Determining whether plagiarism has occurred requires a careful assessment of both the context and the student's intent. Educators must consider factors such as:
- Whether the work aligns with the student’s previous work and/or skill level
- How well the sources were integrated into the submission
- Whether citations abide with the required formats
- The student’s understanding of academic integrity
The relationship between a similarity score and plagiarism is often misunderstood. Many assume that a high similarity score automatically signifies plagiarism, but that is not always the case. The Similarity Report is a valuable tool for educators, but its primary function is to highlight matching content from other sources. The percentage shown in the report reflects how much a student’s work matches other content in Turnitin’s databases that the instructor selects for the assignment. This could include sources from the internet, academic publications, and other student papers. Determining whether plagiarism has occurred requires more than looking at the score.
Interpreting a similarity score correctly requires an understanding of the context in which the student’s work was produced. For instance, a high similarity score may result from improperly cited quotes or references. On the other hand, a low score does not guarantee the absence of plagiarism. For example, a student might engage in contract cheating or use ‘content spinners’, leading to a low similarity score despite the work not being original. Educators should consider the broader context surrounding the student’s work to make informed judgments about academic integrity.
Several factors can influence the percentage displayed in a Similarity Report, including (but not limited to):
- Longer assignments tend to have higher similarity scores due to the larger volume of text.
- The nature of some assignments (like research papers or literature reviews with high levels of quotes and citations) will naturally yield higher scores.
- Students who are new to academic writing may struggle with correct citation or paraphrasing practices, leading to unintentional plagiarism.
Genre and task expectation also have an impact of whether text similarity is expected in a submission.
| Similarity expected | ||
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Research writing | Yes |
| Argumentative / Analytical / Informative, etc. | Yes | |
| Narrative / Creative writing | No | |
| Reflective writing | No | |
| Task expectations | Research included | Yes |
| Reference to provided source material | Yes | |
| Balance of evidence and original ideas | Yes | |
| Creative or reflective writing | No |
Using Turnitin’s tools to produce a more accurate similarity score
Some aspects of a submission can contribute to an inflated plagiarism score. Turnitin offers some helpful features to detect these aspects and prevent them from influencing the similarity score in an inaccurate way. The following guide will help instructors understand how to manage exclusions and filters in the Similarity Report:
Additional resources:
- Disrupting plagiarism resources
- https://plagiarism.org/
- Does Turnitin detect plagiarism?
- Similarity in the Classroom
- Making the Tough Call: Skill Deficit or Deliberate Plagiarism?
- Achieving Academic Integrity: Promote Original Student Work
- Turnitin plagiarism and other academic misconduct into teachable moments
- Aiming for Integrity: How well do you know plagiarism? (Quiz)