The National Similarity Detector and Plagiarism Checker (nSDPC)

A student or a lecturer must first secure access to the NSCH website to be able to use the National Similarity Detector and Plagiarism Checker. To gain access to the NHSC system, visit the NERD website at http://ned.gov.ng/nsdpc or any of the companion portals and follow the procedures for utilising the National Similarity Detector and Plagiarism Checker tool. Once your institution has been enrolled in the National Education Databank and you have an account that has been validated on the NERD website, you can then proceed to use the National Similarity Detector and Plagiarism Checker.

It is a requirement of the nSDPC service, one of the core components of the NERD Programme, approved by the Federal Executive Council, in Section 2.18 of the National Policy on NERD to subject every student report to a plagiarism review before final submission to the National Education Repository and Databank to promote the culture of attribution and enhance the quality of academic publications.

Sections 4.1 and 6.1.23 of the National Policy on NERD make the National Similarity Detector and Plagiarism Checker service obligatory under the national Mandatory Originality Check (MOC) initiative approved by the Federal Executive Council.  The National Similarity Detector and Plagiarism Checker service will end the hitherto reliance of Nigerian post-secondary schools and tertiary institutions on foreign products and services in the elimination of plagiarism. This is a deliberate national effort towards improving the quality of academic reports by compelling the culture of proper attribution through the comparison of submitted texts against databases of academic papers, websites, and other sources to ensure the academic integrity of written content. The nSDPC module shall play a role in enhancing the quality of academic reports nationally. When combined with the impact factor ranking of publications from multiple institutions, the NERD programme will have an overall progressive impact by fostering positive competition as a quality assurance mechanism.