The High Court on Sunday formed a seven-member expert committee to formulate a guideline to prevent plagiarism in PhD thesis. The committee has been asked to submit the guideline within the next three months. Bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Razilk Al Jalil passed the order during a hearing on a writ petition in this regard. The members of the committee includes, educationist Dr Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, former Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University (DU) Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique, Chairman of Computer Science department of DU Prof Saifuddin Md Tareeq, DU Law department Prof Dr Nakib Mohammad Nasrullah, former chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC) Prof Abdul Mannan,  Prof Dr Mahmuda Naznin, head of Department of Computer Science and Engineering of Bangladesh University of Science and Technology (Buet), Prof Dr Md Mostofa Akbar of the same department. Also read: HC asks UGC to submit report on PhD degree-awarding process Advocate Md  Moniruzzaman Linkon appeared for the petitioner while Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy represented the state during the hearing. UGC has been asked to provide necessary assistance to the newly formed committee to formulate the guideline said DAG Tushar Kanti Roy. On January 26, 2020, advocate Md Moniruzzaman Linkon submitted the petition based on a report published on a vernacular daily’s online version. The report published on January 21, that year said 98 per cent of thesis  conducted by DU Assistant Professor Abul Kalam Lutful Kabir of the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology was plagiarized. On February 4, this year court wanted to know whether the public and private universities approve PhD and equivalent degrees following proper law and asked DU to investigate the plagiarism issue of Prof Lutful Kabir. Also read: DU demotes 3 teachers for plagiarism Besides the court issued a rule questioning why technology should not be used to check plagiarism in thesis before giving PhD degree approval. The court also questioned why an order should not be given to take measures to stop this crime. 

Plagiarism checker tools and software are very beneficial in many facets of life. On one hand, they teach professionals to appreciate other people's work and refrain from plagiarizing it. From another standpoint, these programs assist in safeguarding the copyright and securing internal papers of a company. Here we have compiled a list of plagiarism detecting programs that are completely free and are going to help you. Top Plagiarism Detection Software You Can Use Free of Cost Grammarly You may use Grammarly for free to check for grammatical issues in your paper, Docx Word file, or web page, but you must upgrade to check for plagiarism. The user can copy and text into Grammarly from a text file. It can detect deliberate plagiarism and an incorrectly quoted quotation by doing a deep search throughout the web. The companies, organizations, teachers, or editors can use this checker on a regular basis to assess papers provided by freelance writers and to locate missing citations. Read Best Upcoming Smartphones in Bangladesh in February 2022 Grammarly is a preferred plagiarism checker by many professionals since it finds instances of plagiarism in the writing and on this site. These sorts of insights aid in self-editing and assure that the users can generate unique content, which is beneficial for SERP ranking. Grammarly's premium plan offers a more precise plagiarism detector. Monthly Subscription fee is $30 (BDT 2578). Subscription is $60 USD (BDT 5156) per three months. And, the annual Subscription charge stands at $144 (BDT 12374) per year. Conversion rate BDT 85.93 to 1 USD. Plagiarisma This software is compatible with Microsoft Windows, BlackBerry, Android, Moodle, and the Web. It identifies instances of plagiarism in essays, research papers, coursework, and dissertations. It facilitates access to rank a content organically in Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Users can check research papers and articles from Scholar, and Books. The users can verify a text using a URL, an online service, or a file upload. This tool is multilingual in nature, supporting over 190 languages. Read Best Productivity Tools, Apps, and Software to Organize Your Work The users can simply copy and paste the text or write it in the relevant section, enter a URL, or upload a file from the computer. HTML, TXT, RTF, DOC, DOCX, XLSX, XLS, PDF, EPUB, ODT, FB2, and PDB are all supported file formats. However, there are daily restrictions on the number of plagiarism checks.  ProWritingAid This flexible application is an excellent alternative for authors on a budget who wish to verify their work for plagiarism swiftly and simply. This copyright checker may be used to examine writings while the users are working in popular tools such as Scrivener. Alternatively, the users can also post an article, essay, or document in this platform to check plagiarism. The users can utilize the plagiarism checker to scan book chapters for missing quotation citations when writing a book, article or research paper. The reports' accuracy will certainly amaze you. The users must purchase credits in order to conduct a plagiarism report on a piece of work.  Read Top free infographic tools and software The paid version is available at $79 (BDT 6789) per year. Conversion rate: BDT 85.93 equals 1 USD.

