Research Policies

Introduction

This policy enables researchers to conduct small-scale research activities of the highest quality, that enable them to bid successfully for larger-scale or small scale funding, and/or to generate publications, and/or to contribute materially in other ways towards the research objectives of their institution.

SVDU has awarded SIRO Certificate from Department of Science and Industrial Research, New Delhi, in April 2016. From then we are eligible to get research funds from any of national and international funding agencies by filing extramural research projects.

Objective

The primary objective of the proposed Sumandeep Vidyapeeth Research Funding Scheme is to motivate the faculty members of Sumandeep Vidyapeeth to undertake quality research, consultancy and other related activities

Guidelines

Sumandeep Vidyapeeth categorized two types of research projects as per their research budget. Namely, ‘Major’ Research Projects having budget more than INR 25,000/- while the ‘Minor’ Research Projects of which budget is less than INR 25,000/-.

As per above procedure (Section-3.2), PI can apply for ‘SVDU-Funded Research Scheme’. The general guidelines for the SVRGFC funding is as mentioned below:

  1. Any staff member will be permitted two projects in a year under such scheme. These projects may also include UG/PG/PhD project, but must be submitted by faculty/guide as PI, NOT by student/scholar. Funding is subjected to be approved by internal and external review panel.
  2. If proposed project work found under act of plagiarism, all benefits of scheme will be withdrawn and amount deducted from salary and further the faculty subjected to disciplinary action as per university rule.
  3. The faculty or research scholar is motivated to present work at nationaland international level.
  4. Allocated budget will be utilized for on following heads:
    1. Revenue account- Research projects (staff, chemicals, travel)
    2. Capital account
      1. Equipment, accessories
      2. Specific lab development
      3. Renovation of existing labs/infrastructure
  5. University will provide financial support to the research projects up to Rs. 20 lakhs as the upper limit of funds. All high end research projects should be submitted for extramural funding. For those extramural research projects, university will provide 10% seed money to PI in the beginning for smooth execution of the project and to avoid unnecessary waiting of the results.
  6. If the project is approved by external agency, it will be further funded through external agency but if project does not get the extramural fund then university will provide the financial assistance up to the upper ceiling amount i.e. 20 lakhs. However, SVRGFC may sanction research fund more than 20 lakhs exceptionally to the quality research projects after getting its review from external & internal experts of such research area.
  7. All Institutes are required to submit utilization report of their allocated research budget to the Research Cell on half yearly basis in the standard format. This shall be included the fund disbursed in the current financial year as well as utilization of that budget in the respective heads of Research (i.e. funded projects, salary of staff, RIC, faculty development, others research activities)

Introduction

  • Collaboration in various research institute / organizations/ laboratory offers better solution as well as opportunity of up gradation of ideas and infrastructure availability for the researchers who want to pursue high end research work in their fields.
  • This policy has been formulated for our faculty and researchers to acquire global knowledge by collaborative research involving national, international, private and government universities, industries/agencies as well research labs of CSIR, DBT, DST and DRDO.

Objective

To participate in high impact and quality medical and paramedical research projects in association with experts/scientists of government/private organization/institutes at national and international level in order to improve the quality of life

Signatory Authority for Collaboration

  1. Collaboration within Institute – HoI/HoD
  2. Collaboration with external agencies- Registrar/HoI

Practice

  1. Collaborative policies for Inter-institutional/ Inter-departmental Research
  • Research Cell encourages all sort of research collaboration within institutes as well as within departments for making the research feasible with quality improvement. Faculty of participating department / institute must have mutual understanding for execution of the project since all six institutes belong to SVDU as a parent organization.
  • All concerned lab–in–charge / faculty of department must support the collaborative research project in all means. He/she should develop certain SOP/time schedule/timing specified for instrument/research facility specific for research. Preferably the schedules can be set-up on weekly basis so that researcher can plan his/her experiments accordingly.
  • Principle investigator should include the name /s of the participating faculty / lab-in-charge in any publication as one of the author in case where his/her contribution in the project found indispensable or otherwise at least his / her name must be acknowledged with relevant support
  1. Collaborative policies for Research with External Institutes/ Universities/ Organizations
  • Research Cell encourages and appreciates collaboration with external participants (i.e. other scientists or local/state/ national/international level government/ non-governmental institution/ universities/ industries/ NGOs/ agencies) for multi-disciplinary, trans-disciplinary and inter–disciplinary research projects to promote high end research by utilizing sophisticated research facilities and expertise of collaborative partner. This can be initiated by signing MoU between the partners mentioning all terms and conditions. The MoU should be duly signed by the officials of both the parties

