UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF LEGAL STUDIES

PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH

RESEARCH METHODOLGY
PROJECT REPORT ON
TOPIC: PLAGIARISM

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Prof. Dr Gulshan Kumar Chanya Jain
UILS [Link] LL.B (Hons.)
Panjab University 367/20
Chandigarh Section-D

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is my proud privilege to express my heartfelt gratitude towards my

esteemed teacher and supervisor
Prof. Dr Gulshan Kumar
(University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh)
whose valuable guidance and continuous encouragement enabled me
to complete this project work. Without his keen interest and untiring
involvement at all stages of this work the same could probably not have
taken the present form. Indeed, it is difficult to express in words what I
owe to him. He has been very cooperative and provided me the
necessary information regarding the project for which I am grateful.

CHANYA JAIN
[Link] LL.B(Hons.)
Section- D
367/20

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Link]. PARTICULARS PAGE NO.
1. Introduction 4
2. Interpretation of the term ‘Plagiarism’ 5-6
3. Reasons for Plagiarizing 6
4. Types of Plagiarism 7-9
5. Consequences of Plagiarism 10
6. Tips to Avoid Plagiarism 10
7. Top 6 Plagiarism Detection Tools 11-12
8. Avoiding plagiarism while writing 12
Articles
9. Procedure to Tackle Plagiarism 13
10. Pros and Cons of Plagiarism 14
11. Do Paraphrasing amounts to 15
plagiarism?
12. Plagiarism and Copyright 15
Infringement
13. Laws concerned with Plagiarism 16
14. Civil wrong and Criminal Offences 16
15. Who will be liable for Plagiarism? 17
16. Some Misconceptions that arise 17
17. Indian Judiciary and Plagiarism 17
18. Deteriorating condition of Education 18
to plagiarism
19. Measures taken or need to be taken 18
20. The New Regulations in India 19-20
21. Laws concerned with Plagiarism 20
22. Conclusion 21
23. Bibliography 22-23

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 INTRODUCTION

Plagiarism is presenting work or ideas from another source as your own, with or
without consent of the original author, by incorporating it into your work without
full acknowledgement. All published and unpublished material, whether in
manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition, as is the
use of material generated wholly or in part through use of artificial intelligence
(save when use of Artificial Intelligence - AI for assessment has received prior
authorisation e.g. as a reasonable adjustment for a student’s disability).
Plagiarism can also include re-using your own work without citation. Under the
regulations for examinations, intentional or reckless plagiarism is a disciplinary
offence.
The first step to any kind of research including legal is the collection of materials
relevant to the topic of research chosen or allotted to the researcher. However, in
legal research, the kind of data used mostly is doctrinal; empirical data is used
sparingly compared to its use in scientific, social or other types of research. For
purely legal researches, case studies and their analysis generally assume the
importance that numerical or empirical data has, in non-legal or socio-legal
researches.

In legal research the majority of the work being doctrinal, the sources are mostly
theoretical (for e.g., academic papers, journals, books, treatises etc.), due to
which, the chances of plagiarism, whether conscious or unconscious, increases
rapidly. Plagiarism is said to be committed when verbatim or paraphrased copy,
of the work of another, is made by an author, without citing the work of the
original author.

Plagiarism, therefore, is the first obstacle at the first stage of legal research
encountered by a student, who, while collecting and utilizing the theoretical data
must be wary of not committing the wrong.

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 INTERPRETATION OF THE TERM ‘PLAGIARISM’

