New UGC policy: Research scholar could lose registration for plagiarism

NEW DELHI: Soon a research scholar could face cancellation of his or her registration if found to have plagiarised someone else's work and a faculty, if found guilty of the same, could be debarred from publishing any work, denied annual increments and disqualified from supervising any student or scholar.

As part of its effort to have zero tolerance towards plagiarism, the University Grants Commission has drafted a new policy to curb the menace. It says the authorities of higher education institution (HEI) can also take sue mote notice of an act of plagiarism and initiate proceedings. As per the draft policy, three types of penalties would be imposed on those found guilty of lifting someone else's work.

While in case of "Level 1 and 2" offence, the researchers would get a chance to revise their work, "Level 3" offence, which is "60% similarities”, would result in cancellation of the researcher's registration. That's for plagiarism in non-core areas.

However, for plagiarism in core areas, there will be 'zero tolerance'.

As per the new policy, "The core work carried out by the student, faculty, staff and researcher shall be based on original ideas and shall be covered by Zero Tolerance Policy on Plagiarism. In case plagiarism is established in the core work claimed, then Plagiarism Disciplinary Authority (PDA) of the HEI shall impose maximum penalty."

Core work shall include abstract, summary, hypothesis, observations, results, conclusions and recommendations. The draft calls for setting up of PDA, Academic Misconduct Panel (AMP) and installation of software to detect plagiarism, among other reforms at universities and colleges across the country.

As per the new policy, if any member of the academic community has reason to suspect a case of plagiarism, he or she shall report it to the competent/ designated authority of the university. Upon receipt of such a complaint or allegation, the university authority shall refer the case to the AMP, which in turn shall submit a report to the PDA.

All students submitting thesis, dissertation, term papers, reports or any other such documents to the HEI shall submit an undertaking indicating that the document has been prepared by him or her and that the document is his/ her original work and free of any plagiarism.

Every faculty, researcher and MPhil/ PhD student should be provided access to plagiarism detection tools for checking the content of their scripts and the undertaking shall include the fact that the document has been duly checked through a plagiarism detection tool approved by the HEI.

It will also be mandatory for the HEIs to submit to INFLIBNET (Information and Library Network) soft copies of all M Phil., PhD dissertations and theses carried out in its various departments after the award of degrees for hosting in the digital repository under the "Shodh Ganga e-repository" programme.