Academic malpractice: The bane of research

The ecosystem of integrity in academics, and the avoidance rather a complete prohibition of plagiarism in the Indian research scenario, has seen a marked and paradigm shift, particularly in the current times, picking out the subject of academic malpractice and research misconduct into the public domain, from what hitherto was a topic reserved for abstract intellectual conversations. One of the catalysts for this critical focus was the adoption of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) in 1995, which prompted the extensive use of e-research and plagiarism detection softwares. The Government of India, in 2018, gave a go-ahead for the use of plagiarism checking softwares by academic institutions, thereby admitting de facto the menace of academic malpractice in higher educational institutions. This, alongside the introduction of the University Grants Commission (UGC) (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations 2018, reflects the Government’s will to firmly suppress these issues with an iron hand. Applying to the entire research conducted in the Higher Educational Institutions, Clause 3 of the Regulations further delves on the objectives which include increasing awareness levels for responsible research management, establishing institutional safeguards to prevent misconduct, and incorporating plagiarism detection systems. Further, if some foul play is committed by a student or faculty, then the remedial mechanisms are available for such situations. The UGC under various clauses such as Clause 2, 4, 5, 6, and 9 and their several subclauses, other than defining the terms such as academic integrity, plagiarism, and various stakeholders such as author, faculty, and student, has further mandated the Higher Educational Institutions to create multilayered panels of authority such as the Departmental Academic Integrity Panel and the Institutional Academic Integrity Panel to settle issues such as copyright infringement and proper source attribution among other things. However, UGC has also provided a safety net whereby all quoted content reproduced with due permissions and/or attributions along with some other subject matters such as generic terms, standard symbols and equations, and laws shall not be considered as plagiarism or subject to similarity checks. The judiciary in India has also addressed the issue of such academic malpractices by unambiguously emphasizing the need for discipline within educational institutions and even advocating strict punishment against such academic misdemeanors, frauds, misdeeds, and delinquencies. Ensuring academic honesty within academic research circles requires determined efforts and collective responsibility, and if India is to keep continuing on the path of progress, high educational standards should be a rule rather than an exception. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.