ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 16 February 2021 doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2021.596248

Audio-Visual Tools in Science Communication: The Video Abstract in Ecology and Environmental Sciences

Miguel Ferreira 1*, Betina Lopes 2, António Granado 3, Helena Freitas 1 and João Loureiro 1

1Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal, 2Department of Education and Psychology, CIDTFF - Research Centre on Didactics and Technology in the Education of Trainers, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal, 3NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Lisbon, Portugal

In recent years, the use of videos by the scientific community has evolved continuously. Researchers, communicators, and other players are using audio-visual media to reinvent their stories, to deconstruct complex phenomena and to increase the outreach and impact of their scientific publications. An example of this trend is the video abstract: an audio- visual representation of the key findings described in the written abstract. Much of the research in this area is new and focused on content analysis and classification of online science videos. Furthermore, studies with videos and environmental communication are attached to specific topics like climate change. So far, a small fraction of publications has explored the study of the video abstract, its effects, and its potential, as one general Edited by: Asheley R. Landrum, scientific area. This paper provides the first characterization of video abstracts in the areas Texas Tech University, United States of Ecology and Environmental Sciences. We identified video abstracts in 29 scientific Reviewed by: journals, based on impact, representativeness and visibility criteria. A database of 171 Amber McCord, Texas Tech University, United States videos, from 7 publishers and 17 different video channels was created. Each video was Heather Akin, analyzed for different parameters. The analysis considered not only characteristics of each University of Nebraska-Lincoln, video, but also characteristics from the corresponding scientific papers. Results indicate United States that between 2010 and 2018 the number of video abstracts increased sevenfold. Despite *Correspondence: Miguel Ferreira this growth, there was no solid strategy for disseminating the videos. While most of them [email protected] are still associated with classic models, such as documentaries, disruptive formats such as animation are the ones that arouse greater interest. Professional shorter videos (2–3 min in Specialty section: fi This article was submitted to length) showed a signi cantly higher number of daily views and their papers garnered a Science and Environmental higher number of citations per day. This data, combined with future qualitative research, Communication, will help to develop a model for validating the quality of an Ecology video abstract and a section of the journal Frontiers in Communication provide new insights into the global study of audio-visual communication of science. Received: 18 August 2020 Keywords: audio-visual formats, ecology, environmental communication, science and media, science Accepted: 08 January 2021 communication, online video, video abstract, visual communication Published: 16 February 2021 Citation: Ferreira M, Lopes B, Granado A, INTRODUCTION Freitas H and Loureiro J (2021) Audio- Visual Tools in Science Science communication is usually associated to the written press format (Bentley and Kyvik, 2011) Communication: The Video Abstract in fi Ecology and Environmental Sciences. and, scienti c papers continue to be the most used format in academia to disseminate the research Front. Commun. 6:596248. produced (Jamali et al., 2018). However, with the rise of the internet and the science of information doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2021.596248 technology the way science is communicated has witnessed profound changes. Nowadays,

