By Temi Ohakwe, Abuja
Nigeria has launched an homegrown plagiarism Detection Software, Code named, EagleScan.
Launching the Software in Abuja on Tuesday, Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo stated that plagiarism is a form of corruption, describing the act as stealing of intellectual properties of others.
Osinbajo who was the Special Guest at Public Presentation &Launching of the EagleScan Plagiarism Detection Software, said it is an initiative that announces the Zero tolerance for plagiarism, “part of the core mandates of President Muhammadu Buhari Administration”.
According to the Vice President, the Federal government is fully committed to support 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”. Prof. Osinbajo added.
The Chairman of the Occasion and the Deputy Chairman ,Senate Committee on Higher Education, Prof Sandy Onor, said the Software will address the challenge of Academic research authentication and validation.
“The EagleScan Plagiarism Detection Software integrates global open source and closed source repositories, local Open Education Repositories and it allows users to validate titles abstracts and generate originality report”.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, applauded the indigenous anti plagiarism software saying it will facilitate the desired quality expected in institutions of higher learning.
In Separate Goodwill messages, Strategic Partners on the EagleScan Project, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, emphasised the need to institutionalize an anti-plagiarism policy in all higher institutions ,which according to him, will encompasse various aspects of Plagiarism.
“Having the software is one aspect of the battle against plagiarism , universities must take concrete steps to institutionalize anti plagiarism policy that forbids all aspects of the intellectual theft”.
“For so long the issues of Plagiarism amongst others such as copyrights as well as abuses of infringements have robbed our universities the much desired integrity” Prof Abubakar added.
The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Prof Elias Bogoro ,said the Fund in respect to plagiarism is delighted to work with the Committee of the Vice Chancellors CVC.
According to Bogoro, the fund is not only committed to the initiative but has effectively promise 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 establishment of the Research & Development committee” Prof Bogoro added.
The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede called for an all inclusive concentration on the EagleScan urging that the Plagiarism Detection Software be tagged a National Repository ,saying this will create more opportunities for all institutions across all sectors t subscribe.
The Chairman , Association of Vice Chancellors, Prof Timothy Olagbemiro, said the EagleScan will make the Nigerian University System more authentic and that it will add value to education both in Nigeria and International.
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 sum of N251,298,000.00 .
“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 includes, 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.
The Software also comes with a very robust artificial intelligence-driven data analytics and visualization engine. It is currently hosted on www.eaglescan.ng
The Vice President was represented by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof Abubakar Rasheed while Dr. Ramon Yusuf, Deputy ES of NUC Represented the NUC Exe Sec.