Latin word “plagiarius” meaning a “kidnapper”, “robber”, “misleader” and

“literary thief” is the root of the word “plagiarism”. Plagiarism usually refers to
stealing ideas or words that are higher than the level of public knowledge.
Regulations titled “Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of
Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions” by University Grants
Commission envisage “Plagiarism” as the practice of taking someone else’s
work or idea and passing them off as one’s own.
Plagiarism is generally taken to mean the appropriation of the words and ideas of
others. Plagiarism entails literary robbery, stealing (through copying) the words
or ideas of a person and falsely represent it as one’s own without crediting the
original person.
As per Roig, plagiarism includes not only “copying of text and addition to text
and data, but also includes the misappropriation of a wide range of other’s
intellectual property, including ideas, images, and methodologies.” Fishman
(2009) gave a comprehensive viewpoint of the term plagiarism. The author
manifested that plagiarism happens while a person makes use of phrases,
thoughts, articles or even paintings or similar products resulting from every other
identifiable man or woman or source, without attributing the work to the original
source from where it originated so that one can attain advantage, credit score, or
gain which need not be monetary.
The New Webster’s Encyclopedia Dictionary of the English Language
defines plagiarism as “the unauthorised use of the language and thoughts of
another author and the representation of them as one’s own”.
In Webster’s Dictionary, a plagiarist is defined as: “One who plagiarizes, or
purloins the words, writings, or ideas of another, and passes them off as his own;
a plagiary”.
According to the Merriam- Webster Online Dictionary, to “plagiarize” means
1) to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own
2) use (another’s production) without crediting the source or
3) to commit literary theft or
4) to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing
source.

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The Oxford Dictionary defines plagiarize as ‘take and use (the thoughts, writings,
inventions etc. of another person) as one’s own; pass off the thoughts etc. of
(another per-son) as one’s own’.
In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone
else’s work and lying about it afterward.

REASONS FOR PLAGIARIZING

1. LACK OF INTEREST- The academicians apprehend that the deadline to
complete the assignments or paper writing involves time and hard work.
Hence, they are unwilling to work harder and honestly. Therefore, they
indulge in copying the content to complete their papers leading to
plagiarism.
2. LACK OF TIME- To save the precious time, academicians including
students and teachers adopt easy way of finding and manipulating data on
internet as compared to production of original analysis and interpretation.
3. STRESS AND COMPETITION- To gain academic achievements, to
improve the professional profiles, academicians have a strong pressure
from the family, peers to compete amongst themselves. This stress, fear of
failure and lack of confidence leads them to do plagiarism.
4. INCAPABILITY- Academicians, both students as well as faculty, may
feel embarrassed to seek help when they are incapable to accomplish a
particular task. With the intention to avoid the embarrassment of taking
assistance from peers or other friend professionals, they depend upon
seeking assistance from online sources. Moreover, they believe that the
quality of online available material is always better as compared to their
own work. Thus, plagiarism occurs.
5. NO FEAR OF PUNISHMENT- Since several people indulge in the act
of plagiarism and there are no severe punishment penalties accorded to the
plagiarists, so they think that the benefits of plagiarism are much more than
being caught. In such cases, lack of fear of punishment also leads to
plagiarism

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 TYPES OF PLAGIARISM
1. Complete plagiarism- This overt type of plagiarism occurs when a
writer submits someone else’s work in their own name. Paying somebody
to write a paper for you, then handing that paper in with your name on it,
is an act of complete plagiarism—as is stealing or “borrowing” someone’s
work and submitting it as your own. An example of complete plagiarism
is submitting a research paper for English class that your older sister wrote
and submitted when she took the class five years ago.

2. Direct plagiarism- Direct plagiarism is similar to complete plagiarism

in that it, too, is the overt passing-off of another writer’s words as your
own. The difference between the two is how much of the paper is
plagiarized. With complete plagiarism, it’s the entire paper. With direct
plagiarism, specific sections or paragraphs are included without crediting
(or even acknowledging) the author. An example of direct plagiarism is
dropping a line or two from your source directly into your work without
quoting or citing the source.

3. Paraphrasing plagiarism- Paraphrasing plagiarism is what

happens when a writer reuses another’s work and changes a few
words or phrases. It’s a common type of plagiarism, and many
students don’t even realize it’s a form of plagiarism. But if you’re
presenting someone else’s original idea in your writing without
crediting them, even if you’re presenting it in your own words, it’s
plagiarism.

