How librarians can help maintain image integrity
Thursday, 27 November, 2025
Academic librarians play a key part in preserving research integrity in an institution — they support researchers by facilitating access to information, sharing knowledge about the intricacies of research integrity, and equipping and guiding them on ethical conduct and best practice. Here Dr Dror Kolodkin Gal* outlines how librarians can use their knowledge and access to tools to champion research and image integrity to encourage best practice across an institution.
An academic librarian will regularly collaborate with research integrity officers (RIOs) to uphold the credibility of papers shared by the institution’s researchers and ensure ethical guidelines are followed. Librarians achieve this by proactively sharing best practice on research integrity, which requires them to stay up to date with the latest technologies, guidelines and publishing procedures.1
As the volume of research published continues to grow, more advanced technologies become available and the risk of misinformation increases from emerging paper mills2, librarians face a growing responsibility to advocate for all areas of research integrity.
Image integrity
Holden Thorp, Editor-in-Chief of Science, notes that in recent years “the research community has become increasingly concerned with issues involving the manipulation of images in scientific papers”.3 To combat this, librarians must consider the importance of image integrity, integrating relevant resources into the comprehensive support they provide to researchers.
Researchers often include images and figures to convey their findings, all of which must be accurate to support the written paper and ensure the reproducibility of results. However, researchers will review hundreds of similar images, which can result in hundreds of thousands of comparisons between subimages, so it can be difficult to check these images effectively by eye. While difficult, upholding image integrity is an issue prevalent in publishing — approximately a third of manuscripts in the life sciences sector are flagged for an image issue.4
By sharing best practice and providing useful resources, just as they do in other areas of research, librarians can support researchers in proactively improving image integrity and avoiding issues prior to publication.
Championing change
Their central position in an academic institution and regular collaboration with faculty, students and researchers means that librarians are extremely well suited to championing image integrity across an institution. Expertise in navigating scholarly resources, understanding of research methodologies and knowledge of publication standards enables them to effectively advise researchers.
The method of delivery of best practice and tools will depend on the academic institution and its needs. One survey from the Australian Academy of Science and Springer Nature, for example, found that half of the researchers surveyed said that research integrity training should be mandatory, with 73% adding that it should be mandatory for those holding a research position.5 By offering workshops, seminars or individual support, librarians could provide this training effectively, educating researchers on topics such as research methodologies, image capture and storage best practice and plagiarism prevention.
Onyebuchi Ekpolomo, Head of Library Services at the African University of Science and Technology, also emphasises the importance of librarians in advocating for integrating technology into research practices, stating: “Librarians are at the forefront of technological advancements, constantly exploring innovative tools that can benefit the scientific community.”6 Therefore, they are well positioned to find and understand the benefits of technologies for different areas of research integrity, urging researchers to familiarise themselves with useful tools.
When considering image integrity, automated tools such as Proofig AI7 enable researchers to quickly analyse a large number of images using AI, comparing each image to itself and other images in the paper to flag any potential issues for the researcher to review. The RIO and other officers involved in research integrity can also use technology to review papers intended for publication before they are shared on a wider scale. Integrating AI tools into the institution’s pre-submission processes not only helps researchers submit credible findings of the utmost integrity, it also gives librarians, RIOs and other stakeholders tools to protect the integrity and reputation of the institution.
Implementing small, actionable changes to research integrity practices across the institution is crucial to upholding trustworthiness and preventing reputational damage. Michael MacLeod, academic lead for research improvement and integrity at The University of Edinburgh, summed it up by saying: “If the quality of every scientist’s work could be made just a little better, then the aggregate impact on research integrity would be enormous.”8
Librarians have a difficult job in effectively supporting researchers with image integrity, but with proactive measures they can improve best practice and reduce the likelihood of including image integrity issues caused by honest mistakes.9 By sharing best practice on image integrity and championing AI solutions for the identification of issues prior to publication, librarians can play a significant role in aiding researchers to follow good ethical standards and integrity, positively influencing the reputation of their institution.
1. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/vital-role-librarians-supporting-promoting-scientific-ekpolomo-liojf/
2. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00733-5
3. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn7530
4. https://ukrio.org/ukrio-resources/expert-interviews/jana-christopher-image-integrity-analyst/
5. https://group.springernature.com/gp/group/media/press-releases/australian-researchers-want-research-integrity-training/23130342
6. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/vital-role-librarians-supporting-promoting-scientific-ekpolomo-liojf/
7. https://www.proofig.com/
8. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03493-4
9. https://ukrio.org/ukrio-resources/expert-interviews/jana-christopher-image-integrity-analyst/
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