Anti Plagiarism Policy

  • Home -
  • Examination -
  • Anti Plagiarism Policy

Anti Plagiarism Policy

Ordinance for Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism

References :
(1) University Grants Commission Notification of 23 July, 2018, “University Grants Commission (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2018,” published in The Gazette of India, July 31, 2018
(2) Public Notice by University Grants Commission on ‘Self-plagiarism’, 20 April, 2020.

1. Preamble:
This ordinance relates to the assessment of academic and research work done leading to the partial fulfillment for the award of degrees at Masters and Research level, by a student or a faculty or a researcher or a staff, in the form of thesis, dissertation and publication of research papers, chapters in books, full-fledged books and any other similar work, reflects the extent to which elements of academic integrity and originality are observed in various relevant processes adopted by Veer Narmad South Gujarat University and its affiliated colleges/ institutions.

2. Definitions:
The terms used in this ordinance shall have the meanings as specified below unless the context otherwise requires—

  1. “Academic Integrity” is the intellectual honesty in proposing, performing and reporting any activity, which leads to the creation of intellectual property;
  2. “Author” includes a student or a faculty or a researcher or staff of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University or its affiliated colleges/ institutions who claims to be the creator of the work under consideration;
  3. "Common Knowledge" means a well known fact, quote, figure or information that is known to most of the people;
  4. “Degree” means any such degree specified by the University Grants Commission, by notification in the Official Gazette, under section 22 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956;
  5. “Departmental Academic Integrity Panel” shall mean the body constituted at the departmental level to investigate allegations of plagiarism;
  6. “Faculty” refers to a person who is teaching and/or guiding students enrolled in an HEI in any capacity whatsoever i.e. regular, ad-hoc, guest, temporary, visiting etc;
  7. "Information" includes data, message, text, images, sound, voice, codes, computer programs, software and databases or microfilm or computer generated microfiche;
  8. “Institutional Academic Integrity Panel” shall mean the body constituted at Institutional level to consider recommendations of the departmental academic integrity panel and take appropriate decisions in respect of allegations of plagiarism and decide on penalties to be imposed. In exceptional cases, it shall investigate allegations of plagiarism at the institutional level;
  9. “Plagiarism” means the practice of taking someone else’s work or idea and passing them as one’s own.
  10. “Self-plagiarism” means

(i) Reproduction, in part or whole, of one's own previously published work without adequate citation and proper acknowledgment and claiming the most recent work as new and original for any academic advantage amounts to 'text-recycling' (also known as 'self-plagiarism') and is not acceptable.
(ii) Text-recycling/self-plagiarism includes:
republishing the same paper already published elsewhere without due and full citation;
publishing smaller/excerpted work from a longer and previous without due and full citations in order to show a larger number of publications;
reusing data already used in a published work, or communicated for publication, in another work without due and full citation;
breaking up a longer/larger study into smaller sections and publishing them as altogether new work without due and full citation;
paraphrasing one's own previously published work without due and full citation of the original.
(iii) Self-citations do not add any number/s to the individual's citation index or h-index in global academia.

  1. “Programme” means a programme of study leading to the award of a masters and research level degree;
  2. “Researcher” refers to a person conducting academic / scientific research in Veer Narmad South Gujarat University or its affiliated colleges/ institutions;
  3. “Script” includes research paper, thesis, dissertation, chapters in books, full-fledged books and any other similar work, submitted for assessment / opinion leading to the award of master and research level degrees or publication in print or electronic media by students or faculty or researcher or staff of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University or its affiliated colleges/ institutions; however, this shall exclude assignments / term papers / project reports / course work / essays and answer scripts etc.;
  4. “Source” means the published primary and secondary material from any source whatsoever and includes written information and opinions gained directly from other people, including eminent scholars, public figures and practitioners in any form whatsoever as also data and information in the electronic form be it audio, video, image or text; Information being given the same meaning as defined under Section 2 (1) (v) of the Information Technology Act, 2000
  5. “Staff” refers to all non-teaching staff working in Veer Narmad South Gujarat University/ its affiliated colleges/ institutions in any capacity whatsoever i.e. regular, temporary, contractual, outsourced etc.;
  6. “Student” means a person duly admitted and pursuing a programme of study including a research programme in any mode of study (full time or part-time or distance mode);
  7. “Year” means the academic session in which a proven offence has been committed.

3. Objectives:
3.1. To create awareness about responsible conduct of research, thesis, dissertation, promotion of academic integrity and prevention of misconduct including plagiarism in academic writing among student, faculty, researcher and staff.

3.2. To establish institutional mechanism through education and training to facilitate responsible conduct of research, thesis, dissertation, promotion of academic integrity and deterrence from plagiarism.

3.3. To develop systems to detect plagiarism and to set up mechanisms to prevent plagiarism and punish a student, faculty, researcher or staff of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University or its affiliated colleges/ institutions.

4. Awareness Programs and Trainings:
(a) Veer Narmad South Gujarat University shall instruct students, faculties, researchers and staff about proper attribution, seeking permission of the author wherever necessary, acknowledgement of source compatible with the needs and specificities of disciplines and in accordance with rules, international conventions and regulations governing the source.

(b) Veer Narmad south Gujarat University shall conduct sensitization seminars/ awareness programs every semester on responsible conduct of research, thesis, dissertation, promotion of academic integrity and ethics in education for students, faculty, researcher and staff.

(c) Veer Narmad South Gujarat University and its affiliated colleges/ institutions shall  
i. Include the cardinal principles of academic integrity in the curricula of Undergraduate (UG)/Postgraduate (PG)/Master’s degree etc. as a compulsory course work/module.
ii.Include elements of responsible conduct of research and publication ethics as a compulsory course work/module for Masters and Research Scholars.
iii. Include elements of responsible conduct of research and publication ethics in Orientation and Refresher Courses organized for faculty and staff members of  Veer Narmad South Gujarat University and its affiliated colleges/ institutions.
iv. Train students, faculties, researchers and staff for using plagiarism detection tools and reference management tools.
v. Establish facility equipped with modern technologies for detection of plagiarism.
vi. Encourage student, faculty, researcher and staff to register on international researcher's Registry systems.

5. Curbing Plagiarism:
a) Veer Narmad South Gujarat University shall implement the technology based mechanism using appropriate software so as to ensure that documents such as thesis, dissertation, publications or any other such documents are free of plagiarism at the time of their submission. (see Annexure A)
b) The mechanism as defined at (a) above shall be made accessible to all engaged in research work including student, faculty, researcher and staff etc.
c) Every student submitting a thesis, dissertation, or any other such documents to Veer Narmad South Gujarat University shall submit an undertaking indicating that the document has been prepared by him or her and that the document is his/her original work and free of any plagiarism. Further, this undertaking shall include the fact that the document has been duly checked through a Plagiarism detection tool approved by the university. (See Annexure B)
d) The Ordinance related to academic integrity and prevention of plagiarism, approved by the relevant statutory bodies/authorities of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, shall be placed on the homepage of the university website.
e) Each research supervisor shall submit a certificate indicating that the work done by the researcher under him / her is plagiarism free. (See Annexure C)
f) The soft copies of all Masters, Research program’s dissertations and thesis shall be submitted to INFLIBNET within a month after the award of degrees for hosting in the digital repository under the “Shodh Ganga e-repository”.
g) An Institutional Repository on institute website shall include dissertation / thesis / paper / publication and other in-house publications.

6. Similarity checks for exclusion from Plagiarism:
The similarity checks for plagiarism shall exclude the following:
i. All quoted work reproduced with all necessary permission and/or attribution.
ii. All references, bibliography, table of content, preface and acknowledgements.
iii. All generic terms, laws, standard symbols and standards equations.
Note: The research work carried out by the student, faculty, researcher and staff shall be based on original ideas, which shall include abstract, summary, hypothesis, observations, results, conclusions and recommendations only and shall not have any similarities. It shall exclude a common knowledge or coincidental terms, up to fourteen (14) consecutive words.

7. Levels of Plagiarism:
Plagiarism would be quantified into following levels in ascending order of severity for the purpose of its definition:
i. Level 0: Similarities upto 10% - Minor similarities, no penalty
ii. Level 1: Similarities above 10% to 40%
iii. Level 2: Similarities above 40% to 60%
Level 3: Similarities above 60%

8. Detection/Reporting/Handling of Plagiarism:
If any member of the academic community suspects with appropriate proof that a case of plagiarism has happened in any document, he or she shall report it to the Departmental Academic Integrity Panel (DAIP). Upon receipt of such a complaint or allegation the DAIP shall investigate the matter and submit its recommendations to the Institutional Academic Integrity Panel (IAIP) of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University. In this context, in the absence of a university department for a subject in relation to which such a complaint is made, the Dean of the respective faculty to which this subject belongs shall recommend this matter to a related University Department and its Departmental Academic Integrity Panel (DAIP).   

Further, the authorities of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University can also take suomotu notice of an act of plagiarism and initiate proceedings under these regulations. Similarly,  proceedings can also be initiated by Veer Narmad South Gujarat University on the basis of findings of an examiner. All such cases will be investigated by the IAIP.

9. Departmental Academic Integrity Panel (DAIP):
The composition of Departmental Academic Integrity Panel (DAIP) in all University Departments / Affiliated Colleges / institutions in Veer Narmad South Gujarat University shall be as follows:

a. Chairperson - Head of the Department / Principal of the College / Head of the Institution
b. Member - Senior academician from outside the department / college / Institution, to be nominated by the Vice Chancellor.
c. Member - A person well versed with anti plagiarism tools, to be nominated by the Head of the Department / Principal of the College / Head of the Institution. The tenure of the members in respect of points 'b' and 'c' shall be two years. The quorum for the meetings shall be 2 out of 3 members (including Chairperson).
1. The DAIP shall follow the principles of natural justice while deciding about the allegation of plagiarism against the student, faculty, researcher and staff.
2. The DAIP shall have the power to assess the level of plagiarism and recommend penalty(ies) accordingly.
3. The DAIP after investigation shall submit its report with the recommendation on penalties to be imposed to the IAIP within a period of 45 days from the date of receipt of complaint / initiation of the proceedings.

10. Institutional Academic Integrity Panel (IAIP):
The composition of Institutional Academic Integrity Panel (IAIP) shall be as follows:
a. Chairperson - Pro-VC/Dean/Senior Academician of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University.
b. Member - Senior Academician other than Chairman, to be nominated by the Vice Chancellor.
c. Member - One member nominated by the Vice Chancellor from outside Veer Narmad South Gujarat University.
d. Member - A person well versed with anti-plagiarism tools, to be nominated by the Vice Chancellor.
The Chairperson of DAIP and IAIP shall not be the same. The tenure of the Committee members including Chairman shall be three years. The quorum for the meetings shall be 3 out of 4 members (including Chairman).
1. The IAIP shall consider the recommendations of DAIP.
2. The IAIP shall also investigate cases of plagiarism as per the provisions mentioned in these regulations.
3. The IAIP shall follow the principles of natural justice while deciding about the allegation of plagiarism against the student, faculty, researcher and staff of HEI.
4. The IAIP shall have the power to review the recommendations of DAIP including penalties with due justification.
5.The IAIP shall send the report after investigation and the recommendation on penalties to be imposed to the Head of the HEI within a period of 45 days from the date of receipt of recommendation of DAIP/ complaint / initiation of the proceedings.
6. The IAIP shall provide a copy of the report to the person(s) against whom inquiry report is submitted.

11. Penalties:
Penalties in the cases of plagiarism shall be imposed on students pursuing studies at the level of Masters and Research programs and on researcher, faculty & staff of the HEI only after academic misconduct on the part of the individual has been established without doubt, when all avenues of appeal have been exhausted and individual in question has been provided enough opportunity to defend himself or herself in a fair or transparent manner.
11.1 Penalties in case of plagiarism in submission of thesis and dissertations
Institutional Academic Integrity Panel (IAIP) shall impose penalty considering the severity of the Plagiarism.
i. Level 0: Similarities upto 10% - Minor Similarities, no penalty.
ii. Level 1: Similarities above 10% to 40% - Such student shall be asked to submit a revised script within a stipulated time period not exceeding 6 months.
iii. Level 2: Similarities above 40% to 60% - Such student shall be debarred from submitting a revised script for a period of one year.
iv. Level 3: Similarities above 60% -Such student registration for that programme shall be cancelled.

Note 1: Penalty on repeated plagiarism- Such student shall be punished for the plagiarism of one level higher than the previous level committed by him/her. In case where plagiarism of highest level is committed then the punishment for the same shall be operative.

Note 2: Penalty in case where the degree/credit has already been obtained - If plagiarism is proved on a date later than the date of award of degree or credit as the case may be then his/her degree or credit shall be put in abeyance for a period recommended by the IAIP and approved by the Head of the Institution.

11.2 Penalties in case of plagiarism in academic and research publications
I. Level 0: Similarities up to 10% - Minor similarities, no penalty.
II. Level 1: Similarities above 10% to 40%
i) Shall be asked to withdraw manuscript.

III. Level 2: Similarities above 40% to 60%
i) Shall be asked to withdraw manuscript.
ii) Shall be denied a right to one annual increment.
iii) Shall not be allowed to be a supervisor to any new Master’s, M.Phil., Ph.D. Student/scholar for a period of two years.
IV. Level 3: Similarities above 60%
i) Shall be asked to withdraw manuscript.
ii) Shall be denied a right to two successive annual increments.
iii) Shall not be allowed to be a supervisor to any new Master’s, M.Phil., Ph.D. Student/scholar for a period of three years.

Note 1: Penalty on repeated plagiarism - Shall be asked to withdraw manuscript and shall be punished for the plagiarism of one level higher than the lower level committed by him/her. In case where plagiarism of highest level is committed then the punishment for the same shall be operative. In case level 3 offence is repeated then the disciplinary action including suspension/termination as per service rules shall be taken by the HEI.

Note 2: Penalty in case where the benefit or credit has already been obtained - If plagiarism is proved on a date later than the date of benefit or credit obtained as the case may be then his/her benefit or credit shall be put in abeyance for a period recommended by IAIP and approved by the Vice Chancellor.

Note 3: If there is any complaint of plagiarism against the Vice Chancellor, a suitable action, in line with these regulations, shall be taken by the Chancellor of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University.

Note 4: If there is any complaint of plagiarism against the Head of Department/Authorities at the institutional level, a suitable action, in line with these regulations, shall be recommended by the IAIP and approved by the Competent Authority.

Note 5: If there is any complaint of plagiarism against any member of DAIP or IAIP, then such member shall excuse himself / herself from the meeting(s) where his/her case is being discussed/investigated.

12. A faculty/ staff member of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University or its affiliated colleges/ institutions shall get his/ her research paper /chapters of a book/ a full fledged book/ a research work/ a research document checked himself/ herself through the Plagiarism Detection tool, approved by Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, before sending it for publication, and he/ she must keep its Plagiarism detection report with him/ her on permanent basis as an evidence for having got his/ her research document checked through the Plagiarism Detection Tool, approved by Veer Narmad South Gujarat University.   

13. (i) The Vice Chancellor, Selection Committees, Screening Committees, IQACs and all/any experts of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, involved in academic performance/evaluation and assessment, shall take their decisions in the case of promotions, selections, credit allotment, award of research degrees, based on an evaluation of the applicant's published work to ensure that the work being submitted for promotion/selection is not self-plagiarized.
      (ii) The set of parameters, if issued by UGC, to evaluate instances of text recycling/ self-plagiarism  shall be followed. 

File Name Download
1. Annexure A/B/C/D Download PDF