The Indian Institute of Information Technology Allahabad (IIIT-A) has developed a software to detect plagiarism — which they hope would help maintain high academic standards.

The pilot project has already shown good results. A team of experts and students of IIITA, under the supervision of Dean (Research and Development) Prof R C Tripathi, is working to further improve on it. “The software would deter scholarly dishonesty and cheating by detecting plagiarism,” said IIITA director Dr M D Tiwari.

It can detect plagiarised papers by comparing them with research work and assignments that have already been submitted and are stored in the software’s database. It works like an anti-virus software and the moment a paper or software is scanned, it would detect the plagiarised part of it.

Dr Tiwari said the software has the capacity to detect text plagiarism and would soon be able to check unauthorised copying and use of mathematical equations, designs, models and algorithms. “In the first stage, the IIIT-A is primarily working on IT related patents and plagiarism. In the changing era of scientific development , technologies and programming are becoming obsolete, hence the software is being designed to check and detect any form of plagiarism and unauthorised use of copyright material available in any part of the globe,” he said.

The software would not only detect violations of copyrights and patents, but will also be helpful in cultivating the spirit of indigenous and original research, said Dr Tiwari. “In the era of information revolution, copying of available material is possible at the click of a mouse. The cases of plagiarism have increased alarmingly during the recent years and the institute decided to develop this software to check such attempts,” said Tripathi.