform
popularizes “speeches delivered by experts in different fields and which touch upon a variety

of topics,
ranging from the ‘hard’ disciplines to the social
sciences and the humanities” (Compagnone, 2015, 1). This
community grew abruptly when the first TED
conferences were posted online in 2006, and, from then on, the TED
website and its YouTube channel have been visited by more than two
millions of curious
viewers, who, by watching a recorded talk or an elaborated education-oriented animated video may have broaden their understanding of the world from several perspectives. As Compagnone explains, “TED talks provide a clear
example of the way in
which web-mediated popularization
discourse has spurred the
emergence of new genres,
which result from the contamination
of different
discursive and professional practices
and purposes” (2015, 3).

Another
popular example of an online community which relies on producing and sharing online videos is Crash Course, a YouTube channel which counts with more than
thirteen million subscribers. The channel has more than forty courses on a variety of topics and each course is composed of several animated and non-animated videos. What Crash
Course does is to create
audiovisual productions with
educational content “by presenting information in a fast-paced format,
enhancing the learning experience” (Crash Course, 2022). Regarding the audience, “while the show is an immensely helpful tool for students and teachers, it also has a large viewership of casual learners who seek out online educational content independently” (Crash Course, 2022). One of the founders of this project is the well-known novelist John Green. In 2015, he gave a TED talk conference
in which he explained how the idea
for creating
this
YouTube community was
born and that nowadays, people
are learning
about the world through the audiovisual format (Green,
2015). In this regard, Crash Course is another example of using videos in order to
rich a wider audience and promote the spreading of scientific knowledge.

In the same way that TED talks and Crash Course
videos contribute to the sharing of science, the video abstract, a newly born and not so popular video genre, presents an enormous potential to do the same. The focus of this article will be the conceptualization of this genre and its implications for the academic community.

2. What Is a Video Abstract? Attempts to Define the Genre

To answer this question, it is important to trace back the origins of
the term. Videoabstracting as a concept first appeared in 1997 in a publication by Lienhart, Pfeiffer and Effelsberg, who noted that in the age of multimedia, certain products suffered from a loss of information when they were turned into plain text. This intersemiotic
translation created a gap between
the original
source video or production and its
summary in the form of an abstract or any other textual product. To
solve this problem, they asserted that “an audiovisual abstract, to be interpreted by a human user, is semantically much richer than a
text”, and, in that way, by respecting the same medium, they would be
able to create “a sequence of moving images much shorter than the original
yet [preserving] its essential message” (Lienhart, Pfeiffer & Effelsberg,
1997, 1).

These researchers also noticed that the purpose
of the abstract might vary widely, including examples of movie trailers and other multimodal artifacts, and proposed categories of analysis such as shots,

shot-clusters, close-ups, scenes, scripts, soundtrack, keyframes and camera operation. Finally, they concluded that video abstracting was a very young research field and that “video abstracts would be a much more powerful browsing technique than textual abstracts” (Lienhart, Pfeiffer & Effelsberg, 1997, 11).

To continue with the
evolution of the term, Scott
Spicer (2014), a researcher
who was interested in exploring
the state of the art of video abstracts in the field of the hard sciences, found out that the first attempts
of video abstract production were published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE), launched in 2007, in which the researcher usually described their research process in the format of a video
interview. Those videos could be viewed exclusively on the journal website, and
they were only available for
paid journal subscriptions.

After analyzing many
examples, Spicer (2014, 4) proposed
the following
definition of video abstracts: “a
video presentation corresponding to a specific science 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”. Although this definition is quite accurate in terms of the purpose of
the genre,
it lacks
details on the technical guidelines
for making
a
video abstract. He also notes
that
this genre, as previously anticipated by Lienhart, Pfeiffer
and Effelsberg, was an excellent
“opportunity to briefly communicate their research through
a more personal, media rich medium that is better
adapted for Internet
sharing” (Spicer, 2014,
4).

Until then, although the genre had been used for a few years, Spicer realized
that it had not been thoroughly
investigated. Before his publication, where he systematically examined a corpus
of abstracts
from the fields of medicine, biology, chemistry, math, and physics, there had not been many successful attempts to characterize the genre in full. One of those previous attempts had been Berkowitz’, in 2013, when
he noticed the birth of one of “the first major innovations to the scholarly
article in the past century: [the] peer-to-peer video summaries,
three to five minutes long,
of academic
papers” (Berkowitz, 2013, 5). As one of the pioneers in the study of video abstracts, Spicer statistically demonstrated the potential of video abstracts as a tool to spread scientific knowledge through different platforms.

