9. The Plagiarism Standing Committee shall then conduct the investigation. Depending on the details of the claim, the investigation may include, but may not be limited to, any or all of the following steps:
a) Manual and / or automated tests for content similarity.
b) Determination of the extent and quantum of significant material plagiarized.
c) Soliciting comments to the claim, from the Editor-in-Chief (of a journal) or Program Chair (of conference proceedings) and referees of either or both papers.
d) Consultation with legal counsel.
e) Consult / contact witnesses and record statements there-of if so required.
f) Consult / contact present and / or past employers of the authors.
10. The “Plagiarism Standing Committee” will submit its report with clear cut findings and recommendations to the Vice Chancellor / Rector / Head of the Organization within a specified period not exceeding sixty days. The Vice Chancellor / Rector / Head of the Organization will have the discretion to implement the recommendations after approval through the statutory process and take punitive action against the offender as per penalties prescribed under this policy or to forward the report to HEC or his / her parent organization for further action if outside their purview / jurisdiction.
Penalties for Plagiarism
11. Plagiarism is an intellectual crime. As such the penalties for plagiarism should not only take into account the severity and recurrence of the offence, but also the intellectual standing of the offender. This entails a gradual increase in punitive action with minimum punishment for a first time offence by a student who copies a home work assignment to a maximum punishment for a teacher/researcher/staff who attempts to present / publish, or actually presents / publishes plagiarized material; as his own, in a conference / journal.
Therefore, the punishments for Plagiarism have been divided into two separate categories, i.e those for "Teachers, Researchers and Staff" and those for the "Students". The groups have already been defined in para 5 above.
(a) Penalties for Teachers, Researchers and Staff: When an act of plagiarism, as described earlier in paras 2 and 3, is found to have occurred, the "Plagiarism Standing Committee" in its recommendations, DEPENDING UPON THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE PROVEN OFFENCE, will advise the Competent
Authority of the Organization, to take any one or a combination of the following disciplinary action(s) against the teacher, researcher and / or staff found guilty of the offence:
(i) Major Penalty:
In cases where most of the paper (or key results) have been exactly copied from any published work of other people without giving the reference to the original work, then (a) a major penalty of dismissal from service needs to be prescribed, along with (b) the offender may be “Black Listed” and may NOT be eligible for employment in any academic / research organization, and (c) the notification of “Black Listing” of the author(s) may be published in the print media or may be publicized on different websites at the discretion of the Vice-Chancellor / Rector / Head of the organization.
(ii) Moderate Penalty:
In case where some paragraphs including some key results have been copied without citation, then a moderate penalty involving any one or both of the following needs to be imposed (a) demotion to the next lower grade,
(b) the notification of “Black Listing” of the author(s) which may be published in the print media or may be publicized on different websites at the discretion of the Vice-Chancellor / Rector / Head of the organization.
(iii) Minor Penalty:
In case a few paragraphs have been copied from an external source without giving reference of that work, then minor penalties need to be prescribed for a specified period involving any one or more of the following:
(a) warning, (b) freezing of all research grants, (c) the promotions/annual increments of the offender may be stopped, for a specified period and (d) HEC or the University / Organization may debar the offender from sponsorship of research funding, travel grant, supervision of Ph.D. students, scholarship, fellowship or any other funded program for a period as deemed appropriate by the “Plagiarism Standing Committee”.
(b) Students: When an act of plagiarism, as described earlier in paras 2 and 3, is found to have occurred, the "Plagiarism Standing Committee" in its recommendations, DEPENDING UPON THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE PROVEN OFFENCE, will advise the Vice Chancellor / Head of the Organization, to take any one or a combination of the following disciplinary action(s) against the student(s) found guilty of the offence:
(i) In the case of thesis the responsibility of plagiarism will be of the student and not of the supervisor or members of the Supervisory Committee.
(ii) The offender may be expelled/ rusticated from the University and from joining any institution of Higher Education in Pakistan for a period as
deemed appropriate by the "Plagiarism Standing Committee”. A notice may be circulated among all academic institutions and research organization to this effect.
(iii) The offender may be relegated to a lower class.
(iv) The offender may be given a failure grade in the subject.
(v) The offender may be fined an amount as deemed appropriate.
(vi) The offender may be given a written warning if the offence is minor and is committed for the first time.
(vii) The degree of a student may be withdrawn if AT ANY TIME it is proven that he or she has presented Plagiarized work in his / her MS, MPhil or PhD
dissertation if the extent of plagiarism comes under the category of major penalty as conveyed in Para 11(a-1).
