Instructions

Image Manipulation Detection - Exercises

Instructions for:TraineeTrainer

Goal

After completing this section of the course you will:

Have learned more about the various types and spread of Image Manipulation in research.
Have learned why it is considered a serious research misconduct.
Have practiced spotting some examples of Image Manipulation for yourself.

Duration (hours)

1

For whom is this important?

Academic institutionsLaboratory researchersPhD StudentsResearch Ethics Committees

Method

eLearning

Part of

University of Split School of Medicine (MEFST)

Steps

1Image Manipulation - Exercise 1

2Image Manipulation - Exercise 2

3Image Manipulation - Exercise 3

4Image Manipulation - Exercise 4

What is this about?

Image alteration with the intent of distorting scientific experiment results is considered a serious research misconduct (Parrish et Noonan, 2009). These manipulations encompass various techniques, such as cropping, colour adjustment, selective enhancement, and duplication, among other techniques (Rossner et Yamada, 2004).

References

Parrish D, Noonan B. Image manipulation as research misconduct. Sci Eng Ethics. 2009 Jun;15(2):161-7. doi: 10.1007/s11948-008-9108-z. Epub 2009 Jan 6. PMID: 19125357.
Rossner M, Yamada KM. What's in a picture? The temptation of image manipulation. J Cell Biol. 2004 Jul 5;166(1):11-5. doi: 10.1083/jcb.200406019. PMID: 15240566; PMCID: PMC2172141.

Why is this important?

The extent of image manipulation in science is greater than previously perceived, with approximately 4% of the published papers containing some form of image duplication (Bik et al, 2016). This highlights a need for comprehensive training of editors and scientists on recognizing image manipulations.

References

Bik EM, Casadevall A, Fang FC. The Prevalence of Inappropriate Image Duplication in Biomedical Research Publications. mBio. 2016 Jun 7;7(3):e00809-16. doi: 10.1128/mBio.00809-16. PMID: 27273827; PMCID: PMC4941872.

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