Chandigarh: PGI committee on plagiarism may submit recommendations this week

At present, PGIMER has no specific rules or guidelines for penalising those caught on charge of plagiarism or any other misconduct related to research work. Last year, the institute initiated disciplinary proceedings against two doctors out of four who were allegedly involved in plagiarism and research-related misconduct. Sources add that the committee finalised its recommendations in its last meeting on Friday.

Dr D Behera, Dean (Research), PGI, also chairman of the committee, said, “Yes, we have finalised the detailed guidelines and shall be sending these to Dr Jagat Ram soon.” According to sources, the committee has recommended that the minimum penalty in the four levels shall be a “warning”, which further goes up to “debarring/ suspending the doctor from research activities for a particular period” and in most severe cases, may lead to the doctor’s “dismissal”.

The committee’s recommendations also detail guidelines on how the complaints related to plagiarism/ research misconduct shall be inquired into. “Once a complaint comes to the institute, a scientific team shall be constituted. This team shall verify contents of the complaint and recommend further action,” a committee member said.
The committee has recommended that a research paper should first be screened by a departmental committee before it is sent further, a norm which is non-existent as of now.

The committee has also recommended that doctors should keep the data used in the research with them, “preferably at least for the period of five years” and they should not send their research work to “paid journals”. It has defined the role of co-authors in a research paper.