Plagiarism at IITK

There has been a serious accusation of plagiarism at the biotech dept at IITK. As if this was not bad enough, stories of several similar cases have surfaced from all other IITs. Of course, the Indian media has done its part headlining the graveness of the situation.

For an institute that claims to maintain the highest of the standards, even one such incident is unforgivable. In retrospect however, I think such an incident was bound to happen, sooner or later. When I was a student at IITK, I do not recall reading any emails from DOAA underlining the seriousness of scientific misconduct.

If I am allowed to guess, the students who copied from Wikipedia are not the back-stabbing villains portrayed by the media. Most probably, they were simply unaware of the fact that such blatant plagiarism is easy to spot and would cost them their careers. It is partly their adviser's fault for not predicting it and it is going to cost him his career too. Most of all however, it is the institute's fault for not sensitizing the faculty and students of the issue, especially in the backdrop of other recent cases in academia; see e.g., Hwang Woo-suk case in biology.

All in all, it was a jolt that the institute needed. The brand reputation has suffered but I am sure that we will emerge stronger from the ordeal.