Plagiarists beware, Osmania University out to bell copycats

Hyderabad: From now on, faculty members and researchers of Osmania University have to comply with stringent anti-plagiarism regulations of the University Grants Commission (UGC). Masters and research students who are not complying with the new regulations will be barred from submitting theses and even it may lead to cancellation of their admissions.

However, the decision on the manner of penalties depends on the level of plagiarism. Similarly, the penalties to the faculty might go to the extent of suspending them from guiding the research students for a specific period to termination of their services.

The new regulations have come to effect from November 1, this year. The university has adopted and is implementing the UGC (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations of 2019.

There are four levels of plagiarism linked to the corresponding level of penalties to be imposed.

Level-0 will attract no penalties when there are similarities up to 10 per cent. Level-1 is considered, where similarities have been found, from 10 to 40 per cent. Level-2 is where similarities have been found from 40 to 60 per cent. The highest, Level-4, is where similarities are found to be more than 60 per cent.

The OU will have among others, a Departmental Academic Integrity Panel (DAIP) and Institutional Academic Integrity Panel (IAIP) mechanism, empowered to impose the penalties. It includes no penalties in the case of Level-0 and in the case of Level-1, the student will be asked to submit a revised script within six months. Similarly, in the case of Level-2 of plagiarism found, then, the student will be debarred from submitting a revised script for one year. And, the case of Level-3, the students' admission registration would be cancelled.

That apart, OU will create a mechanism to check plagiarism of each of the paper publication, theses, dissertations by the student, faculty, researcher or staff of the university, before their submission and forwarding.

In the case of plagiarism in academic and research publications too, the new regulations stipulated penalties with the level of plagiarism. Accordingly, Level-0 attracts no penalties, and for the Level-1, the person concerned will be asked to withdraw the manuscript. But, when it comes to Level-2, then, the faculty member will be asked to withdraw the manuscript, denied one annual increment and he or she will not be allowed to guide any new Master's, M Phil and Ph D student and scholar for two years.

Similarly, at the Level-3, besides asking to withdraw the manuscript, the faculty member will be denied annual increments for two successive years. Also, not allowed to act as a guide to any new Master's, M Phil or PhD student and scholar for three years.

Also, penalty on repeated plagiarism, candidates will not only be asked to withdraw the manuscript but also will attract punishment for plagiarism of one level higher than the lower level committed by him or her. If at all, the level of plagiarism is of the highest level, then, the punishment for the same shall be operative.

In the case of repeated Level-3 offence, then, the disciplinary action including suspension and termination as per service rules will be taken by Osmania University. The new regulations apply for students pursing Master's degree and Research programmes, faculty members and OU staff.