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A guide to making and publicizing your video abstract

Posted by Joseph Caputo

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On May 29, 2009, Cell Press began the Cell video abstract initiative with Probing the evolution of human language in a model organism, which is still one of the journal's top ten most viewed videos. Since then, Cell has put out 140 video abstracts (formerly known as PaperFlicks), with other Cell Press journals also following suit. Today, we have over 400 video abstracts on Cell Press's YouTube Channel. The channel has 2,500 subscribers, and its videos have received over 900,000 views. Cell asks the authors of at least one paper per issue to submit a video abstract (see the technical guidelines for submissions).

A video abstract is an opportunity, but it's up to you to determine what kind. Do you want to create a video that will explain your work to your peers in the field? Or is it for the larger scientific community? The other option is to create a video for the general public, which means investing in visual aids and simplifying some of the language that appears in the paper (e.g., hematopoietic stem cell).

That time I made a Cell video abstract

Before I was the media relations manager at Cell Press, I worked on a Cell video abstract as the communications manager at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Audience was my first question when I was asked to help shoot and edit a video for Hippo Signaling Regulates Microprocessor and Links Cell-Density-Dependent miRNA Biogenesis to Cancer (see below).

The authors and I agreed that we wanted to present the work for the larger scientific community, which meant that we could use scientific terms as well as the occasional figure. We also decided on the story that we wanted to tell. The footage consisted of unscripted talking head interviews interspersed with B roll (the scenes where the scientists are chatting about work, especially to highlight the point about collaboration). I also experimented with a platform that allows you to make crude whiteboard drawings and the video shows my first (and last) attempt as a digital artist. I grabbed some free stock music for the intro (tip: be sure not to use anything copyrighted!) and credited any figures.

What will you invest?

The video cost nothing to make, and the only investment was our time. Yeah, the audio isn't perfect, but it's accrued over 2,000 views so far (not all of them are me), which for us was beyond success. It's important to set your own expectations from the start. The staff at Cell Press have heard stories about researchers spending thousands of dollars on their videos, which is great, but that level of production value is best when you have a topic that's of interest to the widest general audience and a plan to market the video. It's a huge disappointment to invest so much and then get 500 views.

Lessons from the most viewed

Our most popular Cell video abstract on YouTube to date (with 59,000 views, from Sexually Dimorphic Neurons in the Ventromedial Hypothalamus Govern Mating in Both Sexes and Aggression in Males) is simply a couple of researchers chatting about their work on whether sex hormones control behavior. It's YouTube, so you can guess what people were probably searching for, but it proves the point that, in a world owned by Google, a title using keywords is important. For example, "Cancer's Secret" is not as effective as "Molecule XYZ Enters Clinical Trials as a Pancreatic Cancer Drug."

The most popular Current Biology video abstract (with 57,000 views) is this NOVA-inspired production on Social Jetlag and Obesity, which is lovely to watch and centers on a hot topic that can engage a wide audience. This paper was also press released, and so the video became an extra that media outlets could share. I do discourage people from making videos exclusively for press purposes (as many reporters prefer raw experimental video), but I've definitely seen outlets like TIME or Fast Company embed them on their websites. This goes back to the question of audience and who you want to reach with your work.

Another popular Cell video abstract (with 30,000 views, from A 3D Map of the Human Genome at Kilobase Resolution Reveals Principles of Chromatin Looping) is also one our most artistic. Here, the authors used origami folding to make their points. Rather than adding to the coverage, the video became the news, getting the paper featured in Scientific American, The Scientist, and other outlets. This illustrates how important it is to make the video abstract a team effort.

You've made the video—now what?

Check to make sure all names are spelled correctly (true story, authors misspell their labmates' names all the time). But first, think about who would be most interested in your work. Send the link around the lab encouraging everyone to share on social media. Next, think about your department and the communications offices of any societies you belong to as well as the press office of your institution. It might even be worth sending personalized e-mails to colleagues with a simple request to share the video. Self-promotion gets you everywhere.

Cell Press will help market your video by sharing it via Facebook and Twitter, but we've found that videos, regardless of topic, have the greatest success when they are featured by an author's institutional community. Lastly, if your institution or Cell Press are submitting a press release on your paper, it is to your advantage that video be completed so that it can be uploaded or distributed with the communication to reporters.

Good luck and enjoy your time in the director's chair!

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