Motivation

Publish or perish is now more true than ever. There is a danger that such intense publication-centric research atmosphere may positively select for unethical practices, carelessness and even fraud in order to get a fast publication. Digital image data (not only microscopy-derived) form the essence of a large fraction of modern biomedical research. With the availability of user friendly image processing software application the technical threshold is low enough to allow gross digital image manipulations essentially with a click of a button. However, the problem is much bigger than the few individuals who intentionally falsify images. The real, much more widespread, problem is that there are many researchers who unintentionally engage in unethical and unacceptable image data manipulation practices simply because they are unaware of basic principles in image data handling. Unacceptable data manipulation will likely generate incorrect knowledge and may lead to scientific misconduct accusations regardless if it is done intentionally or unintentionally.

Goal

The aim of the course is to clarify the ethical standards in bioimage data handling to prevent erroneous conclusions eventually leading to paper retractions and potential misconduct investigations as well as to give practical guidelines on how to prepare imaging data for analysis and publication. In addition, to be able to understand the ethical guidelines in bioimage handling, the fundamental digital image concepts will be introduced. Without the understanding of the basic concepts the compliance with the ethical standards will be low. 

You can find the program here.

Registration

The workshop is intended for a wide audience involved in biomedical research. The number of participants is limited and on first-come-first-served basis. The registration deadline is 6.11.2017. 

You can register here (or by clicking on the red "Register" button in the top right corner) free of charge.

The workshop is co-organised by the Center for Integrative Infectious Diseases Research, German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), University Hospital Heidelberg together with the Center for Molecular Biology of the University of Heidelberg (ZMBH).