Dr MGR Medical University to get anti-plagiarism software

CHENNAI: In a bid to curb the irregularities, the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University has decided to implement anti-plagiarism software to effectively detect plagiarised content in theses and dissertations.

This move comes against the backdrop of complaints against certain students who allegedly indulged in copying others’ content. “Research works submitted must be original and not copied verbatim from other sources,” a senior professor from the university said.

Stating that the software will compare submitted thesis and research papers against a subscription-based database that includes electronically published content by diverse partners and providers, he said, “This database will also encompass journal databases, archived internet documents such as newspapers, magazines, and electronic books, and periodical databases covering a wide range of topics.”

“In addition, access to subject-specific encyclopedia titles and electronic encyclopedias will also be available in the anti-plagiarism system,” he added. He said the new system will ensure academic integrity is maintained across all submissions.

The professor further said that the system will detect plagiarised content through various search engines having a comprehensive database of all major publishers including Scopus, Cross Ref, Elsevier, and Springer.

He noted that the time taken by the software to detect plagiarised content would be minimal and the users can also get printable reports on plagiarised content. “The software will locate copied portions while comparing the contents and provide options to swap content between two windows,” he added.

According to him, the software will support and search contents in common world languages besides English such as Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.