Furthermore, it can be observed that the focus of attention of research was on the effectiveness of video abstracts as opposed to other types of research paper summaries. Spurred by this interest, Kate Bredbenner (2019) conceptualized different types of research summaries: graphical abstracts, video abstracts, and plain language summaries.

To proceed with her study and to contrast the concept of video abstract and graphical abstract, Bredbenner introduces
Cell’s (2019) definition of the
graphical abstract as “one single-panel image that is designed to give readers an immediate
understanding of the take-home message of the paper” and whose “intent is to encourage browsing, promote interdisciplinary scholarship, and help readers quickly identify which
papers are most relevant to their research interests (Cell, 1).

Despite not specifying the technical characteristics except for the
duration of video abstracts, Bredbenner states that “each of these summaries takes time to make [as] video abstracts can take

over 20 hours
to complete and graphical abstracts aren’t far behind [as] they also
require specialized equipment and skills to be effective” (2019, 2). In her research, she demonstrated that both “videos and plain language summaries are the most effective summaries, based on comprehension, understanding, and enjoyment”.

Although the previously-mentioned characteristics may help to have a rough idea of the genre, one of the most appropriate definitions is the one proposed by David P. Jackson (2017, 2) who sustained that a video abstract is:

a brief
overview of what is discussed in the article in the format of a short video, and acts
as a supplement to a traditional abstract. However, unlike a
regular abstract a video
abstract provides a much richer
environment to describe the article, and
can include pictures, diagrams, voiceovers, animations, simulations, and, of
course, video footage that might highlight a specific dynamic
phenomenon or provide
a detailed look at an experimental setup. When
used appropriately, this media-rich environment has the potential to deliver an
abstract that is much more useful and compelling than one that is
constrained to the written
word.

To illustrate his definition of the concept,
he provides in the same publication an example of a video
abstract. In a less than
three-minute video he summarizes
the content
of the
article. He explains a Physics experiment using varied semiotic resources, which are defined by Van Leeuwen (2004, 16)

as
the actions
and artefacts we use to communicate,
whether they are produced
physiologically – with our vocal apparatus; with the muscles we use
to create facial expressions and gestures, etc. – or by means of technologies – with pen, ink and paper; with computer hardware and software; with fabrics, scissors and sewing machines, etc.

In this example, as the researcher explains the phenomena, he accompanies the demonstration with short texts, diagrams, soundtrack and other semiotic resources. Not only does the video provide an illustration of a
real experiment, but also the
different elements included complete the
meaning of the abstract.
It is
also
worth mentioning that this video abstract was
published in the American
Journal of Physics and
that it was embedded in its webpage.

After exploring all these
definitions, it could be stated
that initially any accessible research summary (Bredbenner & Simon, 2019) in the format of a video,
which combined a variety of semiotic resources was considered
a
video abstract. Gradually, these videos became
more complex and, agreeing with
Spicer’s assertions, it is
undeniable that this type of
summary is “a natural evolution of science
communication into multimodal
environments” (2014, 2). In that sense, video abstracts
are very much like traditional abstracts as both are accurate summaries of a source text or product of an investigation. However, its production
implies significant work from
the researcher’s
side due to the need
of a
skillful combination of diverse
digital semiotic resources in a very limited amount of time to communicate scientific findings and engage viewers.

Considering and reflecting upon the previous ideas, some comments on the
audience need to be made. As it is unquestionable that research articles come from the scientific community, the addressee of this new genre needs
to be analyzed. For that reason, we propose the following diagram
and its corresponding explanation.

Figure 1. Graph about
audiences. Own elaboration (2022).

In this Venn diagram (Figure 1), the addresser of video abstracts is any member of the scientific community who does research and wants to share its findings. In this regard, the video is an academic genre as it is a product of the
scientific community and aims at sharing research findings. Despite
the fact that we can quickly agree on the addresser, when analyzing the addressee, it is more difficult to establish the limits. Undoubtedly, other scholars will read and profit from these academic audiovisual summaries of research papers. However,
if the video
circulates in open access massive
platforms, it will certainly
reach a wider audience. Thus, a hybrid audience is a more accurate way to characterize the phenomenon. Going back to the diagram (Figure 1), video abstracts are located
in the middle of the two spheres,
since although the genre originates
in an
academic context, it might also
reach non-academic audiences. As observed by Literat and other
authors, “by communicating research conclusions in multiple modes
and on
multiple platforms, scholars can reach
beyond traditional academic audiences” (Literat et al., 2017, 572).

