Plagiarism check and reduction in Trivandrum

Kerala University: one final file, no trial runs

The Kerala University Library has a procedure note for research scholars, linked from its research support page. The note is short and the rules are strict. The library checks the finished thesis only, and they refuse trial checks. Keep minimum two weeks gap between sending it to them and your planned submission date.

The file format is also fixed. Make one PDF and email it to the address in the note. It begins at Chapter 1 and ends with the last reference. Keep out the front pages, meaning the declaration, acknowledgement, abstract, contents and lists. Appendices like a glossary, index or questionnaire are also kept out. Send the title page as its own separate file. Once the file goes for the library check, the title cannot be changed. So read the title word by word, and your name also, before sending.

Three more points from the note. Say one matching source should be left out of the count, for that a letter of consent from your guide is needed. The certificate is issued by the University Librarian. And the one-page report goes to Shodhganga with your thesis, so in practice anybody can read it.

As per the note, the library check costs ₹105 for a DrillBit check, paid at the University cash counter or online under General Remittance. The note says DrillBit is used for theses as per a Syndicate resolution dated 28 December 2023. INFLIBNET’s ShodhShuddhi announcements show the national DrillBit service was last extended on 31 March 2026, for six months. So at the time of applying, ask the library which tool they are using now.

Cleaning a thesis when you get only one run

Without a trial run there is no report to work from. The cleaning must be finished before the library check, by reading the text itself. With Kerala scholars we do it like this.

We read each chapter for the usual things a checker catches. Many times a definition is lifted from the textbook copied as it is. In review chapters we see abstracts joined one after another. The method chapter we have seen taken from a senior’s thesis also, word to word. Quotes without quotation marks is another common one. Every borrowed sentence has two options. Either it goes in quotation marks with the page number, or you rewrite it from the idea and keep the citation. Then we match citations in the text with the list at the back, both ways, so nothing is missing on either side.

If you have an older report from some other check, please send it. Maybe a chapter went to a journal or your department checked it, and later it became part of the thesis. That old report still give a fair idea of which passages match. The University of Kerala’s 2022 regulations don’t give any percentage. Clause 11 asks only for software checking, your undertaking and your supervisor’s certificate. So find out from your department what figure they follow before the file goes to the library.

KTU’s 20% guideline and the security exemption

Under clause 21.2 of the KTU 2023 regulations, you certify that the thesis was checked on a standard tool. Your supervisor sees that the check is done and endorses what you signed. KTU gives 20% as the figure, without counting the bibliography and self-plagiarism. In the regulations it is written as a general guideline.

Read those two words carefully. Your supervisor or research centre can ask for a lower figure than 20%. About self-plagiarism, be careful there also. That exclusion helps only when your own earlier papers are cited properly in the chapter where you reuse them. When a chapter is built on your published paper, we check that its first paragraph mentions the paper.

Clause 21.2.2 has one more provision. Some theses have patent matter in them, or something about national security. For such a thesis your supervisor may write to the Dean (Research) asking that the thesis be exempted from the check. Only the supervisor sends this, we are not involved in it anywhere. We can still help with whichever chapters you are allowed to share.

KUHS’s word-count rules and IIST’s report

Medical, nursing and pharmacy scholars come under KUHS, and its plagiarism policy uses word counts for some rules. Fourteen words taken together need a citation. If you borrowed 40 words or more in total from somewhere, KUHS wants that inside quotation marks. Work with over 30% lifted from the open internet will not be considered at all. Up to 10% similarity is Level 0, with no penalty.

At IIST, as per its 2025 guidelines, the soft copy of the thesis goes with a similarity report. The report must come from a tool IIST subscribes to, endorsed by your supervisor. What percentage is allowed, the guidelines don’t say. Your supervisor will know what IIST expects, ask once.

For other universities, the UGC 2018 regulations are the minimum standard. Above 10% and up to 40% needs a revised script, within not more than six months. Between 40% and 60%, a revised script cannot be submitted for one year. Above 60%, the registration itself is cancelled.

How it works from Trivandrum

Write to us with the name of your university. Also mention about your similarity limit if you know it, and whether you have a report already. Kerala University scholars should give their library check date too.

When there is a report, we sort its matches and send you a list of fixes. Many Kerala scholars don’t have any report. Then we sit with the chapters and mark the passages we think will show up as matching. In both cases we first settle the scope, dates and fee with you in writing, and only then the work begins. Citations and quotation marks are corrected first. The passages that need rewriting are done together with you over calls, in your own words.

You sign the undertaking and your supervisor signs the certificate, so both of you should understand every change. Swapping characters, white hidden text, synonym-spinning software, any such trick to fool the checker, we keep away from all that.