In this article, Neitseizonuo Solo pursuing B.A.LL.B. honours from Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur discusses the UGC rules regarding plagiarism.

Introduction

Plagiarism is one of the biggest issues that educational institutions and academia are facing, not only due to the fact that it is basically stealing someone else’s work, but also because this practice is so widespread in higher education, be it Ph.D. scholars or the average undergraduate. Plagiarism is a stain upon the legitimacy of education in India, thus the UGC has recently drafted certain regulations to control and punish plagiarism.

The University Grants Commission

The University Grants Commission or the UGC was set up in 1956 by an act passed by the legislature called the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 (available here) under the Ministry of Human Resource Development. It was created in order to regulate the higher education system of India. The UGC is thus responsible for the rules and guidelines that a college or university is supposed to follow.

Functions of the UGC

The powers and functions of the UGC have been described in Chapter II of the UGC Act, 1956 as follows:

Maintaining the standards for teaching, examination, and research. The law has further provided certain powers to ensure such standards. The UGC can;

• Inquire about the financial situation of a university.
• Allocate funding to universities established or incorporated by a central act.
• Allocate funding to any other universities as they may deem fit.
• Recommend any measure for the improvement of education of a university.
• Advise the State or Centre on the issue of allocation of grants to universities or any other matter referred to the UGC by centre or state.
• Prescribe minimum standards of qualification for both students and teachers.
• Prescribe regulations regarding the fees and course of study.
• Under Section 26 of this act, the UGC has the power to frame any rules or regulations in order to fulfill the above functions.

Procedure of Passing Rules and Regulations under Section 26 of UGC Act, 1956

Sections 26, 27 and 28 of UGC Act 1956 have provided certain conditions which must be fulfilled before a binding regulation can be made. The conditions are as follows:

1. The rules and regulations must be notified in the Official Gazette.
2. The permission of the Central Government must be taken before it can be made.
3. Such rule or regulation has to be placed before both the houses of parliament for a total period of 30 days and if both the houses recommend modifying the rules or regulations, then it shall have effect only in the modified form or have no effect if the parliament rejects it.

UGC Rules Regarding Plagiarism

The UGC had constituted a committee to look into the issue of plagiarism and this committee framed a draft regulation known as the University Grants Commission (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2017 (available here), which was publicly notified by the UGC on 1st September 2017. On 20th March 2018, the regulations were approved by the UGC awaiting notification after the approval of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

Objectives of the Guideline

The objectives of the guidelines have been given in Section 3 of the draft as:

1. Creating awareness of responsible conduct in academia and prevention of misconduct including plagiarism.
2. Establishing an institutional mechanism for the promotion of academic integrity, responsible conduct, and prevention of plagiarism.
3. Setting up a system for catching plagiarism and mechanism for punishing the act of plagiarism.

Plagiarism Defined

The definition of plagiarism has been defined in Section 2 (k) of UGC Act 1956, the regulation as, “…an act of academic dishonesty and a breach of ethics. It involves using someone else’s work as one’s own. It also includes data plagiarism and self-plagiarism.”

Self-Plagiarism

The inclusion of self-plagiarism is an interesting addition as it means that using your own previous work without adequately citing it has also been brought within the ambit of the definition. This idea may appear counterintuitive to the very soul of plagiarism which is stealing someone else’s work but it is important to understand that representing old work as new work is stealing from yourself. It also defeats the purpose of research papers which is to present original work and the integrity of the work is marred. Most publishers will not allow for self-plagiarism as there is no differentiation made between your published work and other people’s published work. One of the most important facets to consider is that the copyright for published works are usually held by the journal rather than the author and plagiarizing from your own work would mean the violation of such copyright.

Scope of the Guidelines

The guidelines have been restricted to Higher Education Institutions which are as follows:

1. Universities, which are the institutions that have been incorporated by a Central, Provincial or State Act or any institution that has been deemed as such.
2. Any institute that has been declared by the parliament to be of national importance.
3. Or any constituent unit within such institutions that provide education after 12 years of schooling and which provides degrees or diplomas after completion of said education.

Further the guidelines are applicable only on “scripts”, the definition of which has been provided in Section 2 (n) as any “…research paper, thesis, study, project report, assignment, dissertation and any other such work submitted for assessment/opinion leading to the award of degree or publication in print or electronic media by students or faculty or staff of an Institution of Higher Education;” the guidelines have also provided that exam scripts are exempt.

Duties of Higher Education Institutes (HEI) for Curbing of Plagiarism

The guidelines have provided in Section 4 and 5 that HEIs must perform certain duties in order to fulfill the objectives specified in the guidelines. HEIs must:

1. They must establish a mechanism in order to spread awareness so as to promote responsible conduct, deterrence of plagiarism and academic integrity.
2. The HEIs are to hold sensitization seminars for students, faculty and other members every semester for responsible conduct in pursuit of academia as well as teach academic ethics to students.
3. The HEIs must put academic ethics in the coursework for Undergraduate, Postgraduate, and Masters degrees. They must also include research and publication ethics for coursework of Ph.D. and M.Phil scholars.
4. The HEIs must provide training for using plagiarism detection technology.
5. The institutions must establish facilities for the detection of plagiarism.

