The Quality Assurance and Accreditation Center at Homs University held an scientific symposium entitled “Plagiarism and Publication in Refereed Journals.. and Mechanisms for Detecting It,” targeting Master’s and PhD students and researchers in various faculties, in the Faculty of Civil Engineering.
President of Homs University, Prof. Tarek Houssam El-Deen emphasized that the aim of the symposium is to establish a culture of scientific integrity and academic excellence among researchers, as the university is committed to empowering postgraduate students with the tools for reputable international publishing, ensuring the protection of their intellectual output and raising the level of research issued by the university to compete in international forums, which will positively impact the university’s global ranking.
The symposium covered three main themes. The first theme dealt with the mechanisms of publishing in peer-reviewed scientific journals from A to Z, presented by Prof. Walid Sahyouni. In the second theme, Prof. Zakaria Al-Zalaq reviewed the types of plagiarism and ways to address it. Prof. Rabih Shahin concluded the symposium by presenting practical applications using approved software to verify the quality of research.
It was attended by the Vice-President for Scientific Affairs, Prof. Walid Khaddam, and faculty members from the faculties. It was enriched by the interventions of graduate students, which focused on the technical difficulties in documenting references, and how to distinguish between legitimate scientific quotation and rejected plagiarism.
This symposium comes as part of the university’s efforts to raise the efficiency of publishing and protect intellectual property, by providing researchers with the necessary expertise to deal with the strict standards imposed by international journals for accepting research.
