#ThisImageIsFine
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elisabethbik.bsky.social
From my collection of Horrible Editorial Decisions, I present to you another installation of #ThisImageIsFine, published in @Sciencedirect's International Immunopharmacology, and which was promptly addressed with a ... Correction! 😱
#ImageForensics
pubpeer.com/publications...
A collage of four panels from a scientific paper, showing tissues stained in shades of brown, pink, purple, and blue, with round cells. I have added colored boxes to highlight areas that look duplicated. There are many of those boxes!
November 10, 2026 at 8:40 PM
tomk.eurosky.social
@elisabethbik.bsky.social first spotted a terrible patchwork of image duplication in one of the figures, back in 2022. One year later, the @mdpiopenaccess.bsky.social editor decided to accept a correction, substituting the figure for an uninspired piece of digital artwork 🥸 #ThisImageIsFine
Figure 15 in the original paper with 18/20 panels containing image duplication/overlap/copy-pasting, as reported by Elisabeth Bik on PubPeer https://pubpeer.com/publications/E58B81E089154FDE18F11EA206C21F Figure 15 as accepted in the correction in 2023. The quality of the image is so bad one can't see that these are cells. Correction: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/28/10/4173
November 11, 2026 at 9:04 AM
tomk.eurosky.social
Well done, @mumumouse2.bsky.social and @nvitiensis.bsky.social ! 🤝
Retraction #41 for JRX from Saveetha engineering college, India
#ResearchIntegrity 🔍 #ImageForensics #FoSci #ThisImageIsFine 🕵️ #ScientificIntegrity #Academia
spottingthespot.bsky.social spottingthespot.bsky.social @spottingthespot.bsky.social · Sep 4
And one more for Joseph Raj Xavier! This time @tomk.eurosky.social didn't cause the retraction...

doi.org/10.1007/s117...
September 5, 2026 at 4:44 PM
hansonmark.bsky.social
Voila! The Research Integrity Feed hashtag list for post inclusion 📊🔍👀

#ResearchIntegrity
#PredatoryPublisher
#PredatoryPublishing
#EditorialIndependence
#SciRetraction
#PaperMill
#PaperMills
#HijackedJournal
#HijackedJournals
#ImageForensics
#FoSci
#ThisImageIsFine
#DoctoredImage

Cheers 🍻
January 5, 2025 at 10:41 PM
hansonmark.bsky.social
Welcome! Added #ImageForensics ! And I've now also added #ThisImageIsFine

Fun world I'm learning of. I'll update the tagged 1st post with the full list of hashtags once the list settles. But right now have many more included.
January 4, 2025 at 7:07 PM
altmetric.com
Still laughing about this a year later. #ThisImageIsFine

researcher meme stash submission for @drmeagantyler.bsky.social
michaelhoffman.bsky.social Michael Hoffman @michaelhoffman.bsky.social · Nov 8
Uh, I think @elisabethbik.bsky.social has some explaining to do
December 12, 2025 at 9:03 AM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
Oh, come on, @aaas.org Science Translational Medicine, correcting a paper for a photoshopped image?
That is absolutely bonkers, and you should do much, much better.

#ThisImageIsFine #ImageForensics
Figure 3Ai - original on the left, corrected on the right. Both show 4 panels with 5 gelleous droplets on tissue paper. On the left image (original) i have marked two droplets in the top panel with red boxes, because they look the same.
May 8, 2026 at 8:47 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
Instead of investigating properly, the journal issued a *corrigendum* 😱
"The authors regret that Figure 3D were mistakenly uploaded - corrections do not affect the conclusion."

The original figure was simply replaced with a completely different set of images😭

#ThisImageIsFine
Left: same image as shown in previous post. Right: A new, replacement figure, showing also six panels, but now with grey / purple colored cells in different shapes and forms, including blobs and small dots. A completely different figure.
April 22, 2026 at 5:52 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
1. They did not catch the repetitive areas in the original figure
2. They did not address the PubPeer concerns about photoshopping with a retraction - instead, they allowed the authors to replace all panels 😡
3. They did not check if the new panels were ok.
#ThisImageIsFine
January 30, 2026 at 10:51 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
Spot the two overlaps and you might win an Emoji Award!
Each panel is from a differently treated rat, so there should not be any overlaps.

#ImageForensics
#ThisImageIsFine
#ScientificPublishing
Figure from a scientific paper showing 6 panels, labeled A through F, shown in 2 columns and 3 rows. Each panel is a square and shows liver tissues from rats, which look like pale grey/purplish background with darker blue/purple cells and some brown staining. Some arrows in each panel point towards some darker purple cells.
January 22, 2026 at 5:47 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
It's a beauty!
Can you spot the problems here? Find at least two for your chance of winning one of the three Emoji Awards.
#ImageForensics
#ThisImageIsFine
#ScientificPublishing
Two Western blot panels under each other (p-ERK1/2 and Tubulin). Each strip shows dark grey horizontal bands on a ligher grey background. Labels showing different time points, and different additions of EGF or Res + EGF.
January 18, 2026 at 9:05 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
An easy one today.
Four TEM photos, four different formulations of 'quantum dots'.
Can you spot the unexpected overlap?

#ImageForensics
#ThisImageIsFine
#ScientificPublishing
Four Transmission Electron Microscopy photos in a 2x2 grid. Each has a light grey speckled background, and each shows darker dots in random patterns.
January 17, 2026 at 6:31 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
Can you spot all three overlaps?

