Image Manipulation Policy
DScholar Press International requires that all images, figures, photographs, micrographs, charts, graphs, illustrations, maps, and other visual materials included in submitted manuscripts accurately represent the original data or information. This policy applies to all publications, including peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed books, scholarly monographs, edited volumes, conference proceedings, working papers, and research reports.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that all visual materials are authentic, accurate, and free from misleading manipulation. Images must not be altered, fabricated, falsified, enhanced, obscured, selectively edited, or combined in a manner that changes, misrepresents, or exaggerates the underlying data, observations, or research findings.
Permissible image adjustments include modifications such as brightness, contrast, color balance, sharpness, or cropping, provided that the adjustments are applied uniformly to the entire image, do not remove, obscure, introduce, or alter any information, and do not affect the scientific or scholarly interpretation of the image. Any image processing that influences interpretation must be clearly disclosed in the manuscript.
Composite images, merged panels, reconstructed figures, and digitally assembled illustrations must be clearly identified. The boundaries between image components must be visible where appropriate, and the methods used to prepare composite images must be described accurately in the figure legend or methodology section.
Authors must not add, remove, move, duplicate, or selectively modify objects, bands, cells, features, backgrounds, or other image elements. Artificial enhancement, selective editing, cloning, splicing, or manipulation intended to conceal defects or alter research findings is considered publication misconduct.
Where artificial intelligence or image-processing software has been used to generate, modify, restore, or enhance images, authors must disclose the nature and purpose of such use. AI-generated or AI-modified images must not be presented as original research data unless their creation forms part of the research methodology and is fully described in the manuscript.
Authors must retain the original, unprocessed image files and related metadata and must provide them to the editorial office upon request during editorial assessment or investigation of publication ethics concerns. Failure to provide original image data when requested may result in rejection of the manuscript or other editorial action.
The editorial office may examine submitted images using visual inspection, image analysis tools, or other appropriate methods to identify inappropriate manipulation. Where concerns arise, authors may be required to provide explanations, original image files, or supporting documentation. If inappropriate image manipulation is confirmed before publication, the manuscript will be rejected. If it is identified after publication, the Press may publish a correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other appropriate editorial action.
Honest adjustments made solely to improve image clarity without altering the underlying information are distinguished from manipulations intended to misrepresent research findings. Editorial decisions are based on the nature, extent, and effect of the image modification.
DScholar Press International maintains this policy to preserve the accuracy of the scholarly record, promote transparency in research reporting, and ensure that all visual materials published by the Press faithfully represent the original evidence on which scholarly conclusions are based.
Effective date: 25 June 2026
Last updated date: 25 June 2026
