Is adjusting brightness and contrast allowed in scientific figures?

Yes, if it is applied to the whole image and does not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information. Adjustments must be linear and applied uniformly; selectively brightening or darkening one region is not acceptable.

Can I splice lanes from different gels or blots together?

Only with a clear visible divider (such as a white line or space) between non-adjacent lanes, and disclosure that they come from different gels or exposures. Seamlessly combining lanes to look like one continuous gel is image manipulation.

What are the consequences of image manipulation?

Depending on intent and severity, it can lead to correction, retraction, loss of funding, and findings of research misconduct. Many journals now screen figures for manipulation before publication, so problems are increasingly caught early.

Figure Integrity: How to Avoid Image Manipulation

Most image-integrity problems in published papers are not fraud — they are honest authors who didn't know where the line was. As journals increasingly screen figures before publication, understanding what is and isn't allowed protects both your reputation and the integrity of your science. This guide explains the rules in practical terms and how to keep your figures honest and audit-proof.

The golden rule

Every adjustment you make to a figure must preserve what the original data actually shows. You may improve clarity, but you may never add, remove, move, hide, or enhance a feature in a way that changes the scientific meaning. If an edit would make a reader interpret the result differently than the raw data would, it is manipulation — regardless of intent.

Brightness, contrast and colour

Adjusting brightness and contrast is allowed if the change is applied evenly across the entire image and does not erase or obscure information, including faint bands or background signal. The danger is selective adjustment — brightening one lane, darkening a background to hide a smudge, or cranking contrast until weak signals vanish. Keep adjustments linear and global, and never use them to make a result look cleaner or stronger than it is.

Cropping

Cropping to remove irrelevant edges or focus on the region of interest is fine and common. It becomes a problem when cropping hides relevant context — for example, cutting out neighbouring lanes that contradict your interpretation, or trimming a blot so tightly that readers can't judge specificity. For gels and blots, journals increasingly expect you to show the full, uncropped image in the supplement.

Splicing gels and blots

This is the classic trap. Combining lanes from different gels, blots, or exposures into what appears to be a single continuous image is manipulation. If you must place non-adjacent lanes together, separate them with a clear visible divider (a white line or gap) and state in the legend that the lanes come from different gels or exposures. Never blend them seamlessly.

Duplication and reuse

Accidentally reusing the same image for two different conditions — or duplicating, rotating, or flipping part of an image to represent separate data — is one of the most commonly detected integrity issues. Keep meticulous file organisation so you always know which raw image belongs to which panel, and double-check that no image appears twice across your figures unless it is explicitly meant to.

Keep an audit trail

Protect yourself by always retaining the unedited, original files exactly as the instrument produced them, and by keeping a record of every processing step. Make adjustments non-destructively where possible, and store raw data alongside the processed figures. If a question ever arises, being able to show the original image and a clear processing history resolves it quickly — and the discipline of keeping that trail also keeps you honest in the moment.

Why it matters more than ever

Publishers now routinely run automated and manual figure-screening before acceptance, and post-publication scrutiny is intense. The consequences of manipulation range from correction and retraction to misconduct findings and lost funding. But the deeper reason to care is simpler: figures are evidence, and their credibility is your credibility. Honest, well-documented figures are not just safer — they make your science more trustworthy.

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