Web talk on Promoting a Culture of Academic Integrity
Aligarh: Speaking on the pressing problem of plagiarism compromising academic integrity, Dr Abdul Majid Baba (Consultant to Vice Chancellor, University Library Affairs at Central University of Kashmir) emphasised that plagiarism can cost a lot more than we anticipate.
In his web talk titled ‘Promoting a Culture of Academic Integrity in Learning and Research Centers’ organised by the Department of Library and Information Science, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as a part of online lecture series on ‘New Landscape of Library and Information Science’ to observe the university centenary year, Dr Abdul Majid stressed that plagiarism is cheating and should be treated very seriously with disciplinary action.
Giving a cogent picture of the menace of plagiarism, he delineated methods of avoiding such advertent and inadvertent misconducts.
He urged researchers to tread the path of honesty for reaching the apex in their respective fields and to never compromise on the novelty and originality of the research idea.
“Students should cite the original author to make it clear where that idea came from. This is the case regardless of whether writer has paraphrased, summarised or directly quoted their work,” Dr Abdul Majid said.
He added that globally universities have a strict approach to plagiarism, yet on the internet, ‘copy and paste’ culture is rife.
Dr Abdul Majid pointed out: “It has been observed that students, research scholars blatantly lift information from each other to create almost identical articles without crediting the original creator, eventually committing serious academic offence.”
In the welcome address, Dr M Masoom Raza, Chairman, Department of Library and Information Science emphasised that academic integrity is a comprehensive idea of one’s honesty and faithfulness to the profession.
One good novel idea is worth of thousands of academic contributions acquired using ideas of others, he said.
The coordinator of the lecture series, Dr Muzamil Mushtaq expressed that there should be a uniform policy on plagiarism and similarity index by the governing bodies so that academic integrity policies may be effectively implemented.
He also conducted the programme and moderated the Question and Answer session.