* Framed on 22nd March 2017

Introduction

The policy is formulated to promote the researcher to carry out research and to develop concepts and knowledge through their research articles and reviews, case studies, reports and books. University provides the required facilities for research activities and to disseminate these research outputs, maximizing their visibility for access and use by others in the within and outside institution.

Objective

  • To give a special thrust to research culture and publications in the university, thus improve the profile of university across the globe.
  • To encourage researchers to publish their research outputsin reputed, high impact journals.
  • To increase research profile, citation and impact of the university at national and international level.
  • Maintain the long-term storage and preservation of research data in particular, data that enables the validation of research outputs and reported results.
  • To make available more easily bibliometric measures associated with research outputs such as citation counts and article impact factors

Practices

  • Any student/faculty presents/publish the review/original research work/chapter in the book/books or makes patent on his/her research work done has to report the university through HoD and HoI to Research Cell in the prescribed format along with its proof.
  • The aim of this policy is to put on record, in all forms possible, all research related outcomes. This policy requires each researcher to provide the peer reviewed final accepted version of a research output to be deposited to the Research Cell in order to maintain the records of the published research articles of the University. To encourage publication, University has framed the incentive policy for students and faculty.
  • In case of any research publication (paper, poster, etc.), corresponding author should be either guide or faculty involved in the research work. Student/Interns/PGs/Scholars should not be advocated as corresponding author in order to deal with any query which may arise in future.
  • Research Cell rewards specified incentives to the researchers as per the research incentive policy (Page No. 31) for motivation and inspiration for more intensive research and development.
  • Research Cell shall maintain all the data, records and documentation regarding publication and projects of the constituent institutes.

*  Framed on 1st August 2015

*  Amended on17th Sept. 2016 and 1st Jan 2017

Introduction

  • The word plagiarism is derived from Latin word plagiarism which literally means kidnapper. Though the strata of academicians are talking about plagiarism more strongly of late but this unhealthy practice exists since centuries with the incidences rampantly rising recently.
  • There is no existence of clear definition of academic plagiarism; however, according to BelaGipp it encompasses: “The use of idea, concepts, words or structures without appropriately accommodating the source to benefit in a setting where originality is expected”.
  • In some context it is considered as theft or stealing of someone else’s intellectual property. It is also referred as academic dishonesty or academic fraud. Numerous guidelines are formulated and are framed basically to warn the author with a clear message that if this particular work is not yours and if you are incorporating into your work; you simply must extend credit to the original author.
  • There are various levels of plagiarism devised by institutions, allowing another to incorporate views/conclusions/ thoughts of another into his/her work by complementing or quoting the original author by various methods.

Level 1: Un-credited verbatim copying of a full paper.

Level 2: Un-credited verbatim copying of a large portion (up to half) of a paper.

Level 3: Un-credited verbatim copying of individual elements such as sentences, paragraphs, or illustrations.

Level 4: Un-credited improper paraphrasing of pages or paragraphs (by changing a few words or phrases or rearranging the original sentence order).

Level 5: Credited verbatim copying of a major portion of a paper without clear delineation of who did or wrote what.

Objective

The main objective of policy is to improve the quality of research documentation and reduce the unethical practices among scientific community. The second objective is to provide systematic way of approaching plagiarism at university. The policy is intended to promote honesty and respect to the work of other.

