policy on academic integrity

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Policy On Academic Integrity


As a prominent institution in the State imparting legal education and undertaking research, VM Salgaocar College of Law places utmost importance on integrity in academic work and research undertaken.

The policy on academic integrity requires that a faculty/student undertaking research and/or publication.

9Should properly acknowledge and cite the use of ideas, results, material or words of others.

9Should obtain all data or results by adopting ethical means.

9Should report the findings accurately without suppressing or manipulating any results inconsistent with his or her interpretation or conclusions.

9Should properly acknowledge all contributors with regard to a given piece of work.
9Should ensure that all work submitted as his or her own is produced without the adoption of impermissible materials or impermissible collaborations.
9To ensure effective support and encouragement for research among faculty and students in research activities.

For the purpose of this policy, it is hereby clarified that plagiarism means the use of material, ideas, or data as one’s own, without appropriately acknowledging the original source.

Plagiarism includes but is not limited to:

9Taking or using material from class-notes or incorporating material from the internet whether graphs, drawings, photographs, diagrams, tables, computer programs, or other non-textual material from other sources without proper acknowledgment.

9Creating sources, or citations that do not exist.

9Paraphrasing or changing an author’s words or style without citation/acknowledgement.

9Fabricating or manipulating data and reporting it in dissertations, theses and publications.

9Reproducing one’s own previously published data, illustrations, figures, images, or someone else’s data, etc.
9Signing another student’s name on an assignment, report, research paper, dissertation, or theses.
9Using unauthorized material, copying, collaborating when not authorized, and purchasing or borrowing papers or material from various sources.
9Reproducing in whole or part, text/sentences from a report, book, dissertations, theses, publications or internet websites.

In addition to the above, the following ethics are to be observed by the faculty:

1. Faculty should not use the research of the student for their own purpose.
2. In case the faculty takes students’ assistance in research, the due acknowledgment must be given to the student.
3. Students must be informed well in advance about the academic credits/financial incentives that he/she would receive for supporting the research.

The Goa University (GU) has received anti-plagiarism software through a body of University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi, which will now enable the varsity to keep a check on plagiarism in doctorate thesis and other research submitted to the body.

The Information and Library Network Centre (INFLIBNET) is an autonomous inter-university centre of UGC, which has provided GU the facility of free access to the anti-plagiarism tools known as ‘Turnitin’ and ‘iThenticate’ under the ‘Shodganga Project’. The university has been made a part of the Shodganga project as it is a signatory to a memorandum of understanding with INFLIBNET.

The university’s library has been identified as the nodal centre to put the software to use and GU’s librarian has been nominated as Shodaganga’s coordinator for the university.

With these anti-plagiarism tools, the soft copy of any manuscript or thesis can be scanned systematically to pinpoint the extent of plagiarism- URKUND

Ethics Committee

Any violation of the policy on academic integrity would invite stringent action against the student and the disqualification of his/her work by the Ethics Committee.