Image Manipulation in Scientific Publishing: Interview with Liz Williams, PhD | |
In the second installment of our “Interview with an Expert Series”, Kathy Brister explores the important ethical issue of image manipulation with Liz Williams, PhD, Executive Editor of Journal of Cell Biology. Image manipulation is defined as the falsification of images such that they no longer accurately reflect the authors’ observations.* This lively discussion will introduce you to the importance of understanding how inappropriate manipulation of images could be affecting the scientific integrity of your journals. Listen now to learn: |
- How the altering of images in scientific literature has evolved over the years
- Which types of images are the most vulnerable to manipulation
- Why it’s important to have an image manipulation policy and proactive screening process
- What tools are necessary to detect image manipulation
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Liz Williams, PhD
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*From the ISMTE's guide "Publishing Ethics 101: A Guide for the Editorial Office".
This interview was conducted in the summer of 2011. Length: 08:54.
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As you’ll hear from the interview, Dr. Williams suggests that reviewing all images of accepted manuscripts is critical for a successful screening process and image manipulation policy. Many journals may not have the resources to achieve this—is a random screening of images enough? What do you think? Provide your opinions in the ISMTE Member Discussion Forum post “Image Screening—All or Nothing or Something in Between?” You must sign in to contribute to the discussion.
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Additional Resources on Image Manipulation
If you’re interested in receiving image manipulation detection training from a screener on Dr. Williams’s staff, please contact Erin Dubnansky at edubnansky@gastro.org.
About Liz Williams
Liz Williams earned her BS in biological sciences from Cornell University in 1998 and continued on at Cornell to earn a PhD in genetics and development in 2004 based on her work with Dr. Thomas Fox. She then conducted postdoctoral research at the Johns Hopkins and Stanford Schools of Medicine with Dr. Philip Beachy. Liz began her career in scientific publishing in 2008 as an associate editor for PLoS Biology and joined The Journal of Cell Biology as executive editor in 2010.
About Kathy Brister
Kathy Brister is the managing editor of Journal of Applied Microbiology and Letters in Applied Microbiology, two of the five journals published for the Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM) by Wiley-Blackwell. She joined Blackwell Publishing in 2005, originally working in journals production before moving to her current role a few years later. Kathy is a member of the ISMTE Training Committee.
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