The core work carried out by the author shall be based on original ideas and shall be covered by Zero Tolerance Policy on Plagiarism. In case Plagiarism is found and claimed, then it would be brought under Plagiarism Disciplinary Authority (PDA) for necessary and maximum penalty. The core work shall include abstract with keywords, introduction, objective, hypothesis, research methodology, analysis and interpretation, summary and observations, conclusions, recommendations and references. As in lieu of the ethics in higher education, fair conduct of research and prevention of misconduct, as per UGC (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2018, students, researchers and faculty members should not perform any academic misconduct by the theft of intellectual property in any manner.

Therefore, the 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 and regulations governing the source is essentially required. As per the UGC Regulation 2018 on Plagiarism Policy, the university adopts understated policies in order to detect and refine the research work through Institutional Academic Integrity Panel (IAIP):

1. Each and every research work or academic copyrights shall go through the university plagiarism detection cell which will be done through open access plagiarism check links.
2. Any thesis, dissertation, or any other such documents submitted by the students, scholars or faculty members to the HEI 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.
3. The undertaking shall include declaration that, the work is free from the plagiarism and has been checked by the university approved plagiarism detection software.
4. Each supervisor to the students shall submit a certificate with the work of the students that the work is free from plagiarism.
5. Soft copies of all Masters, Research program’s dissertations and thesis shall be submitted to INFLIBNET through IAIP of the university within a month after the award of degrees for hosting in the digital repository under the “Shodh Ganga e-repository”.

Similarity checks for exclusion from Plagiarism:

The similarity checks for plagiarism shall exclude the following –

• All quoted work reproduced with all necessary permission and/or attribution.
• All references, bibliography, table of content, preface and acknowledgements.
• 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.

Levels of Plagiarism:

Plagiarism would be quantified into following levels in ascending order of severity for the purpose of its definition:

• Level 0: Similarities up-to 10% - Minor similarities, no penalty
• Level 1: Similarities above 10% to 40%
• Level 2: Similarities above 40% to 60%
• Level 3: Similarities above 60%

Penalty:

In case of found guilty of plagiarizing, they shall be considered under following class of severity:

• Level 0: Similarities up-to 10 % - No penalty for minor similarities. However, the author or researcher shall be asked to resubmit the work with 0% plagiarism.
• Level 1: Similarities above 10% to 40% - Shall be asked to withdraw manuscript submitted for publication and shall not be allowed to publish any work for a minimum period of one year.
• Level 2: Similarities above 40% to 60% - shall be asked to withdraw manuscript submitted for publication and shall not be allowed to publish any work for a minimum period of 1 years and shall be denied a right to one annual increment in case of academician. They also shall not be allowed to be a supervisor to any M.Phil. and Ph.D. student/scholar for a period of two years.
• Level 3: Similarities above 60% - shall be asked to withdraw manuscript submitted for publication and shall not be allowed to publish any work for a minimum period of three years and in case of faculty, shall be denied a right to two successive annual increments and shall not be allowed to be a supervisor to any UG, PG, 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 University.

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 Head of the Institution.

Necessary Precautions :

Beside, in case the one who has been claimed for plagiarism and has been found accused of doing so, shall be subject to the court of law by the one who has claimed for penalty as per copyright norm.

Keeping in view the policy of plagiarism, and avoid piracy of intellectual property, the author needs to follow the citation policy:

• When 14 words are taken together from some established core work, citation becomes essential.
• Also, when the copied content reaches 40 words in accumulation, the fragment needs to be kept under inverted comma (“_”) in italic.
• Authors are necessarily required to cite reference in case of any content adopted from anywhere other than internet open sites. It is also that, even in case of open site internet source the copied contents if found more than 30 percent in aggregate during plagiarism detection, the work shall not be considered for further proceedings.

Note: The policy framed is in line with the provisions stated under UGC Regulation 2018 for Plagiarism, therefore, it may change with amendments in UGC Regulation.