Anantapur: Copycats face e-cop

Anantapur: With no proper check for plagiarism, a lot of “cut and paste” work is done for PhD theses. The UGC had issued a notification on minimum standards and  procedure for award of M.Phil./PhD Degree in June 2009, mandating submission of electronic versions of theses and dissertations by researchers. This was done to facilitate open access to Indian theses and dissertations to the academic community worldwide.

A special software was given to varsities to check for plagiarism. The software can detect even if a single sentence has been copied from old theses papers. “Research scholars can continue the process of PhD only after having their theses checked on the Urkund software with us,” said Sri Krishnadevaraya University research and development wing director Dr Sudhakar.

He added that about 20 per cent plagiarism was permissible according to the varsity norms. He said, “We’ve definitely noticed an increasing incidence of plagiarism since the system was introduced as there was of course a high level of undetected incidents previously.”

Ms H.K. Pushpa, a research scholar, observed that the anti- plagiarism system was enough to control copying from other theses. “We’ve to check properly to avoid crossing the permissible percentage of plagiarism,” she said.

Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Anantapur’s registrar Prof. Krishnaiah said that an average of 80 students (10 per cent) were getting their doctorates every year following the antiplagiarism check on their theses.

Shodganga stores research papers

DC correspondent
ANANTAPUR, APRIL 6

Shodganga, treated as a reservoir of Indian theses, provides a platform for research students to deposit their PhD  theses and make them available to the academic community. The repository can capture, index, store, disseminate and preserve theses submitted by the researchers.

“Online availability of electronic theses through centrally-maintained digital repositories not only ensures easy access and archiving of Indian doctoral theses but also helps in raising the standard and quality of research,” said JNT-UA principal Prof. K. Prahlada Rao.

He said this would overcome the serious problem of duplication of research resulting from the “poor visibility” and the “unseen” factor in research output.
As per UGC regulations, the responsibility of hosting, maintaining and making Shodganga accessible to all institutions and universities is with the INFLIBNET Centre.

Most top universities have contri-buted to the Shod-ganga website. Sri Krishnadevaraya University has posted 2,592 theses while JNTU contributed 4,457.