4. Self-Plagiarism- This happens when the author has added research on

a previously published article, book, contributed chapter, journal, and
presents it as a new without acknowledging the first article or taking
permission from the previous publisher. Submission of the same article to
multiple journals to increase the chances of publication or making multiple
articles from a single article, known as, “salami slicing” is another form of
plagiarism. WAME’s Ethics Committee says: “With respect to the issue of
how much

5. Intentional or Unintentional- Intentional plagiarism occurs when the

author deliberately, intentionally or knowingly copies entire text,
paragraph or data and presents as its own. Unintentional occurs when the
author either is not aware of such research, is unaware of the ethics in
writing or does not know how to cite and thus presents similar articles.
6. Plagiarism of Text- The commonest form of plagiarism is of text
known as “copy-cut-paste” or “word-to-word” writing wherein complete

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 sentences, paragraph, tables or even pictures are reproduced without
acknowledgement. Described as “…copying a portion of text from another
need to be discussed complete copying of text is to be avoided. With use
of computers and the internet this form of plagiarism is very prevalent.
7. Plagiarism of Ideas- Copying of ideas is a common form of plagiarism
wherein someone else’s ideas, presentations, audio or video fi les, thoughts,
inferences or suggestions are made into research and presented as own
without proper acknowledgement. This is of course very difficult to detect
or prove. Some other methods are taking ideas from books, previously
published thesis, journals, magazines, conferences or meetings.
8. Mosaic plagiarism- Mosaic plagiarism, or patchwork plagiarism,
occurs when the writer:
• Copies a quote from another source but doesn't use quotation
marks
• Copies the original source's structure but replaces all
words/phrases with synonyms
• Entwines their own words with another writer's words without
proper citations.
The finished product will often look like a new piece of writing;
however, portions will have been stolen from other sources without
acknowledgement/proper citations (hence the nickname
"patchwork plagiarism").
9. Accidental plagiarism- Accidental plagiarism is perhaps the most
common type of plagiarism because it happens when the writer doesn’t
realize they are plagiarizing another’s work. Accidental plagiarism
includes the following:
• Forgetting to cite your sources in your work
• Not citing your sources correctly
• Failing to put quotes around cited material
Even accidental plagiarism is subject to consequences, such as failing
your assignment.
10. Source-based plagiarism- Source-based plagiarism can be a tricky
one to understand. With this kind of plagiarism, the writer might cite their
sources correctly but present the sources in a misleading way. For
example, the writer might reference a secondary source in their work but
only credit the primary source from which that secondary source is
derived. Other examples include citing an incorrect source and even
making up sources.
11. Collaboration Plagiarism- Collaboration plagiarism is a form of
cheating in which students collaborate on an assignment but act like it was
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 done alone. The use or fabrication of sources by oneself is called
originality, whereas borrowing from other people's work without giving
them credit can be considered collaboration theft and unethical research
practices.
12. Hired Plagiarism- In a hired plagiarism, a writer pays someone to
write an assignment for him. It also includes buying assignments from
different online websites. It is considered plagiarism to hire someone else
to write an essay for you, and you claim it as your own.
13. Borrowed Plagiarism- Plagiarizing is very common among students,
and it can involve borrowing assignments from friends. You might have
many friends who took the same course with different teachers. Using a
paper written by a friend is considered borrowed plagiarism.
[Link] Author Plagiarism- It involves not crediting an editor
or author who had contributed to the assignment. Similarly, if someone
edits the work by making significant changes, that person must be
acknowledged to avoid plagiarism.
15. Aggregated Plagiarism- A writing piece does not have to be a word-
to-word copy of someone’s work to be plagiarized. If your paper is based
on another assignment using the same sources and ideas, it is an aggregated
plagiarism. Rewriting an assignment does not make it unique if the content
is the same.
[Link] Plagiarism- Outline plagiarism involves using the same
structure with different information. It is also known as retweet plagiarism
that uses the outline of another essay. The thesis statement and other points
are also the same in each paragraph. Thus, the sources can be unique but
the content may not be original.
17. Bibliography Plagiarism- Using a bibliography of research work
done by someone else is also a form of plagiarism. Similarly, if you are
writing a paper and the thesis is not yours, the research is not original.
Some students also extend their bibliographies with the sources that are not
used in the paper. In return, they neglect to cite the sources that also come
under the category of bibliography plagiarism.
18. Secondary Source Plagiarism- There are cases when the writer
mentions and cites primary sources properly. However, then they use
information from secondary sources without citing them. It is known as
secondary source plagiarism. For example, this plagiarism occurs when
you have collected data from interviews and cite them properly. But you
also discuss information from newspaper articles in your research without
citing them; you are committing this serious offense.

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 CONSEQUENCES OF PLAGIARISM
Being found guilty of plagiarism, whether intentionally or unintentionally, has a
lasting effect and might even impact a student’s ability to graduate with their
chosen degree. The better post-secondary institutions seldom believe in second
chances when it comes to students being accused.

