The committee will address topics such as tools that are being developed by commercial vendors and academic research groups that detect altered and/or duplicated images, the minimal requirements for such tools, the current quality of these solutions, how their quality can be measured, and how these tools can be applied by scholarly publishers.

STEC is also considering a standard classification of the types and severity of image-related issues and will propose guidelines on what types of image alterations are allowable under what conditions. The working group hopes to establish a framework for handling image integrity issues both within and between journals and publishers.

STEC is accepting comments until October 31, 2021. Final recommendations will be presented at the STM Innovations Seminar on December 7, 2021. To read the recommendations and add comments, visit the Open Science Framework website.