'Shodhganga helps curb plagiarism in research activities'

The Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre, an autonomous inter-university centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC), is involved in creating infrastructure for sharing of library and information resources among academic and research Institutions. The centre recently launched a unique repository, Shodhganga, to tackle the problem of plagiarism in research related activities. During a recent visit to Kolhapur, Jagdish Arora, director of INFLIBNET, explained to Mohsin Mulla the significance of Shodhganga.

What exactly is Shodhganga?
In 2009, the UGC passed a resolution for submitting MPhil and PhD theses online. In January 2010, Shodhganga, the Indian repository for electronic theses and dissertation, was launched. So far 40 universities across the country have joined Shodhganga that now has nearly 2,200 theses. Several others are in the process of digitisation.

What initiatives are being taken to increase the participation of varsities in this programme?
Although varsities in India are funded by the UGC, they are very much autonomous in their functioning. They require sanctions from their own management bodies to opt for different programmes.

We have extended funds for setting up computers, local area network (LAN) and digitisation of old theses. Access to anti-plagiarism tools and different software are also given. We expect more and more varsities to participate in this programme. Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional, but human intervention is required to check the practice. On this repository, the theses can be checked for plagiarism.

How does Shodhganga help in preventing plagiarism?
Students can submit their theses directly on this repository in case the varsities where they study have not joined Shodhganga. In such cases, Shodhganga will check whether the students are genuine by checking various documents and will upload the theses on the system.

In cases where the varsities have signed up with the repository, a co-ordinator will facilitate the submission of the theses. In both cases, the students will get a unique URL for their theses. There are anti-plagiarism tools to check plagiarism.

What are the measures taken by other countries to check plagiarism?
Universities of different countries have their individual repositories. In India, the Pondicherry University has its own repository to check plagiarism. But our approach is consortia approach. It is more useful, effective, reduces costs and is better-managed. As the varsities in India are funded by the government, it is easy to adopt the consortia approach.