Turnitin Best Practices

SimilarityCheck is a tool within the Turnitin Suite. It uses a set of text comparison databases to reveal how much of a submitted composition matches written work released elsewhere. Depending on instructor choice, SimilarityCheck can compare student material to various internet resources, journal articles, or other student writing at Ohio State.

SimilarityCheck can most effectively be used to provide opportunities for you to work with your students on how to correctly research and attribute sources.

After the tool searches for similarities across databases, it generates an Similarity Report. The report uses a percentage score to indicate how much of the submission is similar to text found within the databases chosen. It also provides a mechanism for comparing the non-original material with the same text found elsewhere. Instructors can then decide whether and how to review the report's results with their students.

Instructors should note that there is no Similarity Report outcome that unequivocally indicates plagiarism. The percentage score generated by Turnitin can be influenced by instructor choice. Instructors in varying disciplines should expect to establish a different baseline for what the score means.

Review the best practice procedures explained below for ways to use and understand the SimilarityCheck tool.

Know What to Expect

Familiarize yourself with relevant guidelines

The guidelines provided by the Committee on Academic Misconduct (COAM) and Section A of Ohio State's Code of Student Conduct define plagiarism as:

 "...the representation of another's work or ideas as one's own; it includes the unacknowledged word-for-word use and/or paraphrasing of another person's work, and/or the inappropriate unacknowledged use of another person's ideas." 

Professional colleges that have a published honor code should follow the procedures that are set forth by their respective central offices. 

The SimilarityCheck tool allows you an opportunity to discuss proper citation and attribution techniques in order to help your students become better writers. It is important to consider that unskilled or developing writers sometimes make errors in properly citing the work of others. Consider the context of your writing assignment—the level, purpose, guidelines provided to the student, nature of the errors, and so on—when assessing suspected misconduct. 

See COAM's website for more details.

Test the Tool

Prior to using SimilarityCheck with your students, submit test material and review the generated Similarity Report. 

Questions to consider:

• To which databases are you comparing your material? What other settings will you use?
• Which internet sources do you notice being pulled as "matches"? Are they what you expect?
• What percentage of non-original material seems to be typical for well-written work in your discipline?
• Given the nature of your assignment, what percentage of non-original material should you expect to see?
• How can you maximize use of this tool within your course or discipline to enhance student learning?

Understand Similarity Report Scores

A Similarity Report Score is not definitive. The score is influenced by the choices you make as the instructor. It shows the percentage of similarity between the uploaded composition and the databases to which it was compared. Use your own judgement to determine what the report's score means for individual cases.

False positives

A high percentage match score does not automatically mean that the student plagiarized the document. There are a number of reasons a student may receive a high percentage match score.

• A student has independently submitted his or her paper to Turnitin.com to check for plagiarism.
• A student is expanding research done for a different assignment, but copying text from his or her own original research. Make students aware in your assignment guidelines of your policies regarding "recycling" of previous work.

According to Ohio State's Code of Student Conduct, it is a violation of the code to submit "substantially the same work to satisfy requirements for one course or academic requirement that has been submitted in satisfaction of requirements for another course or academic requirement without permission of the instructor of the course for which the work is being submitted..." 

• Your student submitted a draft of his paper earlier in the term and it was added to the Ohio State database.
• The student's original work is being plagiarized by another student. A Similarity Report does not identify which text is the original and which text is the copy.

False negatives

Likewise, a low percentage match score does not mean that a student didn't plagiarize. There are a number of reasons SimilarityCheck might miss a plagarized text.

• The student "commissions" the paper to be written by another student.
• The source that was copied from is not within the included databases.
• The student paraphrased another's work sufficiently so that it did not match the original source, but did not cite the original source anywhere in his or her written work.

Communicate Expectations Effectively

Explain when and how SimilarityCheck will be used in your course.

However you choose to use SimilarityCheck, we recommend you include a statement within your syllabus to explain your intended use to students. Note that an Assignment in CarmenCanvas will indicate to students and instructors when SimilarityCheck is enabled.

Create trust.

Make sure students understand what it means for their work to be submitