Publications and scientific papers in journals by faculty members and researchers under the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) will soon come under the scanner of an internet-based plagiarism detection software.
The move comes amidst efforts to curb the practice of cheating while preparing research theses and scholarly journals. ‘
A meeting of the varsity Syndicate held recently decided to procure the ‘iThenticate’ anti-plagiarism software that compare documents to a vast database of content for plagiarism and attribution using its plagiarism checker technology.
People close to the development told The Hindu that the initial plan was to use the software only for tracking ‘lifted passages’ and ‘cut-and-paste jobs’ in the PhD theses submitted by the researchers.
A proposal to include the publications and scientific papers under the scanner will be taken up for discussion at the next Syndicate meeting, they said.
The plan is to start testing the documents from the next academic year. The university library will be responsible for checking the PhD theses and research publications. The varsity library will play a facilitator role by giving proper guidance on how to attribute the published sources.
Researchers will have to provide their theses for plagiarism check using the latest software.
Testing of documents will be done from the writing stage and not after the submission of the theses.
Varsity to buy ‘iThenticate’
anti-plagiarism software that compare documents to a vast database of content for plagiarism and attribution.
