Do not remove or move anything in an image, or clean up an image.” Tools to detect fraud at The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) An original image file must be retained in case it is required by the peer-review process. However any changes (brightness, contrast, color balance, etc.) must be made overall, and mentioned in the figure caption. “For clarity, figures may be adjusted to better see the item being discussed as long as such changes do not obscure or eliminate information present in the original image. The International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) offers the following guidance on graphics editing: Please let us know your thoughts on how data and image manipulation can be better managed in your field by posting your comments below. Dr Dahlberg has also kindly offered to share with readers a program the ORI uses to identify potentially fabricated numbers - further details of which you will find below.īut most of all, we hope this article proves the starting point of a wider discussion on this topic - we want to hear your views. Dr Jacques Piette, Editor of Biochemical Pharmacology, shares his eight-point plan to control submitted Western Blots, while Dr John Dahlberg, of The Office of Research Integrity (ORI), talks about how his organization can help identify manipulation and offers insight into the techniques used by its investigators. In this article, we focus on some of the tools and processes developed to detect data and image manipulation. While many of these have met with success, there is no doubt this kind of behavior remains more common than we would wish. Over the years, numerous initiatives have been launched to educate authors about the dangers of manipulating data and images in their journal submissions - in fact, we discuss two of our own programs in The importance of author education in this Ethics Special. “… a false statement of fact, made deliberately, is the most serious crime a scientist can commit.” English Chemist and novelist, Charles Percy Snow (1905-1980)
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