#ImageForensics
#ThisImageIsFine
#ScientificPublishing
Figure from scientific paper, showing panels in 5 columns and 4 rows, all showing cells associated with different nanoparticles. Each panel has a black background, blue fluorescent nuclei and green fluorescent blobs.
January 16, 2026 at 9:12 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
A nice and easy #ImageForensics challenge, sent to me by a reader.
Can you spot the problem here?

#ThisImageIsFine
#ScientificPublishing
Two panel, labeled C / NA1I and D / NA1C, respectively. They show TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) photos, each showing a light grey background with darker black dots of different size in a sort of random pattern.
January 16, 2026 at 2:43 AM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
There are two sets of overlapping panels in this figure.
Can you spot them both?
Each panel is a differently treated rat.
#ImageForensics
#ThisImageIsFine
#ScientificPublishing
Ten panels in two columns, 5 rows. Labeled A through J. Left column shows pink tissues with white crinkly lines. Right column shows brown tissue on a cyan blue background.
January 12, 2026 at 11:05 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
Two sets of panels look identical, and another set of panels overlaps.

Can you spot at least two of the three problems here?

#ImageForensics
#ThisImageIsFine
#ScientificPublishing
Figure from a scientific paper showing transwell assays. We see panels in a grid of four columns and four rows. The panels show purple cells on a light grey background.
January 11, 2026 at 9:38 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
After yesterday's very hard challenge, I will give you a super easy one. Can you spot the duplication?
#ImageForensics
#ThisImageIsFine
#ScientificPublishing
Figure from a scientific paper. We see a grid of panels in 3 rows (different treatments) and 5 columns (different timepoints), each showing a dark grey background with lighter grey cells in small groups.
January 9, 2026 at 8:15 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
No replies yet.... It is a hard one!
Hint: focus on the bottom right panel - there is something unexpected going on there.
#ThisImageIsFine
#ScientificPublishing
#ImageForensics
January 9, 2026 at 5:30 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
A pretty hard #ImageForensics.
Can you spot the duplication?
#ThisImageIsFine
#ScientificPublishing
Figure from a scientific paper showing 9 'woundhealing' assays, where a pipette tip is used to make a scratch in a monolayer of cells and the assay monitors how fast the edges grow back together.
January 9, 2026 at 12:54 AM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
Despite clear evidence of image manipulation, @elsevierconnect.bsky.social's BBRC did not retract the paper. Instead, authors were allowed to submit a new, “clean” set of figures.

This response seriously undermines research integrity.
#ThisImageIsFine #ImageForensics

pubpeer.com/publications...
Left: Figure 3D, showing 6 panels with orange, big and smaller blobs on a yellow background. Marked by me with rounded boxes in many different colors to highlight duplicated areas. Right: Corrected Figure 3D, showing 6 completely new panels, grey background and purple blobs.
January 8, 2026 at 8:45 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
The second #retraction for the group of Kalipada Pahan at @rushmedical.bsky.social, with findings by @mumumouse2.bsky.social and myself.

36 of his papers have made it to @pubpeer.com.

Kudos to @pnas.org.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pubpeer.com/publications...

#ImageForensics #ThisImageIsFine
A collage of 6 panels, showing duplicated panels in several figure (fluorescent cells, microscopy photos, western blots), and two tables with repetitive values
January 8, 2026 at 12:37 AM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
This is a nice #ImageForensics.
So far, I have found three problems in this paper. Can you spot at least two?
#ThisImageIsFine
Figure from a scientific paper showing twelve panels labeled a through l, in three rows (different infection ratios), four columns (four time points). They have a dark grey background, and show lighter outlines of elongated cells. Some panels overlap, unexpectedly.
December 26, 2025 at 7:17 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
A nice #ImageForensics for those who are still behind a screen. Can you spot a problem - or two - here?
#ThisImageIsFine
Figure 4 from a scientific paper. It shows 5 panels with a purple background and blueish/purple cells, some with very dark inserts. Text below the five panels reads: "Fig. 4. Photomicrograph of brain section stained with H&E. A. Control group B. Carrier group C. Cisplatin group D. Sc-NPs group E. Sc-NPs +Cis group.(H& E X 400)."
December 25, 2025 at 9:59 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
Neuroscience, a @ibroorg.bsky.social journal, thought it was totally acceptable to rearrange the loading control bands a bit.
Correction: "The authors regret [...] the β-actin lanes were inadvertently misassembled, resulting in an incorrect lane order."
#ThisImageIsFine
pubpeer.com/publications...
Screenshot of two sets of three Western blots each. The blots show dark round horizontal stripes on a light grey background. I have added colored arrows to show bands that look identical, but rearranged
December 21, 2025 at 8:40 PM
elisabethbik.bsky.social
Retraction @plosone.org 👏 of a paper by researchers from the School of Dentistry at UCLA.

Senior researcher gave a long explanation @pubpeer.com that did not seem to make much sense.

Journal did not buy it, thankfully.

pubpeer.com/publications...
#ImageForensics #ThisImageIsFine
Screenshot from PubPeer, where I marked Figure 2C, showing lots of Western blots (grey background, dark grey protein bands), which I have marked with colored boxes for unexpected duplicated areas
December 19, 2025 at 6:08 PM