The consequences of plagiarism include a failing mark, academic probation, a

mark on a permanent record. The worst consequence is being expelled from the
course or university.

For a student, being found guilty of committing copyright infringement follows

them throughout their academic career, and possibly even further. Post-
Secondary institutions share information, so even if an expelled student does
attempt to transfer or register at a different school, details of their indiscretion
will be made available.

Later in life, as a professional employee, attempting to copy or take credit for

someone else’s work will ultimately result in job loss and ripple effect that
follows.

TIPS TO AVOID PLAGIARISM

As discussed earlier, plagiarism has different types, and it is difficult to identify
them in your work. The following are different tips on how to avoid plagiarism in
a speech or any other research writing.
• Start your work on time so that you have enough time left to write a paper
without getting it plagiarized.
• Paraphrase or rewrite the original ideas into your own words without
changing the actual meaning.
• Add quotation marks if you want to copy-paste the text into your paper.
• Cite the sources effectively by following the formatting guidelines
specified by the institution.
• Explore and present your own ideas instead of copying and pasting
someone else’s work.
• Add a reference page and list down the sources in it that you have used in
your paper.
• After finishing writing, run the writing piece through a plagiarism checker
before final submission.

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TOP 6 FREE PLAGIARISM DETECTION TOOLS FOR
ELEARNING PROFESSIONALS

[Link]. NAME OF USE PROS CONS

THE TOOL
1. Dupli Checker This is one of the a. Free of 1 search per
most effective free Charge day for
plagiarism detection b. Ease of Use unregistered
c. 2 ways to users
tools on the Internet. check for
While it doesn’t plagiarism
have a fancy d. 50 plagiarism
interface, it certainly scans per day
gets the job done for registered
users
well.
2. Copyleaks This cloud-based a. For a. You can use
authentication Education and it only after you
Business sign up
platform enables you
b. Multiple File b. Free page
to track how Formats and restriction
eLearning content is Languages
being used all c. Variety of
around the Internet. tools

3. Paper Rater A multi-purpose free a. 3 tools in 1: No ability to

plagiarism detection proof-reader save reports
and grammar
tool that is used in
check,
over 140 countries. vocabulary
builder,
plagiarism
checker
b. developed by
industry experts
c. fast results
4. Plagiarisma Basic and easy-to- a .90+ Limited
use, multi-purpose languages plagiarism
supported checks per day
plagiarism detection
b. plagiarism
tool that is used by check by URL,
students, teachers, online or file
writers, as well as upload
various members of c. firefox and
the literary industry. chrome
extensions

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 5. Plagerism User-friendly, a. detailed Supports only
checker entirely free guidelines Google or
b. check if Yahoo
plagiarism detection
others have Browsers
tool to check plagiarized
whether content is your online
plagiarized. content
c. entirely
online
6. Plagium Basic but fully a. easy to use Limited free
functional free b. free for up to features
plagiarism detection 5000 characters
each time
tool with different
levels of search.

AVOIDING PLAGIARISM IN WRITING ARTICLES

Plagiarism is widespread even in developed countries and can be avoided by
being honest while writing articles. Some of the ways to do this is by being
original, taking time to write articles, writing in your own words, acknowledging
all the studied articles, proper reference and strict adherence to the author or
journal guidelines. Avoid copy paste type of writing and always write in the cover
letter to Editor of any similarities with other article in literature. Some of the key
messages given by different authors in literature are summarized by P Mohan
Kumar. As given by Das and Panjabi the common ways to avoid plagiarism is
given in Table
Always acknowledge the original source of the idea, text, or illustration.
Enclose within quotation marks, all the text that has been copied verbatim from
another source.
When paraphrasing, use your own words.
When not sure if the idea/fact they wish to include is common knowledge, cite
references.
One must cite references accurately. The writer must read the instructions to authors
to know what style they need to use (Vancouver style or Harvard referencing).
Avoid writing multiple separate articles if he can present a large complex study in
a cohesive manner in a single article.
Along with the manuscript, submit a cover letter to the editor, clearly stating any
instances of overlapping from previous publications and asking for advice.
If unintentionally using somebody else’s ideas or text without appropriate
referencing, to write to the editor of the journal for advice.

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 PROCEDURE TO TACKLE PLAGIARISM
1. QUOTING- Quoting is when you use the author's exact words from the
original source material. The purpose of quoting information in a research
report is to back up the researchers' claims and lend credibility to their
viewpoint. The key to using quotes is to carefully copy them and duplicate
them exactly as they were written, without affecting their meaning through
editing Sources should only be used to strengthen the position and voice of
the work, whether they are true information or cited content.

2. PARAPHRASING- Simply put, paraphrasing is restating someone

else's idea in their own terms. When the source text is long or the parts are
difficult to remember, paraphrasing comes in handy. When paraphrasing,
it is critical that scholars not only interpret but also restate the author's
thoughts correctly.

3. SUMMARIZING- Summarizing is the technique of saying more

succinctly what another author has said. Three factors must be considered
while writing a decent summary:
i. Read the original text as many times as necessary.
ii. After reading the paragraph, write a Summary of what you've just
read
iii. Check the summary to determine whether it's accurate.

4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT- Making in-text citations (text notes)

and endnotes (endnotes) at the end of the work are all part of
citing the source (footnotes). It must include complete
information about the original source, such as the author's name,
a citation for a book or article. the publisher's name, the year and
edition of publication, and the page number from which the line
or sentence was taken. Giving complete information about the
original source is the greatest method to acknowledge the original
author. It lowers the likelihood of plagiarism.

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 PROS AND CONS OF PLAGIARISM
PROS
1. Easy and less work: Some argue that doing so will save time and effort
on the assignment.

2. Better Grades: This is done after you've attempted the task but became
desperate and opted to plagiarise someone else's work without properly
crediting the author

CONS
1. Prevents Learning: "When you plagiarise, you're basically not learning
anything" So, what if you're in a circumstance where you need to apply
what you learned in class in the real world, perhaps in a dream job, and
you're totally baffled? Plagiarism is not a solution!

2. Dishonesty and Cheating: "If you do not cite while duplicating another's
work, you are claiming it as your own." By stealing their work, you are
not only cheating them, but you are also lying to yourself about
knowledge that could have taken them days to complete.

3. Unfairness to other Students: "There are students who put in their

hours. or more. to complete assignments given to them." says one student.
It is unjust to plagiarise and receive the same credit as someone who
works hard"

We can conclude that the cons outweigh the pros and therefore it is in our best
interests that we do not plagiarise. A penalty for plagiarising can result in the
loss of an entire semester's worth of credit and/or expulsion or any other
consequence that can be been easily avoided if we put in the effort required and
not copy other people's works.

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DO PARAPHRASING AMOUNTS TO PLAGIARISM?
• When Paraphrasing is done, the source of the work must be cited to avoid
Plagiarism. Paraphrasing is restating another person’s work in our own
way, so the credit must be given to the real owner of the work.
• We all know that the works created by other people is rightfully their
intellectual property and if we use that work, we are bound to acknowledge
it. The point that is important here is that the original sources used in a
work must be quoted in order to give due credit to the source from where
it is taken.
• Plagiarism shows the stealing of another person’s intellectual property
which includes ideas, inventions, original work of authorship, words,
slogans, design, proprietary information, etc.
• Students must observe academic codes of ethics to avoid all forms of
plagiarism. Merely incorporating the ideas which another writer has
expressed without accrediting to that writer constitutes plagiarism.

Bill Gate has also expressed his views on Plagiarism as an “Intellectual

Property Theft”. The theft of Intellectual Property with the use of computers
and internet is on the rise in contemporary time.