The previous analysis raises the question of why this audience is broader.
One of the possible reasons is that, semiotically speaking, as a product, a
video abstract is in its inherent nature multimodal as it includes many semiotic resources
making it more appealing and
accessible for a non-academic audience. In fact, Van Leeuwen asserted that semiotic resources are
‘the actions, materials and artifacts we use for communicative purposes” (2004, 282). In his social semiotics definition he also points out that these resources
“have a meaning potential, based on their past uses, and a set of affordances based on their possible uses, and these will be actualized in concrete social contexts where their use is subject to some form of semiotic regime” (285). Thus, the blending of semiotic resources and the dynamics of media integration
of video abstracts may lead to the
analysis of this compositional-visual phenomena according to the characteristics proposed by Serafini (2022), which were taken from Rose (2016). Basically, these two
researchers noted that there are
three aspects that could be
analyzed in video abstracts:
technical, or how video abstracts are created or experienced, compositional, or which materials
or resources are used, and
social, or
the relations
between social institutions and their
practices, which were previously
anticipated in the diagram above.

Taking the first two categories previously mentioned -technical and compositional-, it can be observed that video abstracts are a genre which demands
from the creator
to cleverly select
the appropriate digital tools and semiotic resources which will help them to
transmit their message and explain
their research accurately.

After analyzing the literature review, it is observed that the use of multiple digital mediums and semiotic resources (moving images, voice, special effects, animated text, music, coding) is one of its most important characteristics of
video abstract as these resources enhance the meaning-making potential of the artifact.

When
producing a video abstract, there is a clear intention
of exploiting the richness of the visual
component of the message due to its natural affinity to multimodal scholarship. As the video is the medium for the message, this format is highly valuable
for both viewers
and producers. Agreeing
with Ioana Literat and other authors, the video as a component of multimodal research offers more comprehensive
and inclusive
inquiries, analyses, and representations [of the subject of
study] that can be socially, culturally and politically transformative (…) and consequently produce more comprehensive depictions of the phenomenon [researchers] seek to understand” (Literat et al., 2017,
570). These researchers mentioned
previously also noted that not only does multimodal research
offer the opportunity for including previously
marginalized or silenced voices, but also contributes to access and represent embodied, affective and other dimensions
of social life not captured by textual modes. In a similar way, multimodal research methodology has an inherent potential to capture the multimodal phenomena, where the video
is one of the richest
communication channels to use.

In relation to its content, its main thematic concerns explored in a video abstract
corresponds to “a specific science
research article, which typically communicates
the background
of a
study, methods used, study results and potential
implications” (Spicer, 2014, 4), yet it is more than just the article. Thanks to the possibilities
of combining visual,
and oral
(and interactive) media and experimenting with
them, meaning is being
shaped and adjusted
by the semiotic resources used.

In all cases, video
abstracts have to
respect the same copyright
terms as the associated article and are
initially published in specific webpages or
platforms, where usually their submission and
production guidelines are specified. For instance, in the
British Medical Journal the limited
duration or length of the
video is clearly specified in its Top Tips for a Good Video Abstract section which states that a video abstract should last no more than 4 minutes. Similarly, this
guideline suggests minimum technical specifications such as:
Frame rate-25 frames per second-and Widescreen (16:9)
projects and mp4 format and how to solve
or avoid technical problems.

Finally, focusing on
the last
category, social composition, it is usually agreed
that an academic text or production
should be concise, objective, and logical. Beyond the classical categories
of grammar
and
punctuation, which only
apply to written discourse, and focusing on the
writer’s use of
metadiscourse features,
it could
be said
that communication is more than
just the exchange of information,
goods or services, but
also involves the personalities, attitudes, and assumption of those who are
communicating (Hyland & Tse, 2004). Thus, when analyzing research production from a metadiscoursive approach, the limit of
the
analysis exceeds writing
itself, as it is seen
as a social
engagement and a genre, this
latter

understood as culturally independent and culturally variable. In this
case, participants of the communicative act are usually specialists on the topic but as noted previously, the audience is not necessarily a research specialist and where both “writer and reader interact with each other, [and] it requires that the writer can understand the receivers’
expectations and needs” (Farahani & Mohemmed,
2018, 3).

3.
The Benefits of Videos
Abstracts

Some of the
advantages that can be found
in
working with video
abstracts are a result of
the
wide array of semiotic
resources that they present.

First,
academic scholars may struggle when trying to convey intricate ideas through the written word. However, “for the author, the video abstract
provides an opportunity to use
the
visual and audio affordances
of the medium to communicate complex information” (Spicer, 2014, 3). In
this way, academic scholars may find themselves with greater freedom when it comes to combining different techniques to summarize their works.

