We all really already know this. After all, we get taught from day one at medical school that we need to step back and look at the patient, and if anyone’s done any telephone triage, you’re probably aware of the uncomfortable itch that says “I actually want to see this child … not hear about them …”

But is this true of science?

Well, as a quick example, you could flip across to explore what the graphic below tells you

And perhaps compare this to :

Now beyond this rather nice, but perhaps above what you’d expect the routine lab to produce, image is a report from the AHRQ which shows that if you offer systematic reviews with pictures then readers prefer it.

Could we take this idea further, do you think, and be the world’s first paediatric journal that placed a key Figure as part of astudy abstract to really help readers into the paper? (After all — we can believe the abstracts — mostly.)

– Archi