Plagiarism in research could cost degrees, jobs

IN CASE OF REPEAT PLAGIARISM OF OVER 60% SIMILARITY, THE FACULTY MEMBERS WILL BE SUSPENDED, EVEN DISMISSED

NEWDELHI: Student researchers who plagiarise may lose their registration and teachers who do could lose their jobs with the University Grants Commission (UGC) approving a draft regulation on plagiarism which will be notified after approval by the human resource development ministry.

Plagiarism in higher academia is a huge problem in India and UGC, the apex body of higher education institutions, has been threatening to come out with a plagiarism law for several years now. It finally approved the UGC (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Education Institutions) regulations 2018 in its meeting held on March 20. Hindustan Times has seen the minutes of the meeting.

The law prescribes graded punishment for plagiarism.

The draft rules for students states that in non-core areas, plagiarism of up to 10% would not invite any penalty while that of between 10% and 40% would mean the students will have to submit a revised research paper within six months.

In case the similarities are between 40% and 60%, students will be debarred from submitting a revised paper for one year. A student’s registration for a programme will be cancelled if the simi- larities are above 60%.

Teachers whose academic and research papers have similarities ranging from 10% to 40% with other papers will be asked to withdraw the manuscript. In case the similarities are between 40% and 60%, they will not be allowed to supervise new Masters/ Mphil/phd students for two years and will also be denied the right to one annual increment.

In case of repeat plagiarism of over 60% similarity, the faculty members will be suspended, even dismissed.