Practice

  • The University has plagiarism check system –URKUND anti-plagiarism web tool.
  • URKUND is a completely automated system against plagiarism (Anti-plagiarism software) and is being successfully used at universities and colleges all around the world. URKUND’s system checks all documents against three central source areas;
    • The Internet
    • Published material such as Journals, Books etc
    • Previously submitted student material (e.g. memoranda, case studies and examination works)
  • URKUND never determines what a plagiarism is, but Urkund compares textual similarity and subject similarity. The reports generated by Urkund to your teachers consist, in the event of its finding similarities, of a text comparison. Urkund marks your documents that are similar to other sources, in URKUND’s archives, on the Internet and in published material, and give the teacher access to the original material where Urkund have found the similarity.
  • URKUND supports the following file formats .doc, .docx, .sxw, .ppt, .pptx, .pdf, .txt, .rtf, .html, .htm, .wps, .odt
  • Every document submitted for plagiarism check will be treated as a separate document. Documents containing more than 400,000 characters will be considered as more than one document (actual number to be calculated using multiples of 400,000 characters, so 800,001 characters would be 3 documents).
  • All dissertation, research work, review articles and PhD thesis need to check for plagiarism check before submitting to Institutional Coordinators.
  • The Main responsibility of all the Institutional Anti Plagiarism Coordinators is to coordinate all the matters pertaining to plagiarism for their concern Institute in consultation with University Anti Plagiarism coordinator.
  1. Students have to generate their User ID and Password on URKUND through Institutional Anti Plagiarism coordinator.
  2. All the Institutional Anti-Plagiarism coordinators shall forward Anti Plagiarism report to concerned Dean / Principal and PG Guide by email mode with a copy to PG student.
  3. In case of PhD candidates, Institutional Anti Plagiarism coordinators shall forward Anti Plagiarism report to the concerned Dean / Principal, PhD Guide and PhD Coordinator by email mode with a copy to PhD candidate.
  4. The report generated by URKUND system is only accepted with Institutional Coordinators endorsement.
  5. University has fixed Rs. 500/- (Five hundred rupees only) as plagiarism check fee up to three uploads and beyond three it will be Rs. 200/- (two hundred rupees only) per upload. “He / She has to pay prescribed fees to University for plagiarism check before finalizing the draft and get the software access from Institutional Anti Plagiarism coordinators. After getting the access student has to check their dissertation while writing repeatedly to avoid any chance of Plagiarism. Finally, a report generated with less than 30% plagiarism can be submitted with final dissertation to the university by end of September of the same year”.
  6. Plagiarism software ‘Turnitin’ is recommended to bring back in the system but till our present software expired, University will continue the services of ‘Urkund’ for plagiarism check.

*  Framed on 1st August 2015

*  Amended on15th Sept. 2015, 4th Oct. 2016 and 9th Aug. 2017

Introduction

Sumandeep Vidyapeeth has framed various policies to promote research among researchers and faculties. Research Incentive is one of them to motivate the faculty and researchers to undertake quality research, consultancy and other related activities.

