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1.
Preamble
In the wake of fundamental improvements being introduced in the
system of Higher Education in Pakistan, the credit, respect,
recognition of research and scholarly publications, career
development and financial gains are now linked with such original
works accomplished without replicating the efforts of other
researchers. It has therefore become necessary that the menace of
plagiarism is highlighted and curbed through exemplary punitive
actions. On the other hand, we must also guard against bogus or
false complaints in order to prevent victimization which may make
researchers and scholars shy away from research simply because of
the fear of prosecution. A Plagiarism Policy has therefore become
necessary to create awareness, define various forms in which
Plagiarism exhibits itself, present a methodology of investigation,
cater for punitive action proportional to the extent of the offence
and even address the issue of false or spurious complaints.
2.
Definition
According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, Plagiarism is
defined as "taking and using the thoughts, writings, and
inventions of another person as one's own". This, or various
similar definitions found in recognized publications / documents,
are very broad and can be used to create awareness about Plagiarism
but are not practical enough to apply in order to ascertain guilt or
innocence in specific cases. In order to establish the violation of
ethical norms, or academic or intellectual dishonesty resulting from
Plagiarism and to take punitive actions in this regard, it is
necessary that the variety of forms in which Plagiarism manifests
itself are known. These include but are not limited to the
following:
·
“Verbatim copying, near-verbatim copying, or purposely
paraphrasing portions of another author's paper or unpublished
report without citing the exact reference.
·
Copying elements of another author's paper, such as equations or
illustrations that are not common knowledge, or copying or
purposely paraphrasing sentences without citing the source.
·
Verbatim copying portions of another author's paper or from
reports by citing but not clearly differentiating what text has
been copied (e.g. not applying quotation marks correctly) and
/or not citing the source correctly” [1].
·
"The unacknowledged use of computer programs, mathematical /
computer models / algorithms, computer software in all forms,
macros, spreadsheets, web pages, databases, mathematical
deviations and calculations, designs / models / displays of any
sort, diagrams, graphs, tables, drawings, works of art of any
sort, fine art pieces or artifacts, digital images,
computer-aided design drawings, GIS files, photographs, maps,
music / composition of any sort, posters, presentations and
tracing."
[2]
·
"Self-plagiarism, that is, the verbatim or near-verbatim re-use
of significant portions of one's own copyrighted work without
citing the original source." [1]
3. Explanation from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia on the web describes and explains
Plagiarism
as "the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and
thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's
own original work. Unlike cases of
forgery, in which the
authenticity of the writing, document, or some other kind of object
itself is in question, plagiarism is concerned with the issue of
false attribution. Within
academia, plagiarism by
students, professors, or researchers is considered
academic dishonesty or
academic fraud and
offenders are subject to academic censure. In
journalism, plagiarism is
considered a breach of journalistic ethics, and reporters caught
plagiarizing typically face
disciplinary measures ranging from suspension to termination. While
plagiarism in scholarship and journalism has a centuries-old
history, the development of the
Internet, where articles
appear as electronic text, has made the physical act of copying the
work of others much easier. Plagiarism is different from
copyright infringement.
While both terms may apply to a particular act, they emphasize
different aspects of the transgression. Copyright infringement is a
violation of the rights of the copyright holder, which involves the
loss of income and artistic control of the material when it is used
without the copyright holder's consent. On the other hand,
plagiarism is concerned with the unearned increment to the
plagiarizing author's
reputation. In the academic
world, plagiarism by students is a very serious academic
offense which can result in punishments such as a failing grade on
the particular assignment (typically at the high school level), or a
failing grade for the course (typically at the college or university
level). For cases of repeated plagiarism, or for cases where a
student has committed a severe type of plagiarism (e.g. copying an
entire article and submitting it as his / her own work), a student
may be suspended or expelled, and any academic degrees or awards may
be revoked. For professors and researchers, who are required
to act as role models for their students, plagiarism is a very
serious offence, and is punishable by sanctions ranging from
suspension to termination, along with the loss of credibility and
integrity. Charges of plagiarism against students, faculty members
and staff are typically heard by internal disciplinary committees,
which students and faculty members have agreed to be bound by."
