UGC has made a two-credit course compulsory at the PhD level looking at the increasing cases of plagiarism and publication misconducts.
This is a great initiative, which is worthy of adoption across Australasia. Such a tangible institutional investment in research integrity will yield excellent results and should be seen as an essential component of an institution’s research training agenda.
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All the PhD students will have to mandatorily pursue the 30-hour course from the academic session 2020-21. The course is divided into six units focussing on the basics of philosophy of science and ethics, research integrity, publication ethics and hands-on sessions to identify research misconducts and predatory publishers.
“In the last 15 years, the number of cases related to unethical practices such as plagiarism, pay and publish have increased. The course follows the management principle known as Corrective and Prevention Actions (CAPA), which will help students identify and stay away from the predatory publishers and dubious journals,” says Bhushan Patwardhan, vice chairman, UGC.