It is done in three ways: -

1. Stealing with the Web.

2. Sealing within the Web.
3. Stealing from the Web

PLAGIARISM AND COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

• Plagiarism invites the charges of copyright infringement in most of the
cases. But there is a difference between plagiarism and copyright
infringement. In plagiarism the use of author’s work is done without giving
attribution to him whereas the use of author’s work without the permission
where the work is protected by copyright, it is known as copyright
infringement. Plagiarism is an act related with moral wrong apart from
inviting legal action as the original author has the moral right to be called
the author of the work.
• Plagiarism may occur even without the copyright infringement. Copyright
infringement will occur only if the work that is copied is protected by
copyright but the use of a work without crediting its author would be
plagiarism.
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 LAWS CONCERNED WITH PLAGIARISM
• The right not to be plagiarised is not recognised by any of the statute in
India, but the section 57 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 gives authors
the right to claim authorship of their works among other things.
• The section 57 of the Indian Copyright Act,1957 grants to the authors the
“special right” to be attributed for their work. It is a moral right and
perpetual in nature. The statute recognises the right to attribution analogous
to the rights not to be plagiarised.
• Section 63 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 is considers infringement as
the criminal offence and awards the same punishment for both i.e., the
violation of section 57 and the copyright infringement.
• The convicted infringers are awarded imprisonment that ranges between
six months to three years under section 63 of the Act. They have also
compensated in monetary terms for the act of infringing.
• Section 63 (A) of the same act stipulates an enhanced penalty for second
and subsequent convictions.

CIVIL WRONGS AND CRIMINAL OFFENCES

Plagiarism is actually considered as an unethical conduct of a person and not a
crime by itself.

• The violation of an author’s right to be credited and copyright infringement

are both civil wrongs and criminal charges can also be filed against the
violator.

• In case of a civil suit, the remedies that can be awarded are : injunctions to
restrain further infringement, damages, the delivery of accounts of profit
and both infringing copies of the work used to make them. Certain
administrative actions may also be taken.

• A convicted infringer is liable to be imprisoned between six months and

three years, and to be fined between fifty thousand and two lakh rupees
under section 63 of the Act. The punishment is enhanced for subsequent
convictions.

• Sometimes College and University rules for student conduct takes

Plagiarism as an academic offense and not a legal offense. But this is not
the actual case. Plagiarism is not only an academic offence but also a legal
one.
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 WHO WILL BE LIABLE FOR PLAGIARISM?
• One who is claiming the copyright of the work is liable for Plagiarism.
Generally, the Publisher has an exemption clause in the agreement with the
Author and says the views are of the Author only, in that case the Author is
Liable and the Publisher can claim immunity. In other cases, both can be
prosecuted.
• Plagiarism generally constitutes false claim of authorship regardless of the
material protected by copyright. Hence, the Author is responsible for it
when it is concerned with academic credit. The Publisher is held liable in
the case of Copyright infringement. Generally, the claims of Plagiarism
lead to the claim of Copyright Infringement.

SOME MISCONCEPTIONS TAT ARISE

• If the language used in any of the article is completely different from the
original article, then it does not infringe the copyright of the original writer
but depending upon the circumstances, the later article may violate the
moral right of the author of the original article to be credited for his work.
• The exclusive rights to reproduce, adapt, translate and publish their work
or to allow others to do so are collectively called “Copyright”. “Self-
Plagiarism” is not considered as offence or wrong in under the Indian
Copyright Act,1957 as the author who is the owner of the copyright has all
the rights for reproduction of the work or to make adaptation to the work.

INDIAN JUDICIARYAND PLAGIARISM

• The dramatic allegation of plagiarism was made on the Divisional Bench
of the Delhi High Court by the Spicy IP blog on December 1, 2015. The
Delhi High Court plagiarised thirty-three paragraphs of its judgment in
Roche V. Cipla case from a law review article written by Sweta Shree
Majumdar and Eashan Ghosh in the Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual
Property. The Delhi High Court acknowledged the truth of the plagiarism
report in an order passed on the 8th December, 2015 and apologised to the
authors. The responsibility of the plagiarism was laid down to an intern
who was told to write a precise fact of the case.

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 “What will happen to the Education System of our Country if the
torchbearers who have academic responsibility on their shoulder are indulge
in the activities of plagiarism ????”

DETERIORATING CONDITION OF EDUCATION

SYSTEM DUE TO PLAGIARISM
• After a lot of cases arising about plagiarism, the regulator of the higher
education i.e., UGC (University Grants Commission) is serious about it
and provided guidelines to be followed by the Universities to check
plagiarism in academic activities. Puducherry University has taken strict
measures against plagiarism and dismissed a faculty member guilty of
plagiarism. All these incidents are very unfortunate and disappointing for
our current educational standard. Plagiarism is considered as an academic
sin by the Universities all over the world.
• India does not have any particular statutory body to deal with academic
plagiarism and the cases related with plagiarism are often dealt on Ad-Hoc
basis depending upon the different situation and nature of the case. In the
era of professionalism, one of the important topics that needs attention is
“Professional Ethics”. If the world starts to copy one another then the
individualism will lose its importance and it will lead to retardation in
growth.

