Thesis Processing Cell: Revised guidelines

The Thesis Processing Cell enables the PhD/MTech/MDes/MSR/BT-MT Dual Degree students to submit theses free of a) unintended plagiarized content and b) editorial errors at its two desks, Plagiarism Prevention Desk (PPD) and Editorial Help Desk (EHD).

Plagiarism Prevention Desk

The Plagiarism Prevention Desk (PPD) checks the pre-submission draft of the PhD/MTech/MSR/MDes/BT-MT Dual Degree theses for similarity. The check is mandatory for all the theses submitted at the Institute. The procedure is as follows:

1. PPD generates a Similarity Report through Turnitin
2. Students are required to submit the pre-submission draft to PPD at ppd_doaa@iitk.ac.in for a check along with the filled in Thesis Processing Form available at http://www.iitk.ac.in/doaa/data/processing-form-original.docx
3. PPD runs the draft on Turnitin and makes the Similarity Report available to the student. PPD requires a period of minimum 2-3 working days to process a thesis for Similarity Check.
4. Similarity Report contains Similarity Index (in %), and highlights similarities within the text, listing the source of similarity for each case.
5. The Institute guidelines on plagiarism are in the process of being formulated and are expected to be available soon. Until the Institute guidelines are released, the UGC guidelines (UGC Notification No. F.1-18/2010(CP-II), dated 23/07/2018 and titled "Promotion of Academic Integrity and prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions", Sections 7 and 8 available at https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/7771545_academic-integrity-Regulation2018.pdf are recommended.
6. The procedure at the PPD Cell does not exclude the student’s own papers/articles except on request by the student endorsed by the thesis supervisor.
7. The software used for Similarity Check may not exclude quoted work reproduced in the thesis with permission/attribution; references/bibliography; table of contents; preface; acknowledgements; generic terms; laws and standard symbols and equations.
8. Similarity on the parameters in (f) and (g) is not considered as plagiarism.
9. Students are advised to inform themselves of the “right to reproduce” their own published work (journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters etc.) in their theses.
10. As per the guidelines under (e) above, Similarity Index of 10% or less is deemed as acceptable.
11. To keep the Similarity Index below the threshold of 10%, students may specify, via email to ppd_doaa, the sources (references/weblinks) that are to be excluded from the check.
12. The endorsement of the Thesis Supervisor on the Thesis Processing Form is mandatory for the submission of the thesis.
13. If the Similarity Index cannot be brought down below the acceptable threshold of 10% due to a large number of sources involving common generic terms, definitions, equations etc., the student will specify the reasons for the same on the Thesis Processing Form.
14. To expedite the thesis processing, the student and the thesis supervisor may generate a Similarity Report through Turnitin. The student may then submit the draft of the thesis and the similarity report to the PPD. If the similarity index is 10% or above, the procedure described in (m) may be followed. Please use the thesis processing form available at http://www.iitk.ac.in/doaa/data/processing_form_revised.docx For Turntin setting and other relevant details can be found at Link
15. The Similarity Report is filed in the Student File maintained by the DOAA Office. It is not shared with the thesis examiners.
16. In case of a thesis with a category III evaluation report, the revised thesis has to be mandatorily processed at PPD before resubmission.
17. The responsibility of final submission of a plagiarism-free thesis rests with the student, who is required to make a declaration to this effect in the thesis available at http://www.iitk.ac.in/doaa/data/Declaration_part_of_thesis.doc.

PPD also checks all submitted manuscripts for consistency of formatting conventions. This is executed alongside the Similarity Check done by the PPD.

 PPD Check is mandatory for theses submitted on or after September 2, 2019.

Editorial Help Desk

The desk caters to the PhD students who volunteer to get the pre-submission draft of the thesis vetted by English Language Editors empaneled by the Institute. It is a paid service.

The procedure is as follows:

1. The student mails the pre-submission draft of the thesis to the Editorial Help Desk forwarded by his/her supervisor EHD email:ehd_doaa@iitk.ac.in
2. After editorial processing by the EHD, the document is returned to the student over email with a copy to the supervisor.
3. The EHD services are available at Rs. 50/- per page of the manuscript. The mode of payment is bank transfer to the editor’s account. The process is overseen by the Coordinator, Thesis Processing Cell.
4. The scope of the editorial work is limited to features of English language, its grammar and usage.

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