Lights, Camera, ACTION! – EvoDevo introduces video to its PDFs

Guest blog post from Mark Martindale and Max Telford, Editors-in-Chief, EvoDevo

Change over time is a central theme in biology, and of particular importance in the fields of developmental and evolutionary biology. Working at the interface of these fields, evodevo research frequently uses video recording as an important measure of specific biological events.

Recognising the growing importance of video in this field, EvoDevo is now able to publish embedded video files in article PDFs. Readers can download and store the PDFs, enabling them to watch videos offline and in the optimal context alongside the rest of the manuscript. With the click of a button you can watch videos in PDFs wherever and whenever you like.

The videos are included within the publications themselves in order to illustrate data collected in all four dimensions to showcase research and support recorded data. This can help readers to understand important concepts, broadening the reach and impact of the research.

With the increase in use of live cell imaging, digital timelapse microscopy, and three dimensional imaging, the power of online publishing can really be felt with the possibility of including these video files.

Viewed as the first frame of the movie in the print version, a simple click on the image in the PDF will play the video, while reading the same article on the journal website will enable you to launch the video in a pop-up window. (You’ll need to have an up to date version of the free adobe reader application available from https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/.)

The first manuscript demonstrating this new capability has recently been published in EvoDevo, and uses video to demonstrate developmental timing and cell specification in early ctenophore embryos.

This new feature is provided at no extra charge to authors and is, like the journal itself, open access so that anyone can view and use it with no copyright issue. So we’ve got the tools to create engaging published manuscripts with embedded video files….the rest is up to your imagination!

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