BDU faculties for steps to curb plagiarism

Senior professors of Bharathidasan University have advocated an ideal eco-system for infusion of professionalism into the guide-scholar dynamics and fool-proof mechanism to check plagiarism.

‘System not robust’

The system in place is not robust enough to rule out plagiarism, they say, citing the instance of the university not having taken any substantial step towards depositing the Ph.D. theses in its possession with the Shodhganga@INFLIBNET Centre, a national-level repository created by University Grants Commission with the ability to index, store, disseminate and preserve Electronic Theses and Dissertations submitted by researchers, a senior professor, who did not wish to be identified, said.

Though the university library is vested with the responsibility of determining application of urkund software advocated by UGC to check plagiarism in research, an exclusive academic cell has to be established to certify the researches as free of plagiarism, another professor said on terms of anonymity.

Only a small section of research guides has adhered to the stipulations of urkund software for detecting plagiarism.

Need for assessment

The capability of a majority of guides, including teachers appointed in recent years, to guide scholars need to be assessed at regular intervals, department heads say.

And there are concerns that the credibility of the research theses undertaken without the 'plagiarism-free' certification will be at stake, sources said.

There is scope for the Research Committee to discuss the performance of the guides and recommend their disqualification, in case they do not measure up to the expectations, by the Standing Council of Academic Affairs, and subsequently by the Syndicate, a Department head pointed out.

The guides, in the first place, ought to be identified on the basis of their publications in international journals, the number of research doctorates produced, publication of researches in the forms of books or articles, citation from international readers, and utility of their research work to the society, according to the Department head.

There is expectation among senior professors that the Governor, in his capacity as Chancellor, will instruct all Vice-Chancellors to ensure periodic appraisal of the supervisory work of the guides, and strict selection of candidates for research, based on entrance test, it is learnt.

Awards

The academic community has also been espousing the need for recognising the best performing guides with State-level awards in specific areas of arts, science and humanities programmes.

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