New York, September 23, 2026 – Straive, a global leader in data and AI operationalization, and Imagetwin, a leading provider of image integrity analysis software, are pleased to announce a strategic partnership to bring image forensics directly into the editorial workflow.
Image manipulation in scientific publishing has moved well past basic photo editing. Generative AI and GAN-generated figures can now produce fake data that bypasses many traditional detection tools, and by the time a problem surfaces post-publication, the investigation and correction process is slow, costly, and damaging to a journal’s credibility. Catching these issues earlier, before peer review, is where the industry needs to focus.
By embedding Imagetwin’s image analysis into Straive’s aiKira Editorial Desk API, publishers can now screen for manipulated, duplicated, plagiarised, or AI-generated visuals as part of a broader set of more than 20 automated integrity checks that aiKira runs across authorship, journal scope, reference verification, and text. In a pilot study, Straive found the combined solution identified 98% of image integrity issues, including known manipulated images and AI-generated figures. Running these checks upstream gives publishers a way to catch compromised research before it moves further through the pipeline.
Srinivasan Govindarajan, Business Head, Science & Research, Straive, says: “Research integrity is at a breaking point, and this partnership directly answers this ever-growing challenge. Together, we’re empowering publishers to not only uphold the credibility of the scientific record at scale, but get ahead of fraud thanks to the technological breakthroughs we’re achieving.”
Patrick Starke, Imagetwin’s Co-Founder and CEO, added: “The earlier an integrity issue is found, the easier and less damaging it is to fix. Partnering with Straive lets us put image integrity screening directly into publishers’ existing workflows through aiKira, so integrity checks happen automatically, at scale, before problems reach peer review.”
