<p>The use of videos to illustrate advances in the chemical sciences offers numerous benefits that range from enhanced reproducibility of reported findings through to enhanced reader attention and understanding. The nearly concomitant advent of the World Wide Web and of digital photography has long made the publication of laboratory videos accessible at low cost to virtually all researchers. Yet, the use of videos to illustrate advances in chemical research remains low. Besides identifying requirements to create effective chemistry research videos, this study shows why videos in chemistry papers are a crucial resource to enhance the reader’s interest in the hypercompetitive context of the digital era of today’s research in which attention has long become a scarce resource.</p>