By Kuni Tyessi
Days of fraudulent acts of plagiarism might have come to an end in the nation’s ivory towers as Nigeria has launched a homegrown plagiarism detection software code named EagleScan.
The cost of development, deployment, maintenance and marketing of the software over the next three years is projected at a total of N251,298,000.
Launching the software in Abuja, the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo stated that plagiarism is a form of corruption, describing the act as stealing of intellectual properties of others without acknowledgements.
Osinbajo, who was represented by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Rasheed Abubakar, said it is an initiative that announces the zero tolerance for plagiarism.
According to him, the federal government is fully committed to supporting all initiatives that will continue to build and enhance the integrity of higher institutions.
“Let me also say that the government will give all that is needed to ensure that anti-plagiarism measures are instituted across the country,” Osinbajo added.
The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Prof. Elias Bogoro, said the fund in respect to plagiarism is delighted to work with the Committee of Vice-Chancellors (CVC).
According to Bogoro, the fund is not only committed to the initiative, but has effectively promised and proceeded to make funding commitment towards the project.
“TETFund recently realised the need for software on anti-plagiarism for the National Research Fund, we are also working on a software to package the impact of research, but in respect of plagiarism, we are happy to work with the CVC.
“We are convinced of deepened content of academic engagement particularly research. The idea of operations must stop, hence the establishement of the Research and Development Committee,” Bogoro added.
The Secretary General of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors, Prof. Yakubu Ochefu said “the cost of development, deployment, maintenance and marketing of the software over the next three years, is projected at a total of N251,298,000.
“A substantial part of this cost is for licensing closed user databases and repositories. For now, CVC Secretariat is hosting the secretariat for the Eagle Scan Technical Team.”
The main features of the software include, Plagiarism Checker, Peer Review, Document Comparison, Grammar Checker, Similarity Index, Grade Mark, Local and foreign Language Support/Converter, Local/Global Repository, Title/Abstract Validation, LMS Integration, Report Download, User Account Management, and Self-Archival Interface.