Guidelines

  1. Meta-analysis, systematic reviews; review article, a case studywill also considered for incentive claims if are published in indexed journal. In such case only two claims per year will be considered for incentives per applicant.
  2. The incentive scheme shall be offered for following areas of research;
    • Publication of book/book chapter, original research paper, systematic review and case report.
    • Presentation of scientific research work done in SVDU as oral/poster paper in scientific event such as conference, workshop, CME, etc. (Claims to be submitted at FDC office)
    • Research work conducted in Sumandeep Vidyapeeth as parent institution (in case of research article, case studies)
  3. The publication should essentially be PI’s own research work and should be published in Indexed journals.
  4. Publication of book or book chapter in the subject or discipline of his/her own that should belong to six institutes of SV.
  5. The research work being presented or published should have been carried out under banner of SVDU and also clearly depict or highlight the name of “Sumandeep Vidyapeeth”.
  6. All research studies should be conducted only after obtaining due written permission (clearance/approval) from respective ethics committee. For human studies clearance from SVIEC, for animal studies clearance from SVIAEC and for lab based in vitro studies NOC from Research Cell Office is required.
  7. Incentive Scheme for Researchers Getting Grants from SVRGFC
    • The faculty getting research grant from Sumandeep Vidyapeeth Research Grant &Funding Scheme (SVRGFC) shall be eligible for benefits under scheme. On successful completion of research project funded by SVRGFC; the PI will get additional increment in salary (3%) over and above regular increment for that year
  8. Incentive Scheme for Researchers Getting Grants from External Agencies:
    • The faculty and research scholar getting research grant from national external agencies viz., ICMR, CSIR, DST, DBT, GUJCOST, Pharmaceutical companies or other private funding organization including registered NGOs and international funding agencies like; WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO etc.shall be eligible for benefits under scheme.
  9. Incentive for scientific work/achievements will be awarded to the participant as per Table-1
SEGMENT ELIGIBILITY OF CLAIMS INCENTIVES
publication Incentives
Applicable to:
· Research Paper/Review article
· (Max number for review article for incentives can be 2/ per year).
· Excluding case studies
Indexed Journal Elsevier/ACS/Cochrane Index/ PubMed 6,000/-
Other indexed(NOT just abstracted) 4,000/-
Index journals with Impact Factor
(Thomson Reuter ONLY)
Range upto 1.0 8,000/-
Range 1 plus to 2 10,000/-
Range 2 plus to 5 15,000/-
>5 20,000/-
Case studies(Maximum 2 case reports per year) Indexed NA 1000/-
Citation based incentives

 

On Annual basis: Submit
through HoI to Research Cell

 

For Publications

(Citation in journals other than SVDU)
(Applicable after 1st Jan. 2017 onwards)
i10 4,000/-for each i10
H-Index 2,000/-for each H-index
Books
(By Main author/Editor)
New Book Nationally accepted top publishers 30,000/-
New edition Nationally accepted top publishers 15,000/-
Book Chapter
(By Main author/Editor)
New Book Nationally accepted top publishers 6,000/-
New edition Nationally accepted top publishers 4,000/-
Patent (claimed by Inventor i.e. faculty) Indian Patent On grant 1.0 L
US patent On grant 2.5 L
Patent Royalty on commercialization of innovation Inventor : Applicant 80:20

Practice

  1. An eligible applicant may apply in a prescribed application form.
  2. The applicant should submit the duly filled application along with copy of publication and SVIEC/SVIAEC approval letter (if applicable)through the concern HoD and HoI to the Research Cell.
  3. The application must be submitted within six month of publication or else it will not be considered.
  4. The Research Cell will scrutinize the applications for their validity as per policy and took final decision
  5. Incomplete applications at any sense shall be rejected.
    • Note: In case of failure to submit the above relevant documents and fulfill the requirement shall debar the applicant from the benefit of this scheme.
    • In case the proposed project work is found under act of plagiarism, all benefits of scheme will be withdrawn and incentive amount will be deducted from the salary and further the faculty will be subjected to disciplinary action as per university rule.
  6. Disbursement of incentive
    • All incentive claims are reviewed and sanctioned from the Research Cell as per the policy.
    • The incentive amount shall be handed over to the applicant who shall be responsible for disbursal to all authors in equal part.
    • Incentives are disbursed on quarterly basis.

The Vice Chancellor, Sumandeep Vidyapeeth reserves the power in case of any individual case of Research incentive scheme

* Framed on 1st August 2015
* Amended on17th Sept. 2016, 1st Jan 2017, 1st April 2017 and 27th Sept. 2018

Introduction

  • Patents and copyright inherently confer both costs and benefits to individuals and companies and to society at large. They provide an incentive for invention or creation that may benefit society, as well as the rights holder, but they also impose costs on the users of protected works.
  • University is not–for–profit corporations which share the fundamental missions of providing medical care for patients, training health care professionals, conducting biomedical research, and otherwise serving the public.

Objective

  • The purpose of this policy is to promote these missions by making inventions, copyrightable works and other intellectual property that may be created by physicians, researchers, trainees and others who are at or associated with the university for the benefit of the public while also providing for a fair allocation of the financial costs and rewards associated with them.