Frontiers in Communication | www.frontiersin.org 1 February 2021 | Volume 6 | Article 596248 Ferreira et al. Video-Abstracts in Ecology publications can benefit from these new communication tools produce their videos (e.g., Filmmaking for Scientists, Popular that go far beyond written papers with graphs and tables Science Video Workshop, Low Budget Science Film Making (Rodrigues and Godoy-Viera, 2017; Jamali et al., 2018). Course) (Plank et al., 2017; Angelone et al., 2019; Chan, 2019). Sharing results through audio-visual resources has gained an We are moving from a generation of “scientists-turned- important role in this process: video recordings or live events, filmmakers” to a generation of “scientists-as-filmmakers,” conferences, school classes, experiments and projects, each researchers who integrate subjects on film production and method having its own ability to illustrate practical knowledge directing into their academic training (Angelone, 2019). The in a much more effective way (Plank et al., 2017). Indeed, a wide growth of such initiatives reflects, in some way, the demand range of audio-visual resources are available nowadays, with by the scientific community to communicate their research in a increasing adoption by the scientific community; amongst visual, modern and appealing way in order to increase the these resources, videos have gained special prominence (León outreach and impact of their scientific publications. and Bourk, 2018). The benefits of using videos as a science communication tool Science online videos can be defined as short scientific audio- include the ability to describe scientific and complex processes in visual content that aims to reach a wider audience using resources a more effective way; and the potential to increase research that demystify science features for the general public while visibility, to decrease the costs of training and experimentation keeping its rigor and precision (Morcillo et al., 2016; García- and to foster reproducibility of methods and approaches Avilés and de Lara, 2018). It is not a standardized communication (Rodrigues and Godoy-Viera, 2017; Jamali et al., 2018). While, tool since it is characterized by a great variety of formats and an fifteen years ago the video format had a single distribution increasing mix of genres (Erviti and Stengler, 2016; García-Avilés channel, i.e., television broadcast, built on a unidirectional and de Lara, 2018). model, nowadays, with the advent of the internet, things have In this context, the video abstract, the main object of study for changed and video producers can think about universal online this paper, emerges as a relatively new genre in science distribution, without additional investment, in an increasingly communication, having been already well defined and low-cost system (Granado and Malheiros, 2015). Very few described by Spicer (2014): it is a video presentation of a scientists are heard outside the television environment and scientific paper, which communicates the framework of the video abstracts can help to change that reality by bringing the study, the methods, the results, and the conclusions and future message to a wider audience (Erviti, 2018). Also, previous studies goals. It is the filmed version of the written abstract, i.e., audio- have shown that scientific papers coupled with a video abstract visual summaries of scientific papers (Berkowitz, 2013). Unlike are downloaded more and have more citations than papers conference and lecture videos, such as TED Talks (Shah and without such an addition (Plank et al., 2017; Zong et al., Marchionini, 2013; Sugimoto and Thelwall, 2013; Tsou et al., 2019), and that optimized videos disseminate the scientific 2014), and experimental and protocol videos like the ones content to non-expert audiences in a more clear way, in published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE, comparison to written texts (Putortì et al., 2020). 2018;(Rodrigues and Godoy-Viera, 2017), the video abstract Science video is a complex tool, an hybrid product that, like allows one to present content in multiple formats: it can be an science communication itself, is based on different disciplines and interview, a documentary, an infographic, a monologue or an knowhow, being interconnected with the universe of social overlap of all these formats. The creators of these videos use an networks and their users, who are today’s producers (Bruns array of analogical and digital tools without any specific and Schmidt, 2011; Welbourne and Grant, 2016). Despite the guidelines (Plank et al., 2017); however, in some particular need to create communities, to produce unique and innovative cases, journal editors have assigned rules and content (Erviti and Stengler, 2016), to work on new narratives recommendations, and provide production and design tips to (Angelone et al., 2019), to maintain scientific rigor (Frances and establish a defined model for the publication of a video abstract in Peris, 2018) and to train researchers in these new areas (Plank a specific scientific area. These guidelines differ from area to area et al., 2017; Angelone, 2019), the use of video-abstracts for those and may include technical specifications, review process, purposes still presents some constraints. In particular, it is copyright, use of English and use of content, structure and important to understand if a video abstract is suitable for all tone (Spicer, 2014). Cell Press, , , subjects, what models should we use as guidelines to produce a Wiley, IOP Science, IEEE Xplore and American Chemical successful video abstract, what is the real effect of video abstracts Society are among the publishers that accept video abstracts as on research dissemination and learning of sciences, and what are a complement to the published paper (Plank et al., 2017). the best approaches for measuring these effects. Furthermore, some of these publishers have established In pursuit of this purpose, an inventory of video abstracts partnerships with specialized platforms in the production of present in 29 scientific journals was made, with an overall number multimedia content (e.g., Research Square (Research Square, of 171 video abstracts being selected, viewed and categorized. We 2018)). Through a set of paid services, researchers can see did a general characterization using descriptive and content their work come to life in the form of a video abstract metrics. Also, we tried to understand what were the most (2–3 min in length) or a video byte (1-min in length), using important factors that affect the research popularity, measured all sorts of techniques and animation. Also, universities and by the number of citations per day, value of Altmetric of the institutes have been promoting courses in science scientific paper and number of views of the video abstract. Based communication to instruct researchers and students on how to on the literature review we examined four content factors—video

