To detect plagiarism and ensure that academic research is carried out with intellectual honesty, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has drafted a regulation, with punishment for piracy ranging from a warning to deregistration in the case of students and dismissal from service for teachers.
As per the Draft ‘University Grants Commission (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2017’, students with a minor case of plagiarism would be let off with a warning. If the charges are grave they may be barred from submitting a revised manuscript or research paper for six months. In extreme situations, their registration also may be cancelled. Students would also be required to submit an undertaking that the document has been prepared by him/her and is an original work, free of any plagiarism.
The UGC has uploaded the draft regulation on its website for comments from the public.
“Students will be let off with a warning if it is a minor case of plagiarism. In level I plagiarism, that is, similarities up to 10 to 40 per cent, a student shall not be given any marks and/or credit for the plagiarised script and shall be asked to submit a revised script within a stipulated time period not exceeding six months.
“In level II, similarities above 40 to 60 per cent, the student shall not be given any marks and/or credit for the plagiarised script and shall be asked to submit a revised script after a time period of one year but not exceeding 18 months,” the draft regulation said.
“As the gravity of the charge increases or there are similarities above 60 per cent, they may be barred from submitting a revised manuscript of their thesis or research paper for six months or even have their registration cancelled,” it said.
If plagiarism is proved on a date later than the date of award of degree or credit as the case may be, then his/her degree or credit shall be put in abeyance for a period decided by the Academic Misconduct Panel and Plagiarism Disciplinary Authority.
The draft also seeks to establish institutional mechanism for promotion of academic integrity and develop systems to detect and prevent plagiarism. The draft directs every higher education institute to instruct students, faculty, and staff about proper attribution, seeking permission of the author wherever necessary, acknowledgement of source compatible with the needs and specificities of disciplines and in accordance with rules and regulations governing the source.
As far as penalties for faculty, staff, researcher of higher educational institute is concerned, they may be asked to withdraw the manuscript submitted for publication and shall not be allowed to publish any work for a minimum period of one year in the case of similarities up to 10 to 40 per cent.
In the case of 40 to 60 per cent similarities, they may be asked to withdraw the manuscript submitted for publication and may not be allowed to publish any work for a minimum period of two years. They may also be denied one annual increment and may not be allowed to supervise any UG, PG, MPhil, PhD student/scholar for a period of two years.
“A regulation has been prepared for prevention of plagiarism in higher education institutions that will focus on all categories, including students pursuing Master’s, MPhil and PhD and teachers at different levels”, said a senior official of the HRD Ministry.
As per the draft regulation, every higher education institution should declare and implement the technology-based mechanism using appropriate software so as to ensure that documents such as thesis, dissertation, term papers, reports, publications or any other such documents are free of plagiarism at the time of submission. Every faculty, researcher and MPhil, PhD students should be provided account in plagiarism detection tools for checking the content of their scripts.