As staff of scientific and technical journals, our goal is to publish the most accurate, precise, and original information for our readers. Growing technical advances in electronic communication and digital imaging software make this goal increasingly challenging to meet. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop make it easy to perform any of a wide variety of alterations to an image such as add, delete, color, copy, stamp, paste, or clone. Whether unintentional or deliberate, authors may be tempted to use imaging software to ‘touch-up' figures to make them look more attractive, cleaner, simpler, or to better reflect the desired result of an experiment. These actions pose a problem to editors dealing with raw scientific and technical data. Alterations made to images can be considered inappropriate manipulation of the original data and may be classified as research misconduct, especially if it falsifies the results of an experiment or study. Below are some general guidelines and tools editorial staff can use to help prevent image manipulation and ensure the accuracy and honesty of the data they publish.

The ISMTE North American Conference was noticeably larger this year, with 89 attendees versus the 55 attendees in Baltimore in 2009. This was one of the reasons prompting the move to a larger venue in Washington, DC and, with a working party dedicated to increasing membership to be launched in Fall 2010, it is expected the meetings will continue to grow. A large range of journals, publishers, disciplines, and job descriptions were represented amongst the attendees, and the evening reception and breaks provided excellent networking opportunities.