FG launches plagiarism detection software

The federal government has launched a plagiarism detection software, called ‘EagleScan’.

A public presentation of the software held on Tuesday at the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) conference centre in Jabi, Abuja.

At the event, which was coordinated by the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU), Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo described plagiarism as a form of corruption, adding that the present administration  is fully committed to supporting all initiatives that will 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.

In his address, Adamu Adamu, minister of education, commended the development, and noted that it will improve the quality of learning across institutions in the country.

Abubakar Rasheed, executive secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), in his remarks, emphasised the need to institutionalise an anti-plagiarism policy in all higher institutions.

“Having the software is one aspect of the battle against plagiarism. Universities must take concrete steps to institutionalise anti-plagiarism policy that forbids all aspects of the intellectual theft,” NAN quoted him to have said.

“For so long, the issues of plagiarism, among others, such as copyright as well as abuses of infringement have robbed our universities of the much desired integrity.”

Similarly, Sandy Onor, chairman of the occasion and deputy chairman, senate committee on higher education, said the software will build authenticity as it relates to research efforts.

“The EagleScan plagiarism detection software integrates global open source and closed source repositories, local open education repositories, and allows users to validate title abstracts and generate originality report,” he said.

Elias Bogoro, executive secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), promised to work with the committee of vice-chancellors to fight plagiarism.

On his part, Ishaq Oloyede, registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), appealed for the plagiarism detection software to be tagged a national repository, saying this will create more opportunities for all institutions across all sectors to subscribe.

Timothy Olagbemiro, AVCNU chairman, explained that the cost of development, deployment, maintenance and marketing of the software over the next three years, is projected to cost a total of N251,298,000.

According to the AVCNU, EagleScan, which “integrates both Windows and Linux operating systems and runs on multiple applications and servers”, supports international and local language translation, and will provide a “centralised database for scholarly documents from Nigerian universities”.