[3]
Wikipedia also describes Self-plagiarism as "the re-use of
significant, identical, or nearly identical portions of one’s own
work without acknowledging that one is doing so or without citing
the original work. Typically, high public-interest texts are not a
subject of self-plagiarism; however, the authors should not violate
copyright where applicable. "Public-interest texts" include such
material as social, professional, and cultural opinions usually
published in newspapers and magazines."
[3]
4. Aim
The aim of this policy is to apprise students, teachers, researchers
and staff about Plagiarism and how it can be avoided. It is also
aimed at discouraging Plagiarism by regulating and authorising
punitive actions against those found guilty of the act of
Plagiarism.
5. Applicability
The policy is applicable to students, teachers, researchers and
staff of all institutions and organizations in Pakistan who are
involved in writing or publishing their work. In this context a
"Student" is a person who, on the date of submission of his /
her paper / work is a registered student of any University or Degree
Awarding Institution recognized by Higher Education Commission (HEC).
"Teachers and Researchers" include faculty members or
equivalent of the University / Organization or/of a constituent or
affiliated college or researchers of an organization and such other
persons as may be declared to be so by regulations. “Staff”
is any employee of an organization involved in writing and
publishing his / her work.
Any person listing his CV on the website or any current
publication or applying for any benefit on the basis of published or
presented work that is plagiarized will be liable to be punished as
per prescribed rules.
6.
Responsibility of the Institutions & Organizations
All institutions and organizations are responsible to apprise their
students, teachers, researchers and staff of the definition,
implications and resulting punishments in case, after due
investigation, they are found guilty of plagiarism. The institutions
/ organizations must acquaint their students, teachers, researchers
and staff with this policy and ensure that they are fully aware that
all authors are deemed to be individually and collectively
responsible for the contents of papers published by Journals /
Publishers etc. Hence, it is the responsibility of each author,
including the coauthors, to ensure that papers submitted for
publication should attain the highest ethical standards with respect
to plagiarism. To facilitate the institutions / organizations in
creating awareness about Plagiarism, a modified version of "Little
Book of Plagiarism", a publication of Leeds Metropolitan University
is appended as "Annexure" to this policy. Any University or Degree
Awarding Institution which does not adopt and implement this policy
will have its degree derecognized by HEC.
7. Reporting
To inform HEC or respective Universities / Organizations of alleged
plagiarism, a complaint is to be made by email, post, fax or other
means to
HEC Quality
Assurance Division or respective Universities / Organizations. In
case of lodging a complaint in the form of a letter, copy may be
sent to HEC. The following information is to be provided:
a)
“Citation of the original paper or document or idea which was
plagiarized, (paper title, author(s), publication title, month
and year of publication if available and the journal, in which
published, with details). If the original paper is unpublished
(e.g. an institutional technical report, an on-line paper), the
complainant is to provide as much information as possible to
ensure authenticity of the claim.
b)
The citation of the alleged plagiarizing paper (paper title,
author(s), publication title, month and year of publication if
available and the journal with details in which published). If
the paper is unpublished (e.g. an institutional technical
report, an on-line paper), the complainant is to provide as much
information as possible to ensure proper investigation.
c)
Copies of both papers if possible.
d)
Any other information that would help HEC or respective
Universities / Organizations to efficiently resolve the claim.”
[1]
e)
Name, designation, organization, address, e-mail address and
telephone number of the complainant.
8. Investigation
Upon receipt of an allegation of Plagiarism, the HEC Quality
Assurance Division will request the respective Vice Chancellor /
Rector / Head of the Organization to carry out investigation. The
complaints received through HEC or directly by a University /
Organization will be dealt with by the Universities / Organizations
according to the procedures given below. The Vice Chancellor /
Rector / Head of the Organization will have the discretion of not
taking any action on anonymous complaints. For investigation of
Plagiarism cases, the Vice Chancellor / Rector / Head of
Organization will have an obligation to:
a)
Constitute a “Plagiarism Standing Committee” consisting
of 3 senior faculty members, a subject specialist in that
particular field is to be co-opted, a senior student (only if a
student is being investigated upon) and a nominee of the HEC.The
seniority of the members of “Plagiarism Standing Committee”
should be of a level keeping in view the seniority of the
individual being investigated upon and the nature and gravity of
the offence.
