SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING: Don't Pretty Up That Picture Just Yet -- Couzin 314 (5807): 1866 -- Science

SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING: Don't Pretty Up That Picture Just Yet -- Couzin 314 (5807): 1866 -- Science (Subscription required.)

Jennifer Couzin's article raises an interesting question on the evaluation of information presented in image form. The improvement of digital image processing makes it easier to lie with pictures, as well as to bring to the viewers attention what one feels is important in an image.

I suppose scientists should make the original digital file available online, together with information on how it was made. That should be complemented with the modified image and information on how the modifications were made. Replication of the modified image would be one test. So too would be the willingness of other scientists to accept the interpretation of the meaning of the enhanced image.

Couzin suggests that journalists are becoming more concerned about the veracity of the images that are published, and this seems right and proper.

But there would seem to be a large issue of the images that are posted on the World Wide Web, which may be faked, modified to accentuate the wrong things, or misinterpreted.