Dr. Davinder Malhotra has been a professor in the finance department at Philadelphia University for the past 19 years. The finance department is part of the School of Business Administration and has five faculty members who are part of economics and finance. Malhotra teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in financial management, investment portfolio management, fixed income securities, and international finance.
Malhotra writes articles published in business and finance journals, and conducts a lot of research for the articles he writes. All of his articles go through literature review so it is critical that submitted work be original. “The main issue in research is that when you read the works of so many others it can stick in your mind and it’s possible that you may be repeating the work or even the language of others,” said Malhotra. “When submitting papers to editors, if any part of it is copied it reflects upon my professionalism, so it is important to me to authenticate my work for originality.” In addition, Malhotra often works with co-authors and needs to ensure that the work in its entirety is original. “I cannot go back and ask co-authors ‘are you sure you used original work?’ because it reflects upon them.”
To ensure originality and preserve professional integrity, Malhotra uses iThenticate before submitting papers to journal editors. The comprehensive database and similarity report helps to ensure that the work is original and provides the flexibility to review the literature. “If part of the paper has been written by a coauthor I can also make sure that their work is not plagiarized,” commented Malhotra. “Every time I use iThenticate, I actually feel better about submitting a paper. It allows me to check my work and I don’t have to worry about co-authors.”
iThenticate has been very effective in helping Malhotra prepare and submit journal articles. “If a student is writing a part of the work, it is very important to check that no part has been copied,” said Malhotra. “iThenticate is easy to use and allows me to see, for example, that the work is less than 1% similar which means that I am only using some similar words, and not copying in any of my work. The iThenticate database is very comprehensive so it even checks your work against those studies that have not been published but have been presented at conferences. When I submit a paper to a journal, I am confident that it has not been copied anywhere. iThenticate gives me peace-of-mind about the authenticity of my work.” In addition to ensuring the authenticity of his own work, Malhotra believes iThenticate has broader benefits. “It is a vehicle to improve the quality of research overall within the profession. If everyone is using it, the quality will improve significantly as we all ensure we are doing our own work.”
When asked about the overall impact of the program, Grimes provided a matter of fact conclusion: “If you are unable to screen material there is always a doubt. This was why we chose to use the CrossCheck / iThenticate service to screen material in advance of publication and to identify sources of duplication. We can now reassure our community that we are doing all we can to preserve the integrity of our journals and to protect our authors’ work against future plagiarism.”
iThenticate allows me to check my own work as well as the work from contributing co-authors and students. When I submit a paper to a journal I am confident that it is not duplicated anywhere. iThenticate gives me peace-of-mind about the authenticity of my work.-Dr. Davinder Malhotra, Professor of Finance at Philadelphia University
