Sanctions for plagiarism, falsification, and fabrication in research are primarily symbolic. This paper investigates sanctions for scientific misconduct and their preceding investigation processes as visible and legitimate symbols. Using three different data sources (retraction notices, expert interviews, survey of scientists), we show that sanctions for scientific misconduct operate within a cycle of visibility, in which sanctions are highly visible, while investigation and decision-making procedures remain mostly invisible. This corresponds to high levels of acceptance for sanctions in the scientific community, but rather low acceptance of the respective authorities. Such a punitivity in turn exacerbates confidentiality concerns, so that authorities become even more secretive. We argue that punitivity towards scientific misconduct is driven by such a cycle of invisibility.