b)
Provide a guideline, prepared by HEC for the functioning of the
"Plagiarism Standing Committee", to all members of the
Committee.
c)
Provide clear terms of reference to the “Plagiarism Standing
Committee” for their investigation.
d)
The members of the “Plagiarism Standing Committee” are to sign a
confidentiality statement that during the investigation they
will, under no circumstances, disclose any individual author's
name, paper titles, referees, or any other personal or specific
information concerning the plagiarism complaint under
investigation, nor shall they reveal the names of the committee
members.
e)
Provide opportunity to the author / authors under investigation
to justify the originality of their concepts and research work.
Similar opportunity will also be provided to the author whose
paper is deemed to have been Plagiarized and / or the
complainant, to justify the complaint.
f)
Provide every opportunity to the “Plagiarism Standing Committee”
to use all foreseeable means to investigate the plagiarism
claim.
9.
The Plagiarism Standing Committee shall then conduct the
investigation. Depending on the details of the claim, the
investigation may include, but may not be limited to, any or all of
the following steps:
a)
Manual and / or automated tests for content similarity [1].
b)
Determination of the extent and quantum of significant material
plagiarized.
c)
Soliciting comments to the claim, from the Editor-in-Chief (of a
journal) or Program Chair (of conference proceedings) and
referees of either or both papers.
d)
Consultation with legal counsel. [1]
e)
Consult / contact witnesses and record statements there-of if so
required.
f)
Consult / contact present and / or past employers of the
authors.
10.
The “Plagiarism Standing Committee” will submit its report
with clear cut findings and recommendations to the Vice Chancellor /
Rector / Head of the Organization within a specified period not
exceeding sixty days. The Vice Chancellor / Rector / Head of the
Organization will have the discretion to implement the
recommendations after approval through the statutory process and
take punitive action against the offender as per penalties
prescribed under this policy or to forward the report to HEC or his
/ her parent organization for further action if outside their
purview / jurisdiction.
11.
Penalties for Plagiarism
Plagiarism is an intellectual crime. As such the penalties for
plagiarism should not only take into account the severity and
recurrence of the offence, but also the intellectual standing of the
offender. This entails a gradual increase in punitive action with
minimum punishment for a first time offence by a student who copies
a home work assignment to a maximum punishment for a
teacher/researcher/staff who attempts to present / publish, or
actually presents / publishes plagiarized material; as his own, in a
conference / journal. Therefore, the punishments for Plagiarism have
been divided into two separate categories, i.e those for "Teachers,
Researchers and Staff" and those for the "Students". The groups have
already been defined in para 5 above.
(a) Penalties for Teachers, Researchers and Staff
When an act of plagiarism, as described earlier in paras 2 and 3, is
found to have occurred, the "Plagiarism Standing Committee" in its
recommendations, DEPENDING UPON THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE PROVEN
OFFENCE, will advise the Competent Authority of the Organization, to
take any one or a combination of the following disciplinary action(s)
against the teacher, researcher and / or staff found guilty of the
offence:
(i) Major
Penalty:
In cases where most of the paper (or key results) have been
exactly copied from any published work of other people without
giving the reference to the original work, then (a) a major penalty
of dismissal from service needs to be
prescribed, along with (b) the offender may be “Black Listed” and
may NOT be eligible for employment in any academic / research
organization, and (c) the notification of “Black Listing” of the
author(s) may be published in the print media or may be publicized
on different websites at the discretion of the Vice-Chancellor /
Rector / Head of the organization.
(ii) Moderate Penalty:
In case where some paragraphs including some key results have been
copied without citation, then a moderate penalty involving any one
or both of the following needs to be imposed (a) demotion to the
next lower grade, (b) the notification of “Black Listing” of the
author(s) which may be published in the print media or may be
publicized on different websites at the discretion of the
Vice-Chancellor / Rector / Head of the organization.