Frontiers in Communication | www.frontiersin.org 2 February 2021 | Volume 6 | Article 596248 Ferreira et al. Video-Abstracts in Ecology length, production, format and audio quality—for their influence thus, no work focuses specifically and transversally in the area of on research popularity. Understanding the influence of these Ecology and Environmental Sciences. Given its potential for the factors on research popularity will allow the producers to create production of highly visual video-abstracts, these study areas are more effective and more engaging content. This is the first step extremely relevant for pursuing the goals of this study. toward a conceptual framework about video abstracts in Ecology and Environmental Sciences. In the next section, “Ecology and Literature Review Environmental Sciences under the lens”, we present the reasons The video abstract raises new questions on evaluating the success on choosing this scientific area; then in “Literature Review” we of research communication and opens the door to new dynamics. briefly review the previews works on video categorization, Traditionally, written articles see their impact assessed through focusing on the content factors chosen for the analysis. In the number of citations (Thelwall et al., 2012) and, more recently, “Design and Methods” we describe the sampling and through new metrics such as Altmetric (Altmetric, 2012). These codification processes, as well as the descriptive and statistical can include “citations on and in public policy analysis used. The “Results” are divided into five documents, discussions on research blogs, mainstream media sections—general characterization, video length, production, coverage, bookmarks on reference managers like Mendeley, and formats and audio quality—where we do a global description mentions on social networks such as Twitter” (Altmetric, 2012). and then analyze the content factors with the research popularity. It is therefore important to take these two values into account Finally, in the “Discussion” and “Conclusions” we debate the when it comes to the popularity and scope of a written paper. main findings, point out the research limitations and establish Furthermore, the popularity of videos is directly associated with a new guidelines for future research. series of metrics such as the number of views, viewing time, retention time, engagement, among other metrics. Many of these metrics are available to the public, but others only for internal Ecology and Environmental Sciences Under management by the author of the video, using tools such as the Lens YouTube Analytics. Video’s popularity is associated with two The world’s growing population has led to problems of rapid kinds of factors: content factors, directly related to the production climate change, over-exploitation of our natural resources, of the videos, such as length, format, theme, and agnostic-content degradation of natural habitats and biodiversity loss. factors, such as the sharing network and recommendation Ecological and Environmental Sciences help us understand systems (Borghol et al., 2012; Figueiredo et al., 2014). these issues, and address some of the biggest environmental Although this is a dynamic function, the content factors seem challenges that our planet faces. Over the past decades, these to be the most informative and most used to understand what issues have cultivated a growing interest in academia, makes a video have more or less impact (Welbourne and Grant, governmental agencies, and the general public. The EU 2016). Most of the studies on online video, are recent and focus on Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 (European Commission, 2020) studying these factors that can be altered, changed and modified and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United by the authors, researchers, and producers. Nations, 2015) are goals and efforts that need to be supported Although most experts agree that online science videos should by a communication matrix. Concepts such as visual literacy be brief, visually appealing and easy to see (García-Avilés and de (Bucchi and Saracino, 2016; Krause, 2017; Rigutto, 2017; Lara, 2018) it is vital to have an idea of what videos have been Trumbo, 1999) go hand-to-hand with others like made and what factors can be improved. Realizing what kind of environmental literacy, ecological literacy and eco-literacy content can be effective and popular and who produces it seems (McBride et al., 2013) to create new tools and new responses to be mandatory questions for the future of the area (Allgaier, to these problems. Moving images can transmit emotions and 2019). In fact, in the last decade, research efforts have focused on indorse engagement in the citizens, especially on the these two major topics. Categorization and content analysis was environmental areas where the visuals are used to promote one of the first types of study to emerge and has been maintained behavioral change (León and Bourk, 2018). Studies that over the years, highlighting documentaries, reports and explore the visual rhetoric, that try to “understand how images animations as the most present and most popular formats communicate, how they function in a social and cultural (Thelwall et al., 2012; Morcillo et al., 2016; Plank et al., 2017). environment, and how they embody meaning” (Margolis and One of the most recent classifications suggests 18 different Pauwels, 2011), start to show their importance: for example, formats, divided into two major groups: television Finkler et al. (2019) studied the impact of video on changing formats—videos that were initially broadcast on television and attitudes and good practices in whale watching. The authors then uploaded online—and web formats—videos produced from concluded that following the viewing, almost all participants scratch to the internet (García-Avilés and de Lara, 2018). Video demonstrated their intention to choose a tour operator that blogs, TV news stories and TV features or documentaries were promotes sustainable and responsible whale watching practices the most frequent video formats used on science communication (Finkler et al., 2019; Finkler and León, 2019). (García-Avilés and de Lara, 2018). Studies dedicated to environmental videos have focused on The question of form and content is directly related to the specific and current themes such as fracking (Jaspal et al., 2014) production and its actors. The type of channel, and by default the environmental activism (Slawter, 2008; Uldam and Askanius, production contexts, are particularly important when we examine 2013) or climate change (León and Bourk, 2018; Allgaier, 2019); video popularity (Welbourne and Grant, 2016). Léon and Bourk

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(2018) identifies media companies as producers of more than half personal pages, social networks and specific platforms associated of the analyzed videos, in contrast to the scientific institutions with the production of science videos such as Research Square. that produce much less; however, both are more represented by This process resulted in a corpus (database) of 171 videos, from 17 traditional formats such as news and documentaries (Erviti, video channels (from YouTube and Vimeo platforms), 29 journals 2018). The most experimental and emerging genres are in and 7 publishers (Table 1)(Supplementary Appendix A). charge of non-professional users and their entitled User The categorization of the video abstracts (Supplementary Generated Content (UGC) (Erviti, 2018), content that despite Appendix B) was based on the grid analysis presented by being less numerous is more popular in science communication Morcillo et al. (2016), on technical bibliography (Bordwell and (Welbourne and Grant, 2016). Thompson, 2003; Vachon, 2018) and a pre-analysis of the videos In the production process, other elements, adding to the (Coutinho, 2018). Data coding, considering the characterization narrative format, have to be taken into account. First, it is of each video abstract constituting the corpus, was made important to understand what the ideal length of a video is. manually and was divided into three steps (Morcillo et al., 2016): The average video length on YouTube is 11.7 min (Statista, 2020a). Depending on the category the video length can vary a (1) Collection of general metrics for each video: lot, from 24.7 min in “Gaming” to 6.8 min in “Music” (Statista, 2020a). Also, looking at the most popular video content (a) video title; categories that year, we can assume that shorter videos are not (b) channel name; the most popular ones (Statista, 2020b). So, it’s important to (c) number of subscribers of the channel; adapt the length of our film to the area, category and target (d) number of likes; audience. Concerning the sound, recent findings suggest that (e) number of dislikes; good audio quality is in the researcher’s or reporter’s interest and (f) number of views; that the technical quality of recordings can affect the evaluation of (g) number of comments; the research (Newman and Schwarz, 2018). The average quality (h) length of the video: measured as the complete duration of of the audio and the narrator’s voice of popular science videos are the video; good and very good, showing values of production and a certain (i) video age: in number of days from the date of publication degree of professionalism on this feature (Morcillo et al., 2016). to the date of data collection; Scarce literature on the effects of length and audio quality on video popularity and the future research tasks on producing a (2) Collection of general metrics of scientific papers associated video abstract lead us to include these two features in our study. with the video abstracts:

Design and Methods (a) number of citations; The first stage of the work involved restricting the research to (b) Altmetric value; Ecology journals and ensuring that only journals with a high (c) publication date; reach that is the impact factor—a metric that evaluates the (d) number of days online; frequency with which a paper is cited in a given year or (e) scientific field; period in a specific journal—were used. Thus, according to the (f) country of origin of the first author. Journal Citation Reports 2018 (Journal Impact Factor, 2018), the top 40 journals of Ecology in terms of impact factor were selected (3) Collection of content factors for each video: (Supplementary Appendix A). The journal with the highest impact factor was “Trends in Ecology and Evolution” (15.938) (a) production: amateur (a video produced by the author(s)/ and the one with the lowest impact factor was “Behavioral researcher(s) with limited resources), semi-professional Ecology” (3.347). From this selection, only five scientific (a video that mixes professional with amateur resources, journals, from the same publisher (Wiley), used video normally associated to a university or research center) or abstracts with their papers and on their video channels. Since professional (a video produced by a media company, this sample represented a set of less than a hundred videos, in a producer or science magazine); second stage, the research field was extended to Ecology and (b) number of narrators: a specific number or no narration; Environmental Sciences. Thus, 24 extra scientific journals from 6 (c) gender of narrators: female, male or no gender; different publishers (Springer, Springer Nature, Nature, AAAS, (d) type of narration: first-person narration or third-person Cell Press and New Phytologist Trust) were added. narration; After that, a thorough search on the webpages of scientificjournals (e) type of thumbnail: a miniature of a frame, designed titles and in their video channels was made. No limitations were imposed or any other option; on the length or the use of still images in the videos, thus including (f) shooting location: exterior locations, interior locations hybrid formats such as the “video article” (Vázquez-cano, 2013), the or both; “audioslide” (Yang, 2017)orthe“video byte” (Research Square, 2018) (g) number of takes used in the film; in the definition used for video abstract. All the videos that did not (h) shots used: extreme long shot, long shot, medium-long fitthisdefinition were excluded. In a final stage, the research shot, medium shot, medium closeup, closeup, extreme was extended using keywords in search engines, to researcher’s closeup;

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TABLE 1 | Number of video abstracts by video channel, scientific journal and publisher.

Publisher Channel Journal Number of videos

Wiley Functional Ecology Functional Ecologya 23 American Museum of Natural History Functional Ecologya 1 Journal of Ecology Journal of Ecologya 18 Ecography Ecographya 13 Journal of Animal Ecology Journal of Animal Ecologya 10 Wiley Ecohydrologya 1 Wiley Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 1 Wiley Fisheries Magazine 2 Wiley Ecology and Evolutiona 1 Wiley WIREs Watera 1 Wiley Global Change Biologya 1 Research Square Land Degradation and Developmenta 1 New Phytologist Trust New Phytologist Trust Plants, People, Planeta 9 Springer Research Square Sustainability Science 1 Springer Videos Ambio 1 Springer Nature Research Square Parasites and Vectors 1 BMC BMC Biology 1 BMC BMC Evolutionary Biology 1 BMC BMC Zoology 2 BMCseriesJournals BMC Zoology 1 Nature Research Square Nature Climate Change 2 Eltahir Research Group at MIT Nature Climate Change 1 Nature Videos Nature Climate Change 1 Nature Videos Nature Ecology and Evolution 2 Nature Videos 1 Nature Videos Nature 5 Nature Videos 1 Nature Videos 1 Nature Videos 1 Scientific Reports Scientific Reports 6 AAAS Science Magazine Science 13 Science Magazine Science Advances 3 Miguel Araujo Science Advances 1 Cell Press Current Biology Current Biology 43 aJournals with video abstracts published on their official webpages.