Plagiarism is nothing but cheating. But when the gatekeepers of academic integrity indulge in such an unethical practice, some universities choose to turn a blind eye. At least this holds true for the country's most prestigious Dhaka University. While the university has found evidence of plagiarism against 11 of its teachers in the past four years, it has been slow to upbraid or punish offenders -- so far, punitive action has been taken against three of them only. Offenders, on the other hand, have blamed someone else for the mistakes. Read: DU demotes 3 teachers for plagiarism The teachers who have faced the wrath of the university authorities for plagiarism are Md Omar Faruq of the Islamic history and culture department, Sayed Mahfuzul Haque Marzan of the criminology department, and Samia Rahman of the mass communication and journalism department. In 2018, then assistant professor Omar's PhD degree was cancelled on charges of plagiarism. In October 2020, the university formed a special tribunal to determine his punishment. Later, on its recommendation, the DU Syndicate -- the governing body --asked the teacher to serve as a lecturer. On similar grounds, associate professor Samia and assistant professor Marzan were redesignated as assistant professor and lecturer, respectively, in 2020. The action came three years after a panel was formed to probe allegations of plagiarism against the duo for an article they had co-authored. In fact, in 2017, the University of Chicago Press wrote to DU, claiming that Samia and Marjan had, in their co-authored write-up, "used portions without proper citations" from French philosopher Michel Foucault’s 1982 article ‘The Subject and Power'. The duo's article was published in DU's Social Science Review in 2016. When asked about the accusations, Marjan, in 2017, said that Samia was the first author of their joint article and "if there were any problems, they were in her portion of the work." Samia, on her part, had said: “I was abroad when the article was published. He submitted it without consulting me." Read: I'm victim of dirty teachers' politics: Samia Rahman However, no meaningful action has been taken in other cases of plagiarism. In September 2017, for instance, the DU syndicate formed a five-member panel, led by then pro vice chancellor (academic) Nasreen Ahmed, to probe allegations of plagiarism against tourism and hospitality management department’s three assistant professors -- Bodruzzaman Bhuiyan, Nusrat Jahan and her husband Ruhul Amin. This was after the teachers of the department indulged in mudslinging. Nusrat, a Senate member, was the one who had first complained to the authorities, including the VC, accusing Bodruzzaman of using copied materials in his thesis, titled 'Socio-economic Impact of Tourism in Cox’s Bazar: A Study of Local Residence Attitude'. Prof Md Afzal Hossain of the department was quick to raise similar allegations against Nusrat and her husband Rahul -- the husband-wife duo, according to him, used portions from each other’s previous works in their academic articles. Ruhul, however, refuted the allegations against him and his wife as baseless. “All our published articles are properly cited and referenced to the primary and secondary sources. The allegations are baseless.” Four years have already passed, but the university probe committee is yet to submit its findings. Read: DU teacher relieved of duties over 98pc plagiarism in PhD thesis Similarly, in January 2020, a professor of Sweden’s Gothenburg University and a Bangladeshi private university researcher separately raised allegations of plagiarism against pharmaceutical technology department's associate professor AK Lutful Kabir. Both then claimed to found some 98 percent plagiarism in Lutful's PhD thesis. Prof Jonas Nilsson of Sweden wrote a letter to the DU VC, alleging that Lutful had copied from his research paper. The department's dean of faculty was asked to investigate the matter. However, there is no progress in the matter yet. Two months later, in March 2020, the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh cancelled a research contract with two DU teachers after they found evidence of plagiarism in their joint academic paper. The two researchers -- Dr Eshani Chakraborty, professor of the history department, and Dr Zobaida Nasreen, associate professor of the anthropology department -- received the society's research grant nearly four years ago. They were selected to carry out a research on 'Brihottoro Dhakar Sthanik Sangskriti o Boishister Swarup Anusondhan (Exploring local culture and its distinctive features of greater Dhaka)' in April 2017. The Asiatic Society subsequently wrote to the DU authorities, urging them to initiate action against the two teachers, but the varsity apparently chose to stay silent. Recently, former director of the National Academy for Education Management Iffat Ara Nargis brought plagiarism allegations against DU music department associate professor Mohsina Akhter Khanam (known as Leena Taposhi Khan) at a conference. Nargis alleged that in her 280-page book, Leena copied materials from other books -- "some 80 pages are direct lifts".  Leena completed her PhD in 2010 on the ‘Use of ragas in Nazrul songs’ under the supervision of Nazrul exponent former national professor Rafiqul Islam. "The thesis under my supervision was completed following the assigned procedure using proper references," Prof Rafiqul said. Besides, a few teachers from the country's public varsities recently raised plagiarism allegations against social science faculty dean professor Sadeka Halim. They pointed out the overlaps between the DU professor's research paper, 'Participation of Women in Aquaculture in the Three Coastal Districts of Bangladesh: Approaches towards Sustainable Livelihood’, and other materials. When contacted, DU pro vice-chancellor professor ASM Maksud Kamal said, 'These complaints usually come to me through a process. I have been looking into plagiarism complaints since taking charge. Officials concerned have been asked to submit a report at the earliest. Hopefully, a decision in these cases are expected by this month." Bangladesh has some 49 public and 107 private universities. However, not a single varsity has formulated an anti-plagiarism policy to date. "We will soon unveil an anti-plagiarism guideline for researchers, teachers and students of the university aiming to prevent such an unethical practice in their research work. We are waiting for an approval from the Syndicate," Prof Maksud Kamal said.

Dhaka University teacher Samia Rahman, who was demoted for plagiarism in research papers, has claimed that she is a victim of “filthy politics” of the university teachers.

From being a source of entertainment to serving as a means of elucidating human expressions, it is impossible to imagine a world without music. But plagiarism is something that has been plaguing the Bangladesh music industry for decades.