What's in a Picture? The Temptation of Image Manipulation

@article{citeulike:1154203, author = {Rossner, Mike and Yamada, Kenneth M. }, citeulike-article-id = {1154203}, comment = {"Good science requires reliable data. Consequently, to protect the integrity of research, the scientific community takes strong action against perceived scientific misconduct. In the current definition provided by the U.S. government: 'Research misconduct is defined as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.' For example, showing a figure in which part of the image was either selectively altered or reconstructed to show something that did not exist originally (for example, adding or modifying a band in a polyacrylamide gel image) can represent falsification or fabrication. Being accused of misconduct initiates a painful process that can disrupt one’s research and career. To avoid such a situation, it is important to understand where the ethical lines are drawn between acceptable and unacceptable image adjustment" (11). Research must not be falsified, so as to protect the integrity of scientific findings and also to spare the researcher any humiliation or sanctions that might result from falsified data. "If you misrepresent your data, you are deceiving your colleagues, who expect and assume basic scientific honesty— that is, that each image you present is an accurate representation of what you actually observed. In addition, an image usually carries information beyond the specific point being made. The quality of an image has implications about the care with which it was obtained, and a frequent assumption (though not necessarily true) is that in order to obtain a presentation-quality image, you had to carefully repeat an experiment multiple times. Manipulating images to make figures more simple and more convincing may also deprive you and your colleagues of seeing other information that is often hidden in a picture or other primary data" (11). Significant adjustments to an image should be acknowledged in the legend (12). Images can be misrepresented through a variety of means, e.g., adjusting brightness or color; adding or deleting bands from a blot (12); "cleaning up background" or "splicing lanes together" (13); "enhancing a specific feature" or "misrepresenting a microscope field"; or changing the resolution (14). }, journal = {The Journal of Cell Biology}, keywords = {ethics, images, science, software}, number = {1}, pages = {11--15}, posted-at = {2007-03-11 15:24:12}, priority = {0}, title = {What's in a Picture? The Temptation of Image Manipulation}, url = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/1622215}, volume = {166}, year = {2004} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1154203 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1154203 TI - What's in a Picture? The Temptation of Image Manipulation JF - The Journal of Cell Biology VL - 166 IS - 1 SP - 11 EP - 15 KW - ethics KW - images KW - science KW - software N1 - "Good science requires reliable data. Consequently, to protect the integrity of research, the scientific community takes strong action against perceived scientific misconduct. In the current definition provided by the U.S. government: 'Research misconduct is defined as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.' For example, showing a figure in which part of the image was either selectively altered or reconstructed to show something that did not exist originally (for example, adding or modifying a band in a polyacrylamide gel image) can represent falsification or fabrication. Being accused of misconduct initiates a painful process that can disrupt one’s research and career. To avoid such a situation, it is important to understand where the ethical lines are drawn between acceptable and unacceptable image adjustment" (11). Research must not be falsified, so as to protect the integrity of scientific findings and also to spare the researcher any humiliation or sanctions that might result from falsified data. "If you misrepresent your data, you are deceiving your colleagues, who expect and assume basic scientific honesty— that is, that each image you present is an accurate representation of what you actually observed. In addition, an image usually carries information beyond the specific point being made. The quality of an image has implications about the care with which it was obtained, and a frequent assumption (though not necessarily true) is that in order to obtain a presentation-quality image, you had to carefully repeat an experiment multiple times. Manipulating images to make figures more simple and more convincing may also deprive you and your colleagues of seeing other information that is often hidden in a picture or other primary data" (11). Significant adjustments to an image should be acknowledged in the legend (12). Images can be misrepresented through a variety of means, e.g., adjusting brightness or color; adding or deleting bands from a blot (12); "cleaning up background" or "splicing lanes together" (13); "enhancing a specific feature" or "misrepresenting a microscope field"; or changing the resolution (14). AU - Rossner, Mike AU - Yamada, Kenneth PY - 2004/// UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/1622215 ER -