MEASURES TAKEN OR NEED TO BE TAKEN

• The Government of India is planning to make strict law to prevent

plagiarism in academics. The law will consist provisions from warning to
deregistration of students and dismissal of the teacher concerned.
• The people working for the socio-economic and cultural development of
the society facilitates us with enormous inventions and creations which are
making our life better and easier. The need of the hour is to encourage the
inventors and the creators. Their work must be rewarded by suitable legal
protection through strict laws otherwise the people working behind the
scene for the development will be at a loss.

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 THE NEW REGULATIONS IN INDIA

Recently, the Government of India notified new regulations "Promotion of

Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational
Institutions" which were adopted by the University Grant Commission (UGC).
The document, which was published on July 31, 2018, in The Gazette of India,
defines plagiarism and the methods for dealing with it. It defines plagiarism as
"the practice of taking someone else's work or idea and passing them as one's
own."
The regulation further explains
i. all quoted work reproduced with all necessary permissions and/or
attribution,
ii. all references, bibliography, table of content, preface and
acknowledgements,
iii. all generic terms, laws. standard symbols and standard equations" are not
considered plagiarism.
Submitted manuscripts are routinely screened for the similarity index. This
screening looks for similar texts in previously published material and totals the
percentages. The current regulation uses this proportion to quantify plagiarism
and determine the severity of the penalty.
However, there are certain limitations to this examination; not every percentage
of similarity is actually plagiarism. The report must be carefully interpreted. It's
likely that the language discussing similar methods or clinical words will be
similar. In addition, the assessor will need to use manual intervention to remove
quotations and bibliography. To decide on an "acceptable percentage of
similarity" for a paper, critical analysis is required.
Up to 10% resemblance is permissible under the new rules, which are referred to
as minor or Level 0. The guidelines further quantify the degree of plagiarism
as Level 1: Similarities above 10% to 40%, Level 2: Similarities above 40%
to 60%, Level 3: Similarities above 60%.
In the case of students
Students or researchers who submit plagiarized scripts suffer penalties based their
level. Level-1 violations result in resubmitting corrected scripts, Level-2
violations result in debarment for one year, and Level-3 violations result in
cancellation of students' registration from the enrolled programme.

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In the case of faculty
Plagiarism with more than 10% similarity requires the faculty to withdraw the
manuscript. They are forbidden from supervising a master's programme for two
years and lose a year's increment at the 40-60 percent level. If it exceeds 60%,
the penalty is a two-year reduction in pay and a three-year suspension from
supervisory duties.

Though the regulation is a positive development, it is not without limitations. By

depending mainly on the similarity index, it appears to handle simply the "copy-
paste" act, ignoring various forms of dishonesty such as self-plagiarism, incorrect
citation, data manipulation, photo plagiarism, and so on.

When an innovative idea or article is paraphrased without mentioning the source,

it can pass the similarity check and be considered authentic. It is not necessary to
disregard percentages below 10%. Plagiarism, in any form or at any level, should
be avoided at all costs. Grading them is a bad notion because it gives the criminals
a sense of impunity.

LAWS CONCERNED WITH PLAGIARISM

• The right not to be plagiarized is not recognised by any of the statute in
India, but section 57 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 gives authors the
right to claim authorship of their works among other things.
• The section 57 of the Indian Copyright Act.1957 grants to the authors the
"special right" to be attributed for their work. It is a moral right and
perpetual in nature. The statute recognises the right to attribution analogous
to the rights not to be plagiarized.
• Section 63 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 considers infringement as the
criminal offense and awards the same punishment for both i.e., the
violation of section 57 and the copyright infringement.
• The convicted infringers are awarded imprisonment that ranges between
six months to three years under section 63 of the Act. They have also
compensated in monetary terms for the act of infringing.
• Section 63 (A) of the same act stipulates an enhanced penalty for second
and subsequent convictions.

