How to Avoid Fraudulent Image Manipulation

Session Agenda

Scientific misconduct has taken root in academia with thousands of cases being reported every year leading to retraction of research papers. 67% of the research misconduct cases resolved by The Office of Research Integrity between 2011 and 2015 involved image manipulation¹.

While some of these misrepresentations can be honest mistakes, others are intentional damaging the integrity of science and also researchers’ reputation in the scientific community by attracting discredit. While adjusting images, authors must ask themselves if the resulting image is the accurate representation of the raw image acquired. Popular journals such as The Journal of Cell Biology and Nature provide specific guidelines for image processing. Understanding these stipulated guidelines is paramount to ensure image integrity and standards. This webinar will help researchers to understand how they can avoid image manipulation and present them with integrity.

Through this webinar, researchers will learn:

• What is image manipulation?
• Best practices for image processing and avoiding image manipulation
• Recommend tools for detecting image manipulation
• Information about the ethical guidelines and policies
• Recent cases of violations of image processing guidelines

Reference:

1. Tips for Presenting Scientific Images with Integrity: https://ori.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/2017-12/6_Image_Manipulation_scalable.pdf