Methods for Curbing Plagiarism

Section 6 provides the various ways in which plagiarism is to be deterred by the various Higher Education Institutes. They are as follows:

1. All HEIs are to implement a mechanism in order to detect plagiarism at the time the scripts are submitted to the institution.
2. Every student who is submitting such scripts must also provide an undertaking which says that the work is original and no content has been plagiarised. The undertaking will also include that the work has been checked for plagiarism.
3. All the members of the faculty, Ph.D. or M.Phil students are to be given access to such plagiarism detection tool.
4. The institutions will come up with a plagiarism policy that has to be approved by the relevant statutory bodies.
5. All supervisors will provide a certificate which states that the student or researcher under him/her has not plagiarised any content.
6. All soft copies of the dissertations and theses by M.Phil and Ph.D. scholars after degree is awarded are to be submitting on the Information and Library Network Centre (INFLIBNET) for hosting by the HEIs.
7. The institutions will set up an online repository for dissertations, theses, paper, publication and all other in-house publications.

Exemptions

Certain content will be exempted from the charge of plagiarism even though they are reproductions of other works. The said exemptions are as follow:

1. Quoted work which is either in the public domain or has been attributed adequately or permission has been granted for its use.
2. All references, table of content, preface, acknowledgement, and bibliography are exempted.
3. Similar content which is minor.
4. Standard equations and symbols, laws and generic terms.

Tolerance of Plagiarism

Tolerance of plagiarism has been divided into two part under Sections 8 and 9, they are:

1. Zero-tolerance areas: This means that plagiarism of any degree will not be tolerated. Zero tolerance is restricted to core areas. Core areas are the hypothesis, the recommendations, the abstract, the summary, the conclusion, the results and the observations.
2. Tolerance areas: Plagiarism in all areas but the core areas is tolerable to a certain extent. The various levels of plagiarism have been quantified and given below;

• Up to 10%- Excluded
• Between 10% and 40%- Level 1
• Between 40% and 60%- Level 2
• Above 60%- Level 3

Reporting of Plagiarism and Procedure to be Followed

In case plagiarism is suspected and there is proof of such, any member of the academic community may approach the relevant institution after which the institution will refer it to the Academic Misconduct Panel (AMP). The AMP is to be set up by all HEIs in order to investigate and submit a report. After the AMP has thoroughly investigated the situation, they will make a report to the Plagiarism Disciplinary Authority (PDA), preferably within a period of 45 days. The PDA is to be formed by the HEI and their job is to take appropriate decision after consideration of both the recommendations of the AMP as well as the hearing of the accused. Their decision will be final and binding.

Penalties for the Act of Plagiarism

The various penalties for plagiarism have been provided in Section 13 of the guidelines. Different penalties have been given for different tiers of plagiarism severity. Section 13 provides that penalties shall be awarded only when there is no doubt that the accused has committed the act and after all other avenues of appeal have been exhausted. The accused must also be given adequate opportunity to defend himself/herself. Further, the proceedings are to be held in camera, meaning that proceedings are to be closed to the public. The penalties given should be in proportion to the severity of plagiarism.

Penalties for Students

Penalties will be given to students according to the decision of the Plagiarism Disciplinary Authority (PDA). The punishments given to students for plagiarism for different levels of severity are given below:

1. Level 1 (10%-40%)– the student will not be given any mark or credit and revised script must be resubmitted within a stipulated time period which does not exceed 6 months.
2. Level 2 (40%-60%)– the student will not be given any mark or credit and the revised script is to be resubmitted between 1 year and 18 months.
3. Level 3 (above 60%)– the student will not be given any mark or credit and their registration for that course will be canceled.

If a student repeats such act of plagiarism then the punishment will be for the next level to the one previously committed. In cases where the highest level of plagiarisation occurs then the punishment remains the same and the registration will be canceled.

If degree or credit has already been obtained and the accused has been proven to have plagiarized content then said degree or credit will be suspended for a stipulated time period.

Penalties for Faculty, Staff or Researcher

Penalties for faculty, staff or researcher of Higher Education Institutes will also be given according to the severity of plagiarism.

1. Level 1 (10%-40%)– he/she will be asked to withdraw the manuscript submitted for publication and will not be allowed to publish any work for a minimum time period of 1 year.
2. Level 2 (40%-60%)– he/she will be asked to withdraw manuscript submitted for publication and will not be allowed to publish their work for a minimum time period of 2 years. He/she will also be denied any annual increment that they have been receiving, he/she will also not be allowed to act as a supervisor for students or scholars for 2 years.
3. Level 3 (above 60%)– he/she will be asked to withdraw manuscript submitted for publication and will not be allowed to publish any work for a minimum time period of 3 years. He/she will also be denied any annual increment they are receiving for 2 years, he/she will not be allowed to act as a supervisor for students or scholars for a period of 3 years.

If a person repeats the same act of plagiarisation then he/she will be subject to punishment of the next level from the level which the person was previously punished for. If Level 3 plagiarism is repeated than the person committing it will be dismissed from their job.

If a person has already attained any benefit or credit before plagiarism was proved then such benefit or credit will be suspended for a time period that is to be decided by the AMP and PDA.

Head of Higher Education Institute

If the head of an HEI is accused of plagiarising then the guidelines have provided that appropriate shall be taken by the concerned authority.

Conclusion

The current draft guidelines have provided a recourse for the problem of plagiarism which has been allowed to run rampant throughout institutions all across the country. These guidelines will be the first of its kind to be introduced in India and as with other regulatory legislations, its effectiveness can only be determined after it is applied. Thus the UGC must make sure that it is properly implemented by the institutions and the institutions, in turn, must comply with the guidelines before any positive result towards significant reduction of plagiarism can be seen.

References

1. India creates unique tiered system to punish plagiarism (https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/india-creates-unique-tiered-system-punish-plagiarism)
2. UGC drafted strict regulations on plagiarism by teachers, students (https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/ugc-drafted-strict-regulations-on-plagiarism-by-teachers-students-1203761-2018-04-03)