(viii) The notification of the plagiarism by the author(s) may be published in the print media or may be publicized on different websites at the discretion of the Vice Chancellor / Rector / Head of the Organization.
(ix) HEC or the University / Organization may debar the offender from sponsorship of research funding, travel grant, scholarship, fellowship or any other funded program for a period as deemed appropriate by the "Plagiarism Standing Committee".
(x) Any other penalty deemed fit by the “Plagiarism Standing Committee”.
(c) Co-Authors/Declarations
1. Provided that a co-author has listed a paper in his/her resume and applied for a benefit forthwith, any co-author is deemed to be equally responsible for any plagiarism committed in a published paper presented to or published in a journal or presented at a conference.
2. All Journals in Pakistan must require ALL authors to sign a declaration that the material presented in the creative work is not plagiarized (Sample Attached)
12. Additional Actions Required: In addition to the above punishments, the following additional common actions must be taken if the offence of Plagiarism is established:
a) If the plagiarized paper is accessible on the web page its access will be removed. The paper itself will be kept in the database for future research or legal purposes. (b) The author(c) will be asked to write a formal letter of apology to the authors of the Original paper that was plagiarized, including an admission of plagiarism. Should the author(s) refuse to comply then additional punishments as deemed fit may be recommended by the "Plagiarism Standing Committee.
c) If the paper is submitted but not published yet, the paper will be rejected by the Editor-in-Chief or the Program Chair without further revisions and without any further plagiarism investigation conducted. However, Warning may be issued to the author/ co-author.
13. Appeal: As the penalties are severe, the affected person(s) will have the right
to appeal to the Chairman HEC / Vice Chancellor / Rector / Head of the Organization for a review of the findings or may submit a mercy petition within 30 days from the date of notification. Such appeals / petitions will be disposed off within 60 days of receipt, by following the laid down procedures regarding such appeals.
14. Penalty for Wrong Reporting / False Allegation: If the case of Plagiarism is not proved and it is confirmed that a false allegation was lodged, the Vice Chancellor / Rector / Head of the Organization will inform the complainant’s Organization and will recommend disciplinary action against the complainant, to be taken by his / her parent organization.
References
[1] “ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) Policy on Plagiarism” (http://www.acm.org/pubs/plagiarism%20policy.html)
[2] “Academic Integrity Statement: Appendix1” (University of Southampton Calendar 2006/7) (http://www.calendar.soton.ac.uk/sectionIV/part8a.html)
[3] “Plagiarism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/plagiarism).
(Sample)
HIGHER EDUCATION COMMISSION OF PAKISTAN
(Monograph & Textbook Writing Scheme)
Monograph / Textbook Proposal Submission Undertaking
Corresponding Author(s) name: ___________________________________
Corresponding Author(s) Address: ____________________________________
Title of Work: ___________________________________
The Higher Education Commission (Publisher) and the Monograph/Textbook Proposal Author (Authors if a multiauthored
Work) agree as the following:
1. The Monograph/Book will contain the original Work of author(s).
2. It will not violate copyright or intellectual property right of any person or entity.
3. It will not contain previously published material in whole or in part for which permission from the concerned
parties has not been secured.
4. The author(s) recognize that if any material submitted for consideration to the HEC is found to be plagiarized,
then the HEC may bar the author(s) from participating in all HEC Programs and public notice to the fact maybe
Issued in print as well as electronic media. The HEC reserves the right to recover all amounts spent on
Evaluation/publication etc., and also may take any other action deemed necessary to serve as deterrence
against plagiarism.
5. The author(s) shall indemnify and hold the Publisher harmless against loss or expenses arising from breach of
any such warranties.
6. In consideration of the HEC’s agreement to publish the Work, the author(s) hereby grants HEC a non-exclusive,
royalty-free license to print, publish, reproduce or distribute the Work throughout the world by all means of
expression, including electronic format. The author(s) further grants HEC the right to use the author’s name in
association with the Work in published form and in promotional materials.
7. The copyrights are duly reserved by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.
All authors are requested to sign this form. If not signed by all authors, the corresponding author acknowledges that
s/he is signing on behalf of all the authors and with their authorization. Faxed signatures and multiple forms are
acceptable provided the corresponding author collates all the material and submits in one batch.
Author Signature: ______________________ Name: ______________ Date: ___________
Author Signature:____________________ Name: _________________ Date: ___________
Author Signature: ___________________ Name: _________________ Date: ____________
Publisher Signature: _________________ Name: __________________ Date: ___________
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