Resources for Making Public Scholarship Graphics
Infographic sites:
- This article outlines features of several top online infographic editors: https://buffer.com/library/infographic-makers
- Important features to consider: payment structure (free versus paid graphics in addition to levels of subscriptions), individual versus team or class accounts, types of templates (poster, presentation, flier, etc.), options for organizing and sorting your infographics, sharing and downloading options.
Important Considerations When Using Graphic Editors:
- Finding images & sharing work:
- Lots of information about creative commons licensing at https://creativecommons.org/ in detail at https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/licensing-types-examples/ , and they just launched their own search interface for pictures you can search by use license- give author credit on most: https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/
- Public domain images (Creative Commons CC0)= free of copyrights – attribution is appreciated but not required
- Pixabay.com: see info. about responsible use of images here: https://pixabay.com/en/blog/posts/public-domain-images-what-is-allowed-and-what-is-4/
- Pexels.com: see information about use here: https://www.pexels.com/photo-license/
- Unsplash.com license information: https://unsplash.com/license
- To give artist credit, it is recommended to say something like: Photo by Jeremy Smith on Unsplash
- Attending to copyright laws for reproducing published material
- See rules from journals for reproducing published materials
- Also, University libraries have resources, for example, from the Kansas State University library: http://guides.lib.k-state.edu/UsingContent & https://www.k-state.edu/copyright/
- Resources for considering accessibility for the blind or visually impaired:
- https://webaim.org/resources/designers/#infographic
- https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/complex/
- https://piktochart.com/blog/inclusive-design-make-visuals-accessible/
- https://create.piktochart.com/output/24792004-accessibility
- https://product.canva.com/one-thing-every-designer-must-consider/
- Wave is the web accessibility evaluation tool: https://wave.webaim.org/extension/
- K-State website accessibility guidelines: http://beach.k-state.edu/tools/access/guidelines.html
Resources for Developing Graphics for Specific Purposes
- For grant writing:
- https://theproposalguru.com/nonprofit-proposals/use-graphics-to-show-your-proposal-data/
- https://www.peakproposals.com/blog/formatting-tips-to-make-your-grant-proposal-a-standout
- This one has some examples of what Penn State has used in some of their grant proposals: https://www.research.psu.edu/siro/graphicsgallery
- From the NIH grant proposal guidelines page: https://www.niaid.nih.gov/grants-contracts/write-research-plan#A13 (scroll to Graphics and Video section). Some example applications NIH provides that have nice graphics:
- https://www.niaid.nih.gov/sites/default/files//R15-Rahul-Raghavan-Application.pdf
- https://www.niaid.nih.gov/sites/default/files/2-R01-AI042783-16A1_Muir_Application.pdf
- https://www.niaid.nih.gov/sites/default/files//mylerparsonsfull.pdf
- https://www.niaid.nih.gov/sites/default/files//dewhurstfull.pdf (this one uses only black and white graphics- I think the color ones are more eye-catching and are recommended by NIH)
- For communicating research:
- Journal of Marketing Management: How to turn your journal article into an infographic: https://www.jmmnews.com/how-to-turn-journal-article-into-infographic/
- General guidelines for communicating science visually with lots of explanation about different types of graphs & charts: http://www.clips.edu.au/infographics/
- Broader Impacts Summit- A conference funded by NSF to improve science communication: https://broaderimpacts.net/
- For teaching:
- Infographic research projects: http://www.edudemic.com/how-classroom-project-infographic/
- Using infographics as creative assessment- TONS of links to resources on making infographics: http://www.schrockguide.net/infographics-as-an-assessment.html
- https://piktochart.com/blog/piktochart-classroom-infographics-education/
- https://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/2013/lessons/Infographics
Turning a research article into an infographic:
- Identify the purpose of your infographic (what thoughts or emotions are you trying to elicit?) and your audience – consider education level, cultural preferences, age, etc.
- Identify main points: If summarizing an article, first start with the abstract, then fill in by going through the text- write them down in bulleted phrases. If summarizing multiple articles about a topic, the process is similar to below, but you will be pulling from multiple sources.
- Look at the research questions identified in the article(s) and think about how you would explain the purpose to friend or family member. Identify an intriguing, yet simple, “essential question” to hook the reader- what can they learn from reading this infographic/ the research you are summarizing? (if posting on social media- keep it short)
- Clarify the so-what of the research- this may be specific findings that you expand on later, but what, more generally, is the importance of this research to the life of the person reading it (if a public audience) or to the scientific field (if an academic audience)
- Identify important context of the research or approaches that provide information about who or what the results apply to: is there a specific population these findings are based on? Or are there important data collection points (e.g., locations, timeframe, sociopolitical context) that provide context? Important background information?
- Key findings
- Implications can be included based on purpose of infographic and audience: implications for science advancement, solving a specific problem, guiding policy development, improving community/ personal well-being, etc.
- Go through what you extracted and assess for ease of understanding by your audience and adjust accordingly. Sometimes this may include simply defining key terms, other times, it may mean removing scientific terms or academic language and replacing with common language. Depends on the audience and the importance of that term to the topic.
- Go here for a rough visual of how commonly used the words you chose are: http://splasho.com/upgoer6/ – the darker red a word is, the less common it is. The more green a word is, the more common it is.
- Think about what organizational structure would work best for your infographic: Group the information and order it: Are there things that need to come first, second, third? Does some information work best side by side for a comparison? Or is there a process where several things are linked, which might go horizontal from left right or from top to bottom?
- Begin building your infographic using selected infographic editor.
- Think about how you want to share your infographic and pick a size that matches (e.g., if printing the infographic versus sharing online, you will need to set different size parameters)
- Set up your infographic in sections to match what you came up with in 5a
- Spend time thinking about how the scientific findings you are conveying could be represented visually: closeness of words, arrows, lines, icons vs. words, maps, charts, graphs, etc.
- Think about the most accurate way to cite your sources. This also depends on how you will share your infographic- online or a PDF with links or as an image with full references?
- Choose stylistic elements
- Search for images that convey your message using color and emotion.
- Pick fonts and colors that fit the tone and audience of your message.
- Adjust whitespace, size of fonts and images, and location on the page to guide the reader through the information and highlight important points. There are lots of guides on the styling of infographics once you have the content defined, e.g.:
- https://blog.mindthegraph.com/how-to-make-an-infographic-6/#.XcHfzZpKhO9)
- https://visme.co/blog/bad-infographics/
- …also see links on previous page for a place to start to refine your design.
- Share your infographic– download and share it in PDF or image form, share directly to social media, or embed in a website, etc. You may end up resizing or making several different versions of your infographic for different audiences or different publication formats.
