UGC Drafts New Policy To Check Plagiarism In Academic Research
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released the Draft UGC (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2017. As the name suggests, the aim of the draft is to create academic awareness about responsible conduct of research and prevention of misconduct including plagiarism in academic writing. 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.
The Higher Education Institutes are also required to conduct sensitization seminars and awareness programmes on responsible conduct of research, project work, assignment, thesis, dissertation, promotion of academic integrity and ethics in education for students, faculty and other members of academic staff.
The institutes have also been instructed to implement adequate software and other mechanisms which would ensure that thesis, dissertation or any other such documents submitted are free of plagiarism.
Students in their turn are also required to submit an undertaking that the document has been prepared by him/her and is an original work free of any plagiarism.
Institutes are also required to develop a policy on plagiarism and get it approved by the relevant statutory body of the University. The Institutes are also required to submit soft copies of all M.Phil. and PhD dissertations on INFLIBNET.
The Institutes have also been asked to form an Academic Misconduct Panel (AMP) to investigate any allegation of plagiarism and submit report to the Plagiarism Disciplinary Authority (PDA) of the concerned institute.
The detailed draft is available on the UGC website and stakeholders can submit a feedback on the same to UGC on pgmhei.2017@gmail.com on or before 30 September 2017.
(This story was originally published on September 3, 2017 and updated multiple times thereafter.) Click here for more
Education News