Editorial Policies
( Images and figures )

Photographs, video or audio recordings which can reveal the identity of patients or study participants can only be included if they (or their next of kin if participants are deceased; parents or guardians if they are underage or considered to be vulnerable) have provided Consent to Publish (the form is provided by the Red Flower Publications).

Authors should be aware of any cultural sensitivity or restrictions linked to the images contained in manuscripts. In some cultures, for example, images of human remains or deceased persons are limited, and appropriate ethical guidelines should be complied with in taking into account the views and approval processes of the related communities.

Experimental photographic images, including microscopy, should accurately reflect the original image. If the image has been modified or enhanced, it must be expressed in a complete explanation both within the manuscript and in the figure legend so as not to mislead readers as to what the image shows. The author should be prepared to share the original, uncooked, unannotated, unprocessed images with the editorial office of the journal on request.

Please note that any modification is acceptable only if it is small in nature and applies to the entire image. The author is obliged to include the details of the methods for collecting images and the details of the processes used for any changes to the image, including the name of the software (with version number). Any modification that may change the scientific interpretation of images is not permitted.

Images or figures from other published sources can only be re-used if the authors have obtained the appropriate permission for re-use from the copyright owner. An explanation to confirm this must be included in the figure legend. The original source must be cited, even if the image or figure is not copyrighted or is re-used under a license that allows unlimited re-use.

Image integrity and manipulation

Any modification to experimental photographs (such as microscopes, electrophoretic gels, immunoblots) that can mislead readers into scientific explanations is strictly prohibited. Any improvements or modifications to the contrast settings must be applied to the entire image and copies of the original image must be made available to the editorial office of the journal at the time of request.

Regarding electrophoretic gels and immunoblot images, where parts of the same gel are overlapping, this should be shown in a divided line, indicating where the image is bound. The areas of different gels should not be spliced together. If there is a load control, it must always be included in the image; if it is spliced together, any changes to the load control and the area of interest must be the same.

Immunoblot images must not be overexposed, provide a true representation of the results, and do not conceal the existence of other bands that could lead to different interpretations. If it is inevitable to apply high contrast settings to the immunoblot, the author must be prepared to share the original image and any other version of the image with multiple exposures, including a complete, not compressed* blot. The author should be prepared to share the original images of uncomposed, unwritten, unprocessed and incomplete uncomposed blots* with the editorial office of the journal at any time.

Original data such as electrophoresis gels and immunoblots cannot be used as illustrations without explanation. If the original data is used only to represent a point, it should be accompanied by a very clear explanation in the figure legend to explain what is demonstrated.

Red Flower Publications will investigate cases of suspected manipulation according to the COPE guidelines.

Authors should take into account the following guidelines when preparing figures and images for publication:

• The original data image should always be stored and reviewed by the editor of the journal, if required. If an image of the original data is not produced, the manuscript may be rejected.
• The author advises that any digital image should be edited or enhanced on a copy of the raw data image. The author reminded that the improvement of the image for aesthetic reasons may obscure, eliminate or misrepresent the real data and be perceived as an act of misconduct in research. It is acceptable to make simple adjustment of the image, such as brightness and contrast, but it should be applied to the whole image.
   
• Adjustments should be minor and should be taken into account to ensure that they do not cause the relevant features of the image to disappear completely.
• The cropping of an image is acceptable as long as it is intended to eliminate the irrelevant aspect of the image to help draw attention to a specific feature. Cropping should not be performed to change or influence the way data are interpreted.
• Images intended to be compared to each other must always be obtained under the same conditions. Likewise, the processing of image after acquisition should also be performed on both images.
• Authors should be aware that software filters used to improve image quality are generally not used for biological or medical images. If software filters are used, this should be indicated in the figure legend or method section of the article.
• It is not recommended to clone or copy objects from other parts of the same image or from another image into a digital image. The copying of sections of images from one region to another is usually done to eliminate imperfections, but in some cases this can be considered as a form of research misconduct. Likewise, cloning an object, such as a Western blot band, and adding it to an area of an image that did not appear before can also be regarded as a form of misconduct.
• Intensity measurements such as comparisons between different wavelengths or fluorescence levels are often difficult to perform uniformly and accurately. It is recommended to measure the intensity of raw data in order to avoid traces and electronic noise.
• Red Flower Publications' journals often resize images to fit on the page. Therefore, it is recommended that images have a scale bar that can be resized with the image. For example, if the image is resized before publication, it may sometimes become impractical to indicate the zoom of a microscope object in the figure legend.

• Authors must be careful when resizing digital images because it can change the ratio of image angles and create unnecessary artefacts that make the important features of the image less distinct.

*Uncropped blots mean having the full blot images along with molecular marker bands.

The guidelines above are based on the information provided by the Office of Research Integrity (ORI).