New instructional video series aims to help editors recognize image manipulation

Today, the STM Working Group on Image Alteration and Duplication Detection is launching the first in a series of instructional video modules intended to serve as a tool for scholarly journal editors screening for manipulated images in submitted manuscripts. This first module provides an overview of the most commonly found image aberrations in scientific publications and illustrates how they may be detected and verified.

The video is freely available to all; and the aim is to share it as widely as possible with journal editors.

This first module covers the most common types of image aberrations including: splicing, cloning, erasing, duplications - with and without alterations, over-contrasting and cropping.

While increasingly sophisticated digital tools are being developed to detect image manipulation, human oversight to interpret these results remains essential. This series of videos will help prepare better equip the editors who are providing this oversight.

“This is a terrific educational resource for editors and publishers, introducing principles of image integrity screening and illustrating how to detect aberrations typically seen in scientific literature. The first module in the series provides basic tools to screen images for alteration and duplication. We hope editors will find this video useful while working to protect the integrity of scientific records.”

—Teodoro Pulvirenti, Ph.D
Editorial Director, Journals Publishing Group
ACS Publications Division

The series is a product of the STM Working Group on Image Alteration and Duplication Detection which includes members from Elsevier, JAMA, Aries Systems, the American Physiological Society, EMBO Press, the American Chemical Society, BMJ, Rockefeller University Press, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Atypon and STM.

Watch the Video