Publishers launch joint effort to tackle altered images in research papers

Publishers launch joint effort to tackle altered images in research papers



Microscope images that have been altered or duplicated can appear in research papers. (Universal Images Group via Getty)

Publishers unite to fight dodgy images

The world’s largest science publishers are teaming up to establish standards for catching suspicious images in manuscripts submitted for peer review. Altered or duplicated images can result from honest mistakes, efforts to improve readability — or fraud. Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Springer Nature and others aim to set standards for software that can compare a large number of images across many papers at once.

Nature | 5 min read(Nature is editorially independent of its publisher, Springer Nature — as is this Briefing.)