Proofig: Scientific Image Integrity Guide

Proofig AI is an automated image integrity and plagiarism detection software platform designed for biomedical researchers, academic institutions, and scientific publishers. The platform analyzes scientific figures across manuscripts to detect unintentional errors, intentional manipulations, and unauthorized reuse before submission or publication, protecting the credibility of peer-reviewed research.

What it is

Proofig AI is a specialized quality-assurance platform that uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to evaluate visual data in scientific manuscripts. Biomedical research relies heavily on visual evidence, including microscopy micrographs, Western blots, gel electrophoresis, and flow cytometry charts. When errors or duplications occur in these figures, they distort findings and undermine scientific conclusions. Proofig provides automated screening that flags potential figure anomalies within minutes, allowing authors and editors to resolve discrepancies prior to formal peer review or publication.

In addition to screening internal manuscript figures, the platform functions as an image plagiarism detector. It cross-examines submitted figures against indexed visual records from external biomedical literature. Research teams use Proofig as part of pre-submission quality control to prevent silent desk rejections, post-publication corrections, or formal retractions. The tool integrates into institutional integrity workflows alongside broader policies governing ethical conduct, such as CITI human subjects research training.

Who runs it and what it covers

Proofig AI was co-founded by Dr. Dror Kolodkin-Gal, a life sciences researcher with over two decades of academic experience who sought to address inadvertent image duplication and clerical errors arising during manuscript preparation. The company operates as a commercial software enterprise providing solutions for scholarly publishers, research universities, hospital networks, and research laboratories.

The platform covers a comprehensive range of visual assets and integrity risks encountered in modern publishing:

Duplication and reuse within manuscripts: Identifying sub-images that appear multiple times across figures or panels, including cases involving rotation, horizontal or vertical flipping, scaling, aspect ratio distortion, or partial overlapping crops.
Image manipulation and alteration: Detecting pixel-level alterations, such as cloning (copy-move within an image), selective erasing or deletion, feature splicing from other visual sources, and content-aware digital edits.
External image plagiarism: Cross-referencing visual assets against an external reference database of more than 155 million open-access figures indexed from PubMed Open Access literature.
AI-generated scientific imagery: Evaluating visual patterns to detect synthetic or algorithmically generated figures, synthetic Western blots, and artificial micrographs.
Self-plagiarism: Checking submitted panels against an author’s or institution’s previously published papers to prevent undeclared reuse of control data.
Diverse image modalities: Screening confocal, light, and electron microscopy, Western blots, protein gels, FACS plots, in vivo imaging, culture plates, and macro photographs.
Data visualizations: Inspecting data plots, charts, graphs, and schematic diagrams for visual reuse across data-heavy disciplines.
Reference verification: Offering citation integrity analysis through RefGuard, which flags citations to retracted papers, verifies that cited papers support specific textual claims, and highlights broken references.

How to search or use it

Proofig is accessed as a cloud-based web application through modern web browsers. Authors and institutional review officers execute image integrity assessments using the following standardized workflow:

Sign in to the platform: Access the web interface via a registered Proofig AI account, an institutional single sign-on (SSO) login for affiliated universities, or through direct integration with electronic lab notebooks such as LabArchives.
Upload the manuscript document: Submit the complete research article as a single PDF or Microsoft Word (.doc/.docx) file. Alternatively, individual figure files in JPEG, PNG, or TIFF formats may be uploaded, which the system automatically compiles into a standardized document for processing. Files must not exceed 50 megabytes or 200 pages.
Initiate automated analysis: The platform’s computer vision engine parses the document, isolates figures, and segments individual multi-panel layouts into distinct “sub-images” (up to 750 sub-images per submission). Each sub-image is evaluated for internal cross-panel duplication, intra-image manipulation, and external database overlap.
Review flagged findings: Once automated processing concludes—typically within two to five minutes—the platform displays interactive visual overlays. Users navigate the Review Assistant side panel, which describes the nature of each flagged finding, presents comparative overlays, and explains technical confidence.
Adjudicate legitimate versus problematic matches: The investigator or editor reviews each finding in scientific context. Legitimate experimental duplications (such as shared control panels reused across related assay conditions) can be dismissed, while unintended clerical overlaps or genuine anomalies are marked for revision.
Generate and export the integrity report: With a single click, export a comprehensive PDF analysis report detailing all inspected figures, verified sub-images, flagged findings with side-by-side comparisons, and notes added during review.

For research groups standardizing submission prep, this workflow pairs naturally with broader protocols for detecting image manipulation in figures and understanding the formal taxonomy of image manipulation and image duplication.