Practice& Guidelines

  • Intellectual Property Cellon behalf of Research Cell looking after overall activities concerning with intellectual property of the university.
  • In practice, Upon submission of IP documents to Research Cell or verbal intimation by innovator to Research officials, Research Cell forward the innovator’s idea to Sumandeep Patent Attorney, Mr. Bhavik Patel, for further screening and identification of IP in the innovator claims.
  • Upon finding the content, Patent Attorney files the application for eligible claims.
  • All the expense for filing the application will bear by SV and will consider as “The Applicant”.
  • Innovator has all the authority for commercialization of the IP with prior MoU. For any commercial benefits, SV and researcher will engaged in 20:80 ratios.
  • IPR cell is responsible for arranging social activities for members of the organization and promotes knowledge of intellectualproperty law by lectures, discussions, books, correspondences, pamphlets, dissemination of information or otherwise.
  • IPR cell shall aids, assists and facilitates owners of intellectual property.
  • IPR cell also fosters ties, mutual cooperation and understanding among those who are practicing in the field of intellectual property law and through such ties promotes the protection and development of intellectual property in university.
  • IPR cell shall provide customized corporate services such as legal consultancy in Intellectual Property Rights and in related areas such as anti-dumping, anti-competition, IP audits, anti-trust laws and respond to questions affecting intellectual property law and/or the interest of the university faculty/students.
  • IPR cell shall encourages innovation of IPR’s by interacting and keeping pace with developments outside the university and engages in activities in conjunction with other bodies or associations within the limits of the university’s objects.
  • IPR cell shall arrange reciprocal concessions and co-operation with other such bodies and associationsand assists in implementing the rules and enforcement of laws pertaining to IPR.
  • IPR cell shall conduct training and capacity building activities for students and faculty and seeks affiliation with National or International bodies keeping in view of the fact that personal empowerment and convergence plays a crucial role in IPR issues.
  • IPR cell shall monitor all the IPR concerned on-going activities in the university, maintains the data, records and documentations at IPR cell.
  • If faculty is applying for any patent, the university has special incentive for thesame(Chapter 8).
* Framed on 10th April 2015

The Research award shall be conferred to the undergraduate student, postgraduate student and teaching faculty every year in all constituent institutions of Sumandeep Vidyapeeth.

Objective

  1. To recognize the efforts of students and faculty, who are sincerely involved into academic and research activities, especially with innovative ideas.
  2. To motivate the students and teaching faculty of the university to conduct high end research activities.
  3. To create and inculcate research environment among the students and teaching faculties.

Eligibility

  1. The applicant shall be a registered student of Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, Piperia, Vadodara.
  2. The faculty should be a permanent faculty of Sumandeep Vidyapeeth.
  3. The faculty who has received this research award in the previous academic year will not be eligible.

General guidelines

  1. Duly filled application form along with score sheet should be submitted to the Research Cell on or before the date declared by the University.
  2. The academic and research performance for applicants shall be considered for the academic year of the university.
  3. The publications which clearly possess Sumandeep Vidyapeeth shall be considered for grading.
  4. The research study must have an approval of SVIEC & IAEC or else NOC from Research Cell should be attached.
  5. The applicant shall submit substantial proofs (Soft Copy Only) for every activity mentioned in the scoring form.
  6. A special award shall be conferred upon to a researcher/research team who published their research article in a journal of highest impact factor (Thomson Reuter).
  7. All awardees of the constituent institutions of Sumandeep Vidyapeeth will be given “A Plaque” with a well mounted Certificate.

