Plagiarism, research publications and law

Raghvendralal Saha

Plagiarism in scientific research papers has become a topic of discussion as many cases are reported from India. The core of the discussions has largely been driven by ethical considerations rather than by the relevant laws in the country. Plagiarism is stealing someone’s intellectual property which is legally and morally untenable. In addition it can cause economic disadvantage to the original author. The issue of plagiarism needs to be handled at a much higher level of academic, legal, political and social debate for enhancing the image of Indian research.

A plagiarist attempts to pass off the copied work as his own. Plagiarism is a violation of the right of authorship enjoyed by the original author, sometimes also called the paternity right. The right of authorship in India is derived from the Indian Copyright Act. The Act provides protection to an expression or presentation of an idea and not to the idea itself; the expression may be textual, visual or audio or a combination thereof. While copyright has a life (author’s life plus 60 years in case of literary works), authorship right is not bound by time. Section 57 of the Indian Copyright Act stipulates “Independently of the author’s copyright and even after assignment either wholly or partially of the said copyright, the author of a work shall have the right to claim authorship of the work.” In other words replacing the original author’s name by some other name is a violation of authorship right of the original author.

Plagiarism is also an act of copyright infringement if undertaken within the period of the copyright. In other words one can say plagiarism = infringement of copyright + infringement of authorship right. Beyond the term of copyright, plagiarism will only be infringement of authorship right.

Difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement

The Oxford Dictionary defines plagiarise as “take and use (the thoughts, writings, inventions etc. of another person) as one’s own; pass off the thoughts etc. of (another person) as one’s own.” In view of this definition it is necessary to examine how plagiarism is different from infringement of copyrights at the conceptual level. Copying of an idea or a thought or data is not copyright infringement but it may be a case of plagiarism. For example, making and selling of a pirated / copied book is a copyright infringement but not a case of plagiarism. However, the infringer will also become a plagiarist if he states or implies that his (copied) work is an original work created by him thus claiming a wrong authorship. The point being made is that plagiarism therefore needs to be viewed both from legal and non-legal angles at the same time. The non-legal angle could be linked to ethics, consideration towards the original author, honesty and appropriation of credit not due etc.

A plagiarist may raise his reputation and recognition by writing an article which is plagiarised, especially in the eyes of those who have not read the original work. This may become detrimental to the reputation of the original writer whose work may sometimes be considered as plagiarised by new readers. The enhanced reputation may lead to pecuniary benefits such as getting further assignments to write. It would therefore appear that plagiarism may also get linked to economic benefits, hence is not an ethical issue alone. Plagiarism is not a new phenomenon; it existed in the past too. However, it was not easy to detect plagiarism. Digital technology has enabled finding out cases of plagiarism, easily, quickly and correctly. On the other hand internet and digital publications have helped plagiarism to grow rapidly as cut and paste of text, tables and drawings has become easy and straight forward. Therefore authorship rights can now be easily violated. Consequently, national and global concerns about plagiarism are now occupying the centre stage among the research community.

Indian context

Plagiarism certainly points towards lack of originality and novelty in any writing whether scientific or otherwise. Plagiarism in scientific research papers is a serious matter because it creates doubts about the quality of research in terms of novelty. In the Indian context, we have more reason to get concerned as most of the research papers emanate from publicly funded institutions and copying of others’ research is a more serious matter as it points towards inefficient use of public funds. Researchers’ interested majorly in increasing the count of their publications may give a go-by to originality in content and expression while submitting their papers to journals. In this backdrop it is urgently required to examine the robustness of the training being imparted to young students and researchers in terms of novelty and originality!

Plagiarism is a legal and ethical matter and hence it cannot be handled by common sense. Creating awareness about unlawfulness and unethicalness of plagiarism among all types of researchers irrespective of age is the most essential step towards encouraging original research. Let us remember that a plagiarised work brings disrepute to an institution if a member of the faculty/ student engages in the act of plagiarism.

As most academic and research institutions in India do not have policies for managing their intellectual property rights including copyrights, policies for restricting plagiarism have not found the right place in the scheme of things. It would be advisable to have a short course on ethics and laws in research and all academic institutions. A capsule of this nature may be included in programmes conducted by Academic Staff Colleges under UGC.

Every university and academic and research institution must have a policy on plagiarism which may prescribe best practices in research and dissuasive measures to restrict plagiarism. There is no dearth of software which can help in tracking plagiarism. The best and never failing step would be to exercise self-discipline and stop copying and plagiarising. Senior researchers / scientists have a major responsibility in curbing plagiarism. Any suggestion to set up a central body for checking and controlling plagiarism in Indian research should be rejected as it would prove counterproductive. The law in this regard exists which is comparable to any other law in the world. A little hand holding of researchers would pay rich dividends in nurturing science and technology in the country. By avoiding plagiarism we would help creating stronger intellectual property and assets which would also attract global appreciation and respect.