Turnitin: Internet Plagiarism Checking Software - Debra Dawson The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario

Turnitin:
Internet Plagiarism Checking Software

                       Debra Dawson
                       The University of Western Ontario
                       London, Ontario

What is Plagiarism?

„   “ Plagiarism is the stealing or using of the writing
    or ideas of others as though they are one’s own.
    The word comes from Latin, plagium which
    means “kidnapping” ”
    source: http://www.uwplatt.edu/~library/reference/plagiarism.htmlx

„   Faculty of Social Science definition: “Plagiarism
    is the unacknowledged borrowing of another
    writer's words or ideas.”
    source   http://www.ssc.uwo.ca/history/under/plagiarism.html

How prevalent
„   On most campuses, over 70% of students admit to
    some cheating

„   Faculty are reluctant to report students for cheating

„   Cheating is higher among fraternity and sorority
    members

„   Cheating is less prevalent on campuses with Honour
    Codes
„   ( McCabe,2005)

More McCabe Results
„   Longitudinal comparisons show significant increases in
    explicit test/examination cheating and unpermitted
    collaboration

„   15% of students report submitting a paper whose
    content was primarily from a paper mill

„   52% of students have copied a few sentences from an
    Internet source without citing a source

Sources: http://www.nwu.edu/uacc/cai/research/highlights.html
  http://www.academicintegrity.org

Western’s Response

„ First Canadian University to provide
  campus-wide access to internet plagiarism
  software, Turnitin.com in 2001
„ Since then, UBC, UNB, RMC, U of T,
  Ryerson, Brock and York and many others
  have adopted Turnitin.com

What is Plagiarism Checking
Software?
„ Software that compares written assignments
  against other sources such as web pages or
  paper mills
„ Determines the congruence between what
  the student submits and another source
„ Faculty member is the one that decides
  whether or not plagiarism has occurred

What does Turnitin.com Check?

„   Web pages
„   Papers from public “term-paper-mills”
„   Some electronic books and journals (Proquest)
„   Papers submitted to Turnitin.com by:
    „   friends and classmates
    „   fraternity brothers/sorority sisters
    „   older siblings
    „   students at other universities

What Powers Turnitin.com's
Plagiarism Detection Service?

  “Turnitin.com is powered by our proprietary
  technology, document source analysis, which uses
  a set of powerful algorithms to make a digital
  "fingerprint" of any text document and then
  compares it against billions of other documents
  from sources like the Internet, proprietary
  databases, and other submitted documents.”

How does it Work?

 “We have compiled a massive database of
 digital material by continually cataloging
 and indexing the entire Internet using
 automated web robots. Our robots retrieve
 millions of documents from the Internet
 every day-- Turnitin.com has one of the
 most current and extensive crawls of the
 Internet available.”

“Term Paper Mills”
www.cheathouse.com
www.ezwrite.com
  Welcome to Research Papers Online Featuring "Instant Gratification" - Research Papers Delivered Instantly! We have
  the lowest prices, highest quality and we offer instant delivery to your browser! Don't take a chance with another
  ompany. Our papers are new, written by professional writers and have never been circulated before!

www.geniuspapers.com
www.papers-online.com
www.research-assistance.com
www.termpapers-on-file.com
www.schoolsucks.com
www.essaytrader.net
… and the list goes on…

Benefits of Turnitin.com
„   Deters plagiarism by covering more kinds of
    electronic sources and not just the Web
„   Checks for even as few as 8 consecutive words
„   Simplifies submission for students
„   Time and date stamps papers, eliminating
    arguments
„   Documents extent, if any, of plagiarism
„   Levels the playing field between students and
    faculty

Other Research

¾   Research by Braumoellor and
    Gaines(2003) suggests using anti-plagiarism
    tools can be a successful deterrent to
    plagiarism

Free-Form Comments from Faculty

„   “This system is absolutely perfect for business students
    who are required to write reports using take home cases.
    All students write using the same case. Compares to each
    other and will, as a history develops, compare to previous
    years: allowing re-use of cases. The threat of using this
    system prevents plagiarism.” 2003
„   “I love this service. Instead of obsessing about similar
    phrases between submissions, I can actually focus on the
    merit of their scientific content. I have recommended this
    service to colleagues at other institutions.”2003

More Comments
“I felt that this service protected students in my class
   who worked hard on their essays… I feel Turnitin
   provides me with the ability to focus on what
   students are doing right, not what they might be
   doing wrong. In a sense Turnitin.com is the a
   silent partner that gives me the time to mark
   written assignments accurately and fairly”. 2004

Plagiarism Resources
Center for Academic Integrity
   http://academicintegrity.org/index.asp
Copyright Issues on the Web:
    http://iteslj.org/Articles/Harris-Copyright.html
York University web site on Plagiarism
    http://www.yorku.ca/vmonty/plagiarism1
Downloading Detectives
http://www2.coloradocollege.edu/Library/Course/webplag2.html
“Combating Plagiarism -- Is the Internet causing more students to
   copy?”
 http://www.cqpress.com/docs/Combating%20Plagiarism.pdf