Image manipulation in science is suddenly in the news. But these cases are hardly rare
In 2004, Mike Rossner and Kenneth Yamada, two top editors at the Journal of Cell Biology, wrote an editorial alerting readers to what they saw as an emerging problem in science: Thanks to Photoshop, researchers could prettify the images in their manuscripts in ways that might cross the line into deception in an effort to clear the bar of peer review.
“Being accused of misconduct initiates a painful process that can disrupt one’s research and career,” they wrote, underscoring work from the US Office of Research Integrity published two years earlier, when the journal had also raised the flag. “To avoid such a situation, it is important to understand where the ethical lines are drawn between acceptable and unacceptable image adjustment.”