(iii)
Minor Penalty:
In case a few paragraphs have been copied from an external source
without giving reference of that work, then minor penalties need to
be prescribed for a specified period involving any one or more of
the following: (a) warning, (b) freezing of all research grants,
(c) the promotions/annual increments of the offender may be
stopped, for a specified period and (d) HEC or the University /
Organization may debar the offender from sponsorship of research
funding, travel grant, supervision of Ph.D. students, scholarship,
fellowship or any other funded program for a period as deemed
appropriate by the “Plagiarism Standing Committee”.
(b) Students
When an act of plagiarism, as described earlier in paras 2 and 3, is
found to have occurred, the "Plagiarism Standing Committee" in its
recommendations, DEPENDING UPON THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE PROVEN
OFFENCE, will advise the Vice Chancellor / Head of the Organization,
to take any one or a combination of the following disciplinary
action (s) against the student (s) found guilty of the offence:
(i)
In the case of thesis the responsibility of plagiarism will be
of the student and not of the supervisor or members of the
Supervisory Committee.
(ii)
The offender may be expelled/ rusticated from the University and
from joining any institution of Higher Education in Pakistan for
a period as deemed appropriate by the "Plagiarism Standing
Committee”. A notice may be circulated among all academic
institutions and research organization to this effect.
(iii)
The offender may be relegated to a lower class.
(iv)
The offender may be given a failure grade in the subject.
(v)
The offender may be fined an amount as deemed appropriate.
(vi)
The offender may be given a written warning if the offence is
minor and is committed for the first time.
(vii)
The degree of a student may be withdrawn if AT ANY TIME it is
proven that he or she has presented Plagiarized work in his /
her MS, MPhil or PhD dissertation if the extent of plagiarism
comes under the category of major penalty as conveyed in Para
11(a-1).
(viii)
The notification of the plagiarism by the author(s) may be
published in the print media or may be publicized on different
websites at the discretion of the Vice Chancellor / Rector /
Head of the Organization.
(ix)
HEC or the University / Organization may debar the offender from
sponsorship of research funding, travel grant, scholarship,
fellowship or any other funded program for a period as deemed
appropriate by the "Plagiarism Standing Committee".
(x)
Any other penalty deemed fit by the “Plagiarism Standing
Committee”.
(c)
Co-Authors/Declarations
1.
Provided that a co-author has listed a paper in his/her resume and
applied for a benefit forthwith, any co-author is deemed to be
equally responsible for any plagiarism committed in a published
paper presented to or published in a journal or presented at a
conference.
2.
All Journals in Pakistan must require ALL authors to sign a
declaration that the material presented in the creative work is not
plagiarized (Sample Attached)
12.
Additional Actions Required
In addition to the above punishments, the following additional
common actions must be taken if the offence of Plagiarism is
established:
a)
If the plagiarized paper is accessible on the web page its
access will be removed. The paper itself will be kept in the
database for future research or legal purposes.
b)
The author(s) will be asked to write a formal letter of apology
to the authors of the Original paper that was plagiarized,
including an admission of plagiarism. Should the author(s)
refuse to comply then additional punishments as deemed fit may
be recommended by the "Plagiarism Standing Committee.
c)
If the paper is submitted but not published yet, the paper will
be rejected by the Editor-in-Chief or the Program Chair without
further revisions and without any further plagiarism
investigation conducted.[1]
However, Warning may be issued to the author/ co-author.
13.
Appeal
As the penalties are severe, the affected person(s) will have the
right to appeal to the Chairman HEC / Vice Chancellor / Rector /
Head of the Organization for a review of the findings or may submit
a mercy petition within 30 days from the date of notification. Such
appeals / petitions will be disposed off within 60 days of receipt,
by following the laid down procedures regarding such appeals.
14.
Penalty for Wrong Reporting / False Allegation
If the case of Plagiarism is not proved and it is confirmed that a
false allegation was lodged, the Vice Chancellor / Rector / Head of
the Organization will inform the complainant’s Organization and will
recommend disciplinary action against the complainant, to be taken
by his / her parent organization.
References
[1] “ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) Policy on
Plagiarism” (http://www.acm.org/pubs/plagiarism%20policy.html)
[2] “Academic Integrity Statement: Appendix1” (University of
Southampton Calendar 2006/7) (http://www.calendar.soton.ac.uk/sectionIV/part8a.html)
[3] “Plagiarism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/plagiarism).
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