Research has its ethics, it must not be compromised
Dr Gurupdesh Singh, former faculty of English, Guru Nanak Dev University, and eminent author and policymaker on higher education, expresses his views on the menace of plagiarism in India.
Research is a rigorous and committed pursuit of knowledge. One requires a highly disciplined mind and a specific set of abilities for discovering hidden truths or new ideas. This process requires not only serious concentration but also entails a number of ethical obligations some of which demand a cautious handling of their subjects or a due recognition of others' contribution to knowledge. As an educator and mentor for several research scholars over the years, I have highlighted these issues of research ethics and integrity during several online sessions, including a recent one invited by Harcourt Butler Technical University, Kanpur.
Although research at the university level is a part of our higher education, yet its quality these days leaves much to desire. The increasing commercial and competitive interests in higher education have resulted in dilution of some of the ethics in research, a recent example being the Galgotia University fiasco at India AI Summit.
Researchers need to learn the hard way its methodology and other protocols. One must exercise high degree of honesty and transparency in the collection of data. The sanctity of the field data must be preserved by not tampering with it in any way. They should also give due consideration to the right of privacy of their subjects and an equal respect to animal, human or environment laws. While analysing data, it is important that objectivity should be their prime concern as common cultural, social or religious biases can vitiate their conclusions.
What particularly needs to be highlighted is the prevalence of dishonesty and deficit of quality in university dissertations where researchers resort to short-cuts and frequently cut and paste others' material without acknowledging their debt. I need to warn them that Intellectual property rights are in place and one day, their work will be punished under the laws of plagiarism. The practice of copying from other sources has become much easier in recent times with so many AI tools offering quick and ready-to-use materials off their racks. In fact, this lure for easy options actually can jeopardise their academic career.
My advice, therefore, to them is to use some standard research training manuals which are available in plenty. These can teach them to build connectivity with previous scholars and cite their work.