(i) video format: animation (video that uses animation As the initial coding process was carried out by just one person, techniques, as motion graphics, stop motion or we decided to strengthen the analysis. Therefore, a group of 30 whiteboard animation), documentary (live footage video coders was invited to analyze a representative sample of the corpus. that presents its themes in a factual and informative way, The group had researchers from exact sciences and social sciences, using numerous clips and different techniques, similar to a and professionals from audio-visual, marketing and education fields. tv documentary or reportage), dynamic presentation Thesampleof21videos(12%ofthetotal)wasrepresentativeofthe (video with still images and titles animations, normally main characteristics under study. After the coding, we measured the with music instead of narration), monologue (video in agreement between the coders using the Fleiss Kappa measure which the author, improvising or following a script, speaks (Coutinho, 2018), for three of the four content factors used in directly to the camera on a scientifictopic)orsimple our correlation (production, format and audio quality). The values presentation (video that is mostly shaped by still images, obtained were all below 0.3 what represents a poor agreement narrated like a slide presentation); between coders (Coutinho, 2018). To improve reliability, the (j) intro description: design and characteristics of the categories were redefined and reformulated, as described above. A opening credits; new coding process was led by all the authors of the paper. The key (k) outro description: design and characteristics of the content factors were independently coded, and the values obtained opening credits; varied between a strong (0.83 for video format and 0.80 for video (l) additional elements: maps, graphics, diagrams or others; production) and a good agreement (0.72 for audio quality). (m) sound design: the presence of background music, sound All the links and web addresses from the selected papers, journals, effects or others; videos, and channels were also collected (Supplementary Appendix A). (n) audio quality: measured as the narrator’s voice quality Descriptive analyses were made for the number of video (good, bad or no narration). abstracts per year (from 2010 to 2019), publishers of the

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FIGURE 1 | Number of video abstracts per year of publication (from 2010 to September 7th, 2019). scientific journals associated with each video, production, most videos associated (43%), followed by Cell Press (25%) and additional elements, shooting location, the number of takes, Nature (13%). Almost half of the studied videos have a duration shots used, intro and outro descriptions, number and gender comprised between 1 and 3 min (25% between 2 and 3 min and 22% of the actors/narrators, type of narration and the video format. between 1 and 2 min). Videos with 4–5and5–6 min correspond to Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) were used to explore 12% and 13% of the cases, respectively. Longer videos account for the effect of production, video format and audio quality (given as approximately 19% of the cases and there is a decreasing number of narrator’s voice quality) in video length, number of views per day, videos with increasing length (Figure 2A). number of citations per day of the corresponding scientific paper, Looking at production contexts there is a prevalence of and Altmetric, including scientific journal as random factor. amateur videos (50%), created by the researchers/authors of Because, the variance of the random factor was lower than the the work. Professional videos, produced by a media company variance of the residuals, the random factor was removed and or producer, comes in second place, representing 38% of the generalized linear models (GLMs) were used (Bolker et al., 2009). surveyed videos. Videos that mixes professional with amateur A Poisson distribution with a log link function was used in video resources, defined as semi-professional videos, are the least length and Altmetric, and a Gaussian distribution and an identity frequent (12%) (Figure 2B). link function were used for number of views per day of the video Almost half of the surveyed videos (47%) mix the use of still and citations per day of the corresponding scientific paper. images with moving images. Also, the sole use of moving All analyses were performed in R software version 3.0.1 (RCore images (33%) prevails over the sole use of still images Development Team, 2016), using the packages “ggplot2” for graphics (20%). The most used additional elements were graphs and build-up, “car” for Type-III analysis of variance (Fox et al., 2012), maps. In the videos where film shooting is included, the “lme4” for generalized linear models and generalized linear mixed majority is made outdoors (42%) or combines indoors with models (Bates et al., 2014)and“multcomp” for multiple comparisons outdoors footage (45%). Videos shot exclusively indoors are a after Type-III analysis of variance (Hothorn et al., 2016). minority (13%). Furthermore, 85% of these videos have a story with more than three takes, and 66% include the use of more than one shot. The intros and outros of the videos are mainly RESULTS based on a simple composition of titles or credits, which can appear solo, with still images or with videos. In Table 1 the number of video abstracts for each video channel, Most of the voiceover is done by a single narrator/researcher scientific journal and science publisher is given. Of this set, only (73%), followed by videos with no narration (12%) and videos ten journals have their videos published on their official with two narrators (10%); videos with three and four different webpages, in addition to their video channels. narrators are residual (Figure 2C). Regarding the way the story is narrated, the majority of the videos (61%) presents a third-person General Characterization narrator instead of a first-person narrator (18%) (Figure 2D). As Between 2010 and 2018 the number of video abstracts produced for the adopted format, most of the videos tell their story in more increased sevenfold and the growth rate stayed more or less constant traditional ways recurring to the documentary style (46%) or (Figure 1). The small number of video abstracts uploaded in 2019, simple presentations (23%). More disruptive formats, like compared to the previous year, is directly related to the last date of animations (16%) or dynamic presentations (11%), have a data collection (September 7th, 2019). Wiley is the publisher with the small representation, and monologue is the least used format

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FIGURE 2 | Proportion of video abstracts (%) according to the video length (A), the type of production (B), number of narrators (C), type of narration (D) and video format (E).

FIGURE 3 | Video length according to the number of views per day (A), the number of citations per day (B) and production type (C). In A and B values are given as mean and standard error of the mean. In C, the lower and upper hinges of each boxplot correspond to the first and third quartiles (the 25th and 75th percentiles) and whiskers extends from the hinge to the largest value no further than 1.5 * the inter-quartile range. Medians are depicted as a horizontal line within the boxplot, means as a gray bullet and outliers as black bullets (for visualization purposes online, some of the outliers are not depicted in the graphic); different letters represent statistical differences at p < 0.05.

(Figure 2E). Finally, more than half of the researchers who Video Length narrate the videos are male (57%), while females appear less Videos with 2–3 min length presented the highest number of represented (36%); the joint narration is not so popular (7%). views per day and the respective scientific papers presented

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TABLE 2 | Statistical results from Generalized Linear Models of the effect of comparison with those with professional production. The ’ production, video format and audio quality (given as narrator s voice quality) in same trend was observed for the number of citations per video length, number of views per day of the videos, and number of citations per fi day and Altmetric of the corresponding scientific paper. Statistically significant day of the respective scienti c papers, with the highest differences at p < 0.01, are highlighted in bold. average values being obtained for professional production, but in this case videos with professional production led to a Factor Variable Df χ2 values p value significantly higher number of citations than amateur χ2  . < Production Video lenght 2,168 37.34 <0.001 production ( 2,168 8 00; p 0.001; Table 2), with semi- Number of views per day 2,168 0.22 0.801 professional productions presenting intermediate values not Number of citations per day 2,168 8.00 <0.001 differing significantly from the other productions types Altmetric 2,168 9.93 0.001 < (Figure 4B). For the Altmetric value of the publication, Video format Number of views per day 4,166 0.40 0.810 fi Number of citations per day 4,166 3.34 0.01 statistically signi cant differences were obtained among χ2  . < Altmetric 4,166 4.89 <0.001 the three production types ( 2,168 9 93; p 0.001; Audio quality Number of views per day 2,168 0.76 0.470 Table 2), with professional videos leading to statistically Number of citations per day 2,168 3.43 0.415 significant higher Altmetric values than semi-professional Altmetric 2,168 4.52 0.01 and amateur productions. Amateur productions led to the lowest Altmetric values, and semi-professional productions presented intermediate values (Figure 4C). the highest number of citations per day (on average) (Figures 3A,B). Therefore, there seems to be a clear preference for Video Format shorter content, with a tendency for the abovementioned The formats with the highest average number of views per day variables to decrease as the running time of the videos were the documentary (n  79), simple presentation (n  40) and increases. Statistically significantly differences were detected animation (n  27), but no statistically significant differences 2 among the production types (χ ,  37.34; p < 0.001, χ2  .  2 168 were obtained among video formats ( 4,166 0 40; p 0.810; Table 2), with shorter videos being significantly associated Table 2). It should be noted that simple presentation format with professional productions; on the other hand, amateur presented some outlier values that might have influenced the and semi-professional productions are significantly longer, average values, but presented median values similar to with no significant differences being observed between both monologue (n  6) and dynamic presentation (n  19) production types (Figure 3C). formats (Figure 5A). Statistically significant differences were χ2  .  obtained for number of citations per day ( 4,166 3 34; p Video Production 0.01; Table 2). Animation and documentary formats are Videos with professional (n  65) and semi-professional (n  highlighted with the highest average number of citations per 20) production presented more views per day on average than day, but significant differences were only obtained between the amateur productions (n  86), but the differences were not animation and dynamic presentation and between animation fi χ2  .  statistically signi cant ( 2,168 0 22; p 0.801; Table 2) and simple presentation (Figure 5B). For the Altmetric, (Figure 4A). Also, the median values of views per day were statistically significant differences were obtained among videos  < lower for videos with semi-professional production in formats (F4, 166 2,876.74; p 0.001; Table 2), with animation

FIGURE 4 | Video production according to the number of views per day (A), and number of citations per day (B) and Altmetric values (C) of the corresponding scientific paper. The lower and upper hinges of each boxplot correspond to the first and third quartiles (the 25th and 75th percentiles) and whiskers extends from the hinge to the largest value no further than 1.5 * the inter-quartile range. Medians are depicted as a horizontal line within the boxplot, means as a gray bullet and outliers as black bullets (for visualization purposes online, some of the outliers are not depicted in the graphic); different letters represent statistical differences at p < 0.05.

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FIGURE 5 | Video format according to the number of views per day (A), and number of citations per day (B) and Altmetric values (C) of the corresponding scientific paper. The lower and upper hinges of each boxplot correspond to the first and third quartiles (the 25th and 75th percentiles) and whiskers extends from the hinge to the largest value no further than 1.5 * the inter-quartile range. Medians are depicted as a horizontal line within the boxplot, means as a gray bullet and outliers as black bullets (for visualization purposes online, some of the outliers are not depicted in the graphic); different letters represent statistical differences at p < 0.05.

FIGURE 6 | Narrator’s voice quality according to the number of views per day (A), and number of citations per day (B) and Altmetric values (C) of the corresponding scientific paper. The lower and upper hinges of each boxplot correspond to the first and third quartiles (the 25th and 75th percentiles) and whiskers extends from the hinge to the largest value no further than 1.5 * the inter-quartile range. Medians are depicted as a horizontal line within the boxplot, means as a gray bullet and outliers as black bullets (for visualization purposes online, some of the outliers are not depicted in the graphic); different letters represent statistical differences at p < 0.05. format leading to higher Altmetric values than the other formats; day and the Altmetric value of the corresponding scientificpaper however, significantly higher values for the animation format showed higher average values when the videos have good narration were only obtained when compared with the values obtained for (Figures 6B,C, respectively). However, such differences were only fi χ2  .  dynamic and simple presentations, which are among the lowest statistically signi cant for the Altmetric value ( 2,168 4 52; p ones (Figure 5C). 0.01; Table 2). For the number of citations per day, despite the tendency referred above, the values were not significantly different χ2  .  Audio Quality ( 2,168 3 43; p 0.415; Table 2). Videos where the quality of the narrator’s voice is bad (n  28) had a higher average number of views per day than the videos with good (n  125) or no narration (Figure 6A), despite no significant DISCUSSION χ2  . differences were obtained among the three groups ( 2,168 0 76; p  0.470; Table 2). It should be noted that this was probably The results of this study highlight the fact that the use of video influenced by some outlier values in videos where the quality of the abstracts in Ecology and Environmental Sciences is a complex narrator’s voice is bad as the median value is the lowest one, being and dynamic process. Our corpus presented us with very different even lower than that obtained for videos with no narration approaches toward the production of a video abstract in this area: (Figure 6A). On the other hand, the number of citations per from a single researcher in his office to professional

Frontiers in Communication | www.frontiersin.org 9 February 2021 | Volume 6 | Article 596248 Ferreira et al. Video-Abstracts in Ecology documentaries, from still images of the fieldwork to ingenious (2018), the bigger expression of amateur videos, and the so-called animations, from long presentations to very short explanations. User Generated Content (UGC), does not represent, in this sample, This enormous variety of elements represented a huge challenge more experimental content (Erviti, 2018). This probably reflects the on the processes of content analysis and categorization. It is need for specific training in these areas (Plank et al., 2017; Vachon, difficult to design a typology that represents such diversity 2018; Angelone et al., 2019). In advanced courses in the area of (García-Avilés and de Lara, 2018). Our study provides relevant science video production, after coming into contact with new ways of information to understand how this genre is evolving and storytelling, most researchers opt for these alternatives, instead of the contributes to establishing new directions toward more linear narratives they previously were aware of (Angelone et al., effective audio-visual communication. 2019). In the eyes of the public, disruptive genres such as motion The study sample and its detailed analysis revealed a strong graphics seem to cultivate greater interest, as reflected in the number dispersion and disorganization of the contents: videos from the of citations per day and Altmetric of the associated papers. However, same publisher and the same journal are often uploaded on the more traditional formats and narratives prevail largely. This can different channels, showing lack of a real communication also be related to the fact that this kind of expository style is believed strategy (Table 1). This is in line with previous studies in the more (Davis et al., 2020). Also, the audience of this videos may be an field of video production, that revealed no or small articulation engaged one, with peers and people with a university education, with between the different offices of an institution and the various whom the infotainment style is not so effective (Davis et al., 2020). outputs, suggesting that a single and stable language is lacking With this study, it seems clear that the most recommendable (Santos and Santos, 2014) and that it is necessary to create a length for video representations of scientific works in Ecology and strategy for disseminating videos in an online environment Environmental Sciences, taking into account the video (given as (Erviti and Stengler, 2016). Effective dissemination implies a the number of videos/day) and paper (given as the number of strategy, that in itself requires contacts, time and money citations/day) outreach, is between two and three min. This (Vachon, 2018). When a film is planned it is important to average length is also associated with professional contexts. include promotion as an independent task and think about it Professional and semi-professional productions also usually led since the beginning. As researchers, the communication can be to higher video and paper outreach. This possibly reflects better under our responsibility or be in charge of other professional (e.g., content dissemination mechanisms (reflected in high Altmetric science communicators or journalists on communication offices); values), actors with more experience in the field and the the important thing to ensure it is a focused voice, that determines establishment of stronger bridges between audio-visual content when, how and where. It is vital to collaborate with all the and written content. Despite the relevance of this data, further institutions involved in the research (e.g., universities, research research regarding video length (Welbourne and Grant, 2016) centers, research groups, science journals, science centers, and production values, using a larger amount of samples and newspapers) to upload the video in one unique platform, and other variables, such as the impact of video-abstracts in science spread the word from there. This is particularly important when learning (Slemmons et al., 2018), is needed. we want to measure popularity metrics, being more rigorous and Although previous studies have shown that ensuring good audio reliable if all the data come from one platform. quality should be in the researcher’s interest (Newman and Schwarz, Despite this disorganization, the annual growth of video 2018), in our case, the quality of narrator’s voice, given by the general production follows the positive trend described, in general, for audio quality, was not a determining factor for video viewing. online scientific videos (García-Avilés and de Lara, 2018) However, it had a positive impact on the scientific reach of the (Figure 1). This evolution demonstrates a growing written paper, measured as the Altmetric. As it happens with some of involvement of the scientific community and its partners with the other results, strong conclusions should be viewed with caution, this dissemination tool and represents a clear sign of a growing as factors such as the reach and effort that each researcher and interest in these new ways of communicating science. Also, journal have invested in promoting its video, variables that are very although the methodology for surveying the video abstracts in difficult to measure, may prevail as explanatory variables. For future Ecology and Environmental Sciences was based on exhaustive work, once audio quality is a difficult metric to quantify, we research on the webpages of scientific journals, video channels, recommend the use of quantitative metrics like the number of search engines, social networks and other relevant platforms, words per minute (Morcillo et al., 2016). some interesting content may still have passed unnoticed. Another variable that could help to clarify some of the results Unsurprisingly, most of the video abstracts followed classic we have obtained is the audience retention. This measure tells us models, rooted in television, such as documentaries and how many people are still watching a video during video playback, reportages (Welbourne and Grant, 2016; Davis and Léon, 2018): indicating when viewers stop watching (e.g., YouTube Analytics). an individual, indirectly narrating a story or presenting research. It is Understand the viewer’s interest throughout the video can give us possible that these specific areas (Ecology and Environmental insights into what segments are working well and what sections Sciences) also amplify the use of these formats, once there is a need to be improved. Also, if the number of views measures great tradition on nature documentaries, very rooted in popular popularity, it fails to translate impact or ensure that the content culture. The dominance of moving images and a certain complexity was viewed in its entirety; unfortunately, such data is only available of production—in the number of takes, in the mix of indoor with for the authors/owners of the videos. Future research will focus on outdoor shooting and in the type of elements used—are strong the production of our own video abstracts in the area of Ecology examples of this style. In contrast to what was observed by Erviti and Environmental Sciences, and this will enable to evaluate these

Frontiers in Communication | www.frontiersin.org 10 February 2021 | Volume 6 | Article 596248 Ferreira et al. Video-Abstracts in Ecology metrics, allowing us to explore new content data and new visual DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT features. Due to time constraints and research purposes not all the visual components were coded and interpreted. These elements The original contributions presented in the study are included in can be explored on a visual rhetoric approach (Finkler and León, the article/Supplementary Material, further inquiries can be 2019), exploring the different elements of the science storytelling, directed to the corresponding author. for example creating and testing two different versions of the same video abstract, where only one feature differs. Furthermore, there is also a series of non-controllable AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS variables that were not taken into account in this study and that can somehow affect the results, including the characteristics MF and JL designed the study. MF conducted the main analysis of the of the video channels (number of subscribers) and the scientific videos. JL performed the statistical analyses. All authors participated papers (number of authors, presence of international co-authors, in scientific discussion and approved the submitted version. number of characters in the title and the abstract, number of keywords, references and pages and funding). Future studies considering all these variables are highly recommendable. FUNDING

This work was supported by Fundação para a Cienciaeˆ CONCLUSION Tecnologia (FCT; Portugal) within the project (UIDB/04004/ 2020) and through an individual grant to Miguel Ferreira This work intends to be the first step in the characterization of (SFRH/BD/131072/2017). video abstracts in Ecology and Environmental Sciences and bring added value to the general characterization of scientific videos. Along with previous works (Morcillo et al., 2016)the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS intention is to describe and classify the state of the art, working mostly with outreach metrics. However, as the use of video Mariana Castro and Sara Lopes are acknowledged for their abstracts is still a very recent tool, it still lacks clear and definitive valuable contribution for the revised statistical analyses, and guidelines that sometimes leads to improper use of the type of Sasha D’Costa is thanked for the English language reviewing content considered. Such a lack of theoretical framework of the manuscript. Two reviewers are also thanked for the inevitably leads to subjectivity not only in the type of content important comments made to the manuscript. but also in the evaluation process. To fill these gaps, a separate study on creating a validation model for video-abstracts in these scientific areas is under development. We hope that this future SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL instrument of research will allow us to validate some of our coding categories and contribute to establishing a stronger The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: model of an effective video abstract in Ecology and https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2021.596248/ Environmental Sciences. full#supplementary-material.

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