This
can be seen in the following example: In the video abstract, How Tumors Escape VEGF
Blockade (Cell
Press, 2014b), the editors decided to include a variety of elements to explain the most relevant aspects of their research.
At the
beginning, Gabriel Rabinovich
states that the study is
about “how the interactions between a lectin and carbohydrates on the VEGFR2 receptor allow for continued vessel growth in tumors treated with anti-VEGF antibodies” (Cell Press, 2014b). This is stated through verbal language. Nonetheless, the researchers also decided
to produce a dramatization with two actors
dressed up with suits with tango as
background music. They even
designed a fake newspaper (Figure 2) with information from the research and a drawing
representing the title of the news as it can be appreciated in the picture.

Figure 2. Screenshot of How Tumors Escape VEGF Blockade (2014).

The incorporation of an artistic production in the video abstract may facilitate the understanding of the research’s subject which is especially useful for a non-academic public who is not in continuous contact with scientific language. When performing the topic of the research as if it were an episode of

a detective series, the level of complexity, maybe, is lowered and at the same time the quality, accuracy and seriousness of the content is maintained. Another semiotic element that could be spotted on this video is on minute 3. As it has already
been explained, one of the most typical
resources to use in a video abstract
is animated
pictures. Generally, researchers tend to
combine moving pictures with their explanation since it does not only clarify the content of the video,
but also provides
the possibility of showing concrete
examples to the audience. In this case, the animation
is accompanied by the researcher’s explanation.

In addition, the researcher begins a comparison between sensitive tumors and refractory tumors. In a traditional abstract, the readership would be found with a complex and very detailed explanation which could be quite difficult to
understand. However, in the video abstract, the researcher is able
to include a diagram (Figure 3) which summarizes the speaker’s description. This visual aid does not only illustrate the ideas that are being developed in the video, but also contributes to the understanding of the viewer who may find it difficult to follow the thinking process of the researcher. In this abstract, the researcher is able to reflect the stages and general process they went through in order to carry out their investigation.

Figure 3. Screenshot of How Tumors Escape VEGF Blockade (2014).

Another example in which the combination of different semiotic resources
can be identified is in the video abstract A 3D Map of the Human Genome (Cell Press, 2014a). The video producers decided to create a stop motion production with
origami figures. The clip also presents some
background music and a voice-over, which is in charge of explaining the concepts which are being represented with the origami creations. Like the previously analyzed video, here the way in which it was designed allows for the possibility of reaching a wider audience who would be attracted to watch it, not only because of the content, but also due to its variety of technical features that may catch the viewer’s attention.

Multimodal scholarship could be defined

by the use of multiple digital mediums (e.g., still and
moving images, interactive digital objects, audio, data sets, geospatial data,
and text),
often composed, displayed, or linked
together, and disseminated across an
array of digital publishing platforms (e.g., websites, blogs,
mobile applications, and social networks) (Spicer,
2014, 1).

As a result, it is undeniable that the two videos recently described are multimodal artifacts because of the variety of semiotic resources applied. However, in the second video, another aspect could be considered when thinking about its multimodal nature. As stated in the Oxford Handbook of Language and Society “multimodality is
a concept introduced and developed (...) to account for the different resources used in communication
to express
meaning” (García & Flores, 2017, 451).
In other words,
the
different semiotic resources
are combined
in a variety
of ways
in order to
convey different ideas. In the video abstract A 3D Map of the Human Genome, the choice of using origami figures to represent the theory and the processes of the research
is not whimsical. At the beginning of the video, a very long piece of green paper starts to unfold revealing the following question: “if we unfold the DNA inside one of your
cells it would measure two meters end to end…but it
has to fold up inside of a nucleus that is only 6 microns wide!
how does the genome folds?” (Cell Press, 2014a). In addition,
the idea of folding and unfolding genomes is repeated throughout the video. Finally, at the end of the production, the speaker makes the explicit comparison between the art of folding paper to create different figures with the topic of his research; the idea
of using origami figures was a metaphor to represent the subject of their study. In this regard, the semiotic resource of a stop motion video is chosen not only to show the scientific processes through images, but also, in order to emphasize the meaning of the video. Here, it can be appreciated how beneficial the use
of the video
abstract genre is. The viewer,
apart from having the
oral input which explains
the research,
also relies on the visual representation which
helps to move from the abstract field to a more concrete one, emphasizing the content of the video.