Strengths and limits

Understanding both the capabilities and the structural constraints of Proofig AI ensures realistic deployment in editorial offices and research laboratories.

Strengths

High-speed automated processing: Complete multi-panel manuscripts containing complex figures are typically analyzed within minutes, dramatically reducing manual pre-screening backlogs.
Comprehensive database comparison: Comparing figures against more than 155 million published PubMed figures provides external verification that manual inspection cannot replicate.
Detailed Review Assistant: Provides structured explanations and visual comparison sliders rather than opaque binary flags, supporting transparent human evaluation.
Data privacy and security: Proofig operates on private cloud infrastructure, is SOC 2 certified, and does not use uploaded research manuscripts to train underlying AI models.

Limits

Browser dependency: The web interface is engineered specifically for Google Chrome; other browsers are not officially supported.
Document size caps: Individual file uploads are capped at 50 megabytes, 200 pages, and 750 sub-images, requiring very large composite datasets to be analyzed in separate segments.
Human oversight required: The software does not render final ethical or legal determinations. Differentiating an accidental clerical error from deliberate scientific falsification requires knowledgeable editorial and institutional review.
Legitimate control matches: Assays that legitimately share loading controls may generate technical matches that require human dismissal.

Alternatives

While Proofig AI is widely adopted across scientific publishing, research organizations employ several complementary tools depending on their technical environment and screening needs.

Platform / Method	Developer / Operator	Primary Detection Scope	External Reference Index	Workflow Model
Proofig AI	Proofig AI (commercial)	Duplications, rotations, manipulations, AI images, charts	Yes (over 155M PubMed images)	Automated cloud SaaS with Review Assistant
ImageTwin	ImageTwin AI (commercial)	Duplications, rotations, Western blots, microscopy	Yes (millions of open-access articles)	Automated cloud screening for publishers and labs
Forensically	Jonas Wagner (open source)	Error level analysis, clone detection, metadata extraction	No (single-image inspection only)	Manual browser-based forensic toolkit
Manual Expert Inspection	Editorial staff / Integrity analysts	Visual pattern recognition, contextual plausibility	Limited (manual literature searching)	Manual side-by-side visual and forensic review

Selecting appropriate screening tools is part of broader research governance, which includes establishing sound laboratory data stewardship under an approved NIH data management and sharing plan to ensure raw imaging files remain accessible if questions arise.

FAQ

What file formats does Proofig support?

Proofig AI accepts full manuscript submissions in PDF or Microsoft Word (.doc and .docx) formats. Users can also upload individual image files in JPEG, PNG, or TIFF formats, which the platform converts into a document for analysis. Uploads must remain under 50 megabytes and contain fewer than 200 pages.

Does Proofig detect AI-generated scientific images?

Yes. Proofig includes dedicated machine learning models trained to identify synthetic and algorithmically generated scientific figures, such as deepfake microscopy images or synthetic Western blot bands, helping editorial teams spot synthetic figures generated by generative AI tools.

Does Proofig check manuscript text and references?

Proofig focuses primarily on visual assets and figures, but it provides reference and citation screening through its RefGuard component. RefGuard checks the reference list against retraction databases, identifies citations to retracted publications, flags hallucinated citations, and checks whether cited sources align with textual assertions.

How does Proofig handle intentional control duplications?

In life science research, certain figure panels legitimately share negative controls, loading controls, or baseline micrographs. Proofig flags duplicate visual elements for inspection, and the reviewer uses the interactive Review Assistant to verify whether the repeat represents an intentional experimental design or an inadvertent clerical error.

Does Proofig use uploaded manuscripts to train its AI models?

No. Proofig AI operates under strict confidentiality protocols and SOC 2 security compliance. Uploaded manuscripts and raw figures are evaluated privately and are never incorporated into public training datasets or used to train external artificial intelligence models.

Sources

Proofig AI — Platform Overview and About Us: https://www.proofig.com/about-us/ (Read 2026-11-07)
Proofig AI — Frequently Asked Questions and Technical Specifications: https://www.proofig.com/faq-proofig-scientific-images/ (Read 2026-11-07)
Proofig AI — Image Duplication Detection Capabilities: https://www.proofig.com/image-duplication-detection/ (Read 2026-11-07)
Proofig AI — Image Alteration and Manipulation Detection: https://www.proofig.com/image-manipulation-detection/ (Read 2026-11-07)
Proofig AI — Guidelines for Researchers and Authors: https://www.proofig.com/proofig-for-researchers/ (Read 2026-11-07)