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Plagiarism Probe Rocks Delhi University History Dept
12 Jun
Summary
- A scholar's 2006 PhD thesis allegedly forms basis for 2014 thesis.
- Accused teacher denies claims, cites intimidation and harassment.
- Lack of digitisation in older theses poses risks to academic integrity.
A plagiarism investigation has been initiated into a 2014 doctoral thesis from Delhi University's history department. The probe follows a complaint by a scholar whose 2006 PhD research on the Dhundhari language and historical trade practices in Eastern Rajasthan is allegedly replicated in the later work.
The complainant, a faculty member at Delhi University's College of Vocational Studies, discovered what he believes were his primary research findings in another scholar's thesis. He noted that approximately 38% of his thesis's content appears in the 2014 thesis without any attribution, according to a Turnitin similarity report.
The teacher accused of plagiarism has strongly refuted all allegations, calling them baseless and citing over a year of intimidation and harassment from the complainant. This case raises significant concerns about the academic integrity and scrutiny of older theses, many of which exist only in physical form due to delayed digitization efforts.
University officials are examining the matter, with the history department forming an academic integrity panel. The university librarian confirmed that while theses submitted from 2015-16 onwards are digitized, older works pre-2015-16 remain largely undigitized, posing a risk of plagiarism and jeopardizing the recognition of scholars' original contributions.