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 CONCLUSION
Plagiarism is a common but avoidable malpractice prevalent in the world. It
affects all from students to senior teachers and from developing to developed
countries. Strict adherence to the journal guidelines and being honest can help to
reduce this burden on the scientific society. Use of the common computer aided
tools to detect plagiarism followed by severe punishment to the guilty,
blacklisting the authors, worldwide notice of their activity, are some ways to
address this problem. School syllabus to avoid plagiarism in medical courses can
also help the younger generation and the demand for "quantity" rather than
"quality" of published articles in jobs, interview, promotion and academics can
further ease this problem. Being considered as an unethical act, plagiarism has
become the biggest challenge to the research work as it deteriorates the concept
of originality in research work. Plagiarism is sometimes a moral and ethical
offence rather than a legal one since some instances of plagiarism fall outside
the copyright infringement. Therefore, research which serves mankind by
solving existing problems should be done on original thoughts. Reviewing
previous work of other authors for updating up to a limit is sensible but copying,
repacking should be avoided. It should be morally corrected as it is conducted by
intellectual, reputed, highly degree-holders and also students of highly
intellectual streams. This practice can be controlled by reminding students/
researchers about the importance of the course. Steps should be taken to avoid
plagiarism so that people should develop new ideas, new visions, new techniques
and skills to solve the problems of mankind. A newly emerging stream of
plagiarism is “Self-plagiarism”, which is also termed as “recycling fraud”.
Recycling fraud is re-use of one’s own work without acknowledging that one is
doing so and without citing original work. It is duplicate publication or redundant
publication. It is pertinent to mention that advancement in Information and
Communication Technology (ICT), has added fuel to already rampant menace of
plagiarism. Plagiarism is acting as a weapon of mass-destruction to research
work, therefore, to check and control the spread of plagiarism, steps at global
level are required. As such, it is the need of the hour to frame out strict guidelines
to check plagiarism. In India, plagiarism is not mentioned in any current statute
but only as criminal offence under the Copyright Act of 1978, in terms of
university misconduct in terms of policy and regulation and unfair competition.
This problem should be handled with much more stringent laws.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
• Rattan Singh, Legal Research Methodology (Lexis Nexis, Gurgaon, 3rd
edition, 2021).
• Santosh Gupta, Research Methodology and Statistical Techniques 1
(Deep & Deep Publications Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, 2007).

RESEARCH PAPER
• Gret Helgesson & Stefan Eriksson (2015) Plagiarism in research
retrieved from
[Link]
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• Dinesh Kadam (2018) Academic integrity and plagiarism: The
new regulations in India retrieved from
[Link]
• J K Aronson, “Plagiarism-please don’t copy.” 64(4) British Journal Of
Clinical Pharmacology 403 (2007).
• Miguel Roig, “Avoiding Unethical Writing Practices,” 50(10) Food and
Chemical Toxicology 3385 (2012).
• Rabab AA Mohammed, et al., “Plagiarism in medical scientific
research”. 10(1) Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences 6-11
(2015).
• Kasi, PM, Research: What, Why and How? A treatise from Researchers
to Researchers. Author House, USA (2009).
• Mathieu Bouville, “Plagiarism: Words and ideas. 14(3)” Science and
Engineering Ethics 311-322 (2008).
• Chris Park, “In other (people’s) words: Plagiarism by university students-
literature and lessons” 28(5) Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education 471-488 (2003).
• Zaigham Mahmood, “Students” understanding of plagiarism and
collusion and recommendations for academics.” 8(6) WSEAS
Transactions on Information Science and Applications 1348-1358
(2009).

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WEBSITES REFRRED
• 5 Historical moments that shaped Plagiarism | Turnitin
([Link]
plagiarism)
• 8 Most Common Types of plagiarism to stay away from! – Enago
Academy
([Link]
plagiarism/)
• Plagiarism | university of Oxford
([Link]
text=Plagiarism%20is%20presenting%20work%20or,your%20work%2
0without%20full%20acknowledgement.)
• UGC Letter Reg.: UGC (Promotion of Academic integrity and prevention
of plagiarism in higher educational institutions) regulations, 2018
([Link]
• [Link]
• [Link]
• [Link]
• [Link]
• [Link]
• [Link]
for-teachers
• [Link]
• [Link]
_Causes_and_How_to_Avoid_This_Worldwide_Problem
• [Link]

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