Misconduct of images: Guidance for biomedical authors and editors

Abstract

Misconduct in terms of manipulation of images has become an increasingly serious issue for the scientific community, especially in biomedicine. Such misconduct takes many forms, the major categories being falsified or fabricated images, manipulated images, and plagiarized images. Different tools and techniques are briefly described to help authors and editors in detecting such misconduct, and guidance is offered on appropriate use of images under different situations. More specifically, CrossRef Similarity Check, Motuin, and Droplets are proposed as the tools of choice for detecting similarity between images and their possible manipulation.