Procedure

  1. For submission of application:
  • The applicant shall have to submit hard copy of duly filled application with the scoring sheet to Research Cell and soft copy of all the necessary proofs as supporting documents on email: researchclerk.svu@gmail.com
  • Applications, received after last date of submission will not be considered.
  1. For selection of awardees :
  • An expert committee shall be constituted by the Research Cell with the permission of Vice chancellor.
  • The expert committee shall scrutinize the application form and check the grading of the applicants mentioned in the scoring format.
  • The expert committee shall also check the authenticity of the proofs if found irrelevant; grades will be deducted.
  • The applicants scoring highest grading shall be considered for the Research award for the respective institute.
* Framed on 4th Jan. 2015
* Amended on 5th June 2017

Introduction

Sumandeep Vidyapeeth aims to be an entrepreneurial university and an exemplar of best practice in the way it engages with client organizations. The University recognizes that consultancy work and external activity undertaken by staff forms a core and valuable part of its function as a university. In particular, it is part of the “Knowledge Exchange” portfolio and assists in developing mutually beneficial relationships with commercial, public and third sector organizations. Therefore, the University has established this policy to support all staff in the delivery of approved consultancy.

Purpose

  • This policy is intended to provide a clear framework for those university staff engaged in, or who wish to engage in, consultancy.

Exclusivity of Service and Fiduciary Duty

  • The University encourages transfer of knowledge through consultancy and external activity within the terms of the employee’s fiduciary duty to the University. This incorporates the duty owed to the University by each employee, to act in its best interests, never to engage in activity which might bring the University into disrepute and to request the permission of the employer to undertake any employment outside the terms of the employee’s contract of employment.
  • The university staff members are not permitted to take on work with or for any organization other than the University without permission.
  • The University expects all members of staff to comply with this policy and regards any breach as a serious matter which may result in disciplinary action being taken in accordance with the University’s policies and procedures.

Definitions

Definitions relevant to this policy:

  • Consultancy – means work of a professional nature, undertaken by University staff in their field of expertise, for external clients, for which payment is usually made. Consultancy may be University Consultancy or Personal Consultancy, as defined by this policy.
  • University Consultancy – this is consultancy work undertaken by an individual academic, or other member of staff (including technicians), or a team of collaborators, departments or schools, on behalf of the University. Such consultancy will be undertaken within the terms of the member of staff’s contract of employment.

Approval

The Research Cell of Sumandeep Vidyapeeth has authority to approve Consultancy.

In making the decision, following criterions will be considered:

  • The University’s strategic objectives for Research and Knowledge Exchange (Innovation).
  • Arrangements in place for ensuring that core activity is not adversely affected by the Consultancy.
  • Individual workloads.
  • The reputational risks and benefits of engaging in the activity.

University Consultancy

University staff engaged in approved university consultancy will be given support and assistance by the University. This includes:

  • Expertise and support from faculty based knowledge exchange support staff or the research and knowledge exchange office.
  • Expertise and support from financial and legal services (to advise on appropriate contract terms and financial/tax aspects).
  • Insurance cover through the University’s policies.
  • Any university consultancy work requires the preparation of a business case which should be discussed and authorized by the research cell of Sumandeep Vidyapeeth.

The business case will ensure that all relevant issues are dealt with, for example:

  • Tender issues.
  • Full commercial costing.
  • Insurance arrangements.
  • The contractual framework.
  • Intellectual property.
  • Recording and storage of documentation.
  • Impact on workload

Costing & Pricing

  • Advice will be provided on the pricing of contracts for University Consultancy in accordance with the University’s policy on costing and pricing. This will help staff ensure that account is taken of the prevailing market and competitive conditions. Staff should not, under any circumstances, discuss pricing with a client before discussing the project with the Research cell of Sumandeep Vidyapeeth.
  • Consultancy work is currently subject to GST, and the prevailing rate of GST will be charged in addition to the approved price.

Use of income from Consultancy

Any income generated from approved University consultancy contracts will be first applied to meet the full economic costs and overheads incurred by the University.

  • On completion of the project any surplus (after full costs have been charged) will be distributed to personnel involved and to the constituent institutions according to the university policy resolved from time to time.
  • Amounts paid to faculty cannot be drawn in cash. However, Faculties and Departments are encouraged to recognize the contribution made by members of staff undertaking consultancy in their allocation of resources.
*  Framed on 1st Aug 2015
*  Amended on1st April 2018