Another
benefit of video abstracts is connected to the educational field. Videos are widely used in classrooms for different purposes as they bring some benefit to the classes. For example, videos display “in a few seconds something that needs several pages when written” (Vieira, Lopes & Soares, 2014, 750) and they contribute to the understanding of the content. In addition, “students may see them whenever they can and play it as many times as they need it” (Vieira, Lopes & Soares, 2014,
750). In this regard, video abstracts could be used in the same way. Teachers may take advantage of well-developed, professional videos which could be used to clarify or
further explain curricular content.

The final advantage of using video abstracts is concerned with the way in which a video abstract may be used to reach a wider audience. In fact, “a video abstract offers the potential to do more by providing authors an opportunity to communicate their research in a personal, media rich medium” (Reupert,
2017, 2). As a newly emerging video
genre which contributes to the
dissemination of knowledge, not only do video
abstracts present the authors with the possibility of reaching more people through the use of a variety of tools, but also, they can be easily shared
on different platforms. Nowadays, there has been a “greater use of social media platforms for post publication promotions of research articles” (Gupta, Gupta & Joshi, 2021, 1). This is particularly true for the video format since “the fact that online videos
can be embedded in several
websites and shared
on social media
contributes to this widening of their audience” (Luzón, 2019, 170). Authors
may use Instagram or Facebook to post their video
abstract just as a publication
or in
a story
format. Even though the videos will
not be
fully

comprehended by everyone, it may work as a hook to attract people
who already know about the subject or whose
curiosity is awakened thanks to
the
video abstract. As it has
already been mentioned, the
different resources included in a video abstract both contribute to
understanding the article and work as ways of entertaining the audience and catching the viewers’ attention. This is an advantage when
researchers use the video
abstract to contribute to the
democratization of knowledge
by making science more accessible for everyone.

4.
Conclusion

Video abstracts work as traditional abstracts in the sense that they are
a precise summary which anticipates the content of an article,
investigation or thesis,
yet this genre is composed
of certain aspects related to their audiovisual nature, which differentiate them from traditional abstracts and allow
researchers to convey meaning in
a completely
non-traditional but highly-valuable way. Among its most common
characteristics are its short duration, richness in semiotic
resources and strictly
research content.

Regarding its benefits, due to its audiovisual nature the video abstract does not only engage the audience but it may also help researchers in the spreading of academic content
and facilitate the understanding of the research. In
addition, the wide variety of
semiotic resources used work
as
vehicles of content. Meaning is carried and conveyed through the different elements used which contribute to the
understanding of the summary. Finally, this kind of abstract may be used in the
educational field as a way to contribute to the teaching
of different topics.

All in all, the video abstract as an academic genre poses an exciting challenge for investigators who can make
use of this versatile format to
communicate their ideas and share their scientific discoveries. By doing
this, they may even post
their productions on different free
online platforms which would boost its dissemination, help to reach a wider audience and ultimately
contribute to the democratization of knowledge.

Bibliographic references

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or perish”
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Bredbenner, K., & Simon, S. M. (2019). Video abstracts and plain language summaries are more effective than graphical abstracts and published abstracts. PLoS ONE, 14 (11): https://
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Cell Press (2014a). A 3D Map of the Human Genome [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=dES-ozV65u4

Cell Press (2014b). How Tumors Escape VEGF Blockade [Video]. Youtube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=GGXCGOpDqno

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Reseñas curriculares

Lucas Accastello es Profesor en Lengua Inglesa, especializando en Docencia Universitaria. Investigador y docente de Literatura Inglesa y Cultura
de los
Pueblos de Habla Inglesa del
Profesorado en Lengua Inglesa de
la Universidad Nacional de Villa María, y de Teoría y Crítica Literaria, Literatura Americana y Literatura Inglesa de la Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa de la Universidad de Concepción del Uruguay. Docente en entornos
virtuales del ISPC, a cargo de Ejercicio
Profesional y Lenguaje e Inglés Técnico en diversas tecnicaturas. Docente
y tutor del Programa
Nacional de Formación y Certificación en Lenguas Extranjeras.

Luisina Quinteros es Profesora en Lengua Inglesa.
Investigadora y docente adscripta en los espacios curriculares Literatura
Inglesa en el Profesorado en Lengua Inglesa de la Universidad Nacional de Villa María. Docente con seis
años de experiencia con niños y niñas, adolescentes y adultos en la
enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera. Docente de inglés en el Programa Universitario
de Idiomas
Clásicos y Modernos. Docente
y tutora del Programa
Nacional de Formación y Certificación en Lenguas Extranjeras.