A rhetorical move-step analysis of graphical abstracts in experimental research articles

Graphical abstracts (GAs) have recently emerged as an add-on genre of experimental research articles (ERAs) in STEM fields. This study used Swales’ (1990, 2004) framework to analyze GAs’ move and step structures and investigated how they were influenced by ERAs’ take-home messages. Our corpus comprised 110 GAs from 55 high-impact journals across 11 STEM disciplines. Thirty-three specialist informants played a dominant role in identifying ERAs’ take-home messages, GAs’ IMRD moves, and the specific steps realizing those moves. Our findings revealed that GAs’ move and step structures, along with their frequently used moves and steps, are significantly influenced by ERAs’ three distinct types of take-home messages: (1) exploration of new phenomena and/or mechanisms, (2) introduction of new methodologies, and (3) development of new products. GAs tend to fulfill a highlight-to-attract purpose by focusing on ERAs’ main scientific contributions, in contrast to the verbal and video abstracts that fulfill a summarize-to-attract purpose by reproducing ERAs’ full IMRD structure. Our findings enrich the current understanding of GAs’ rhetorical structures and have practical implications for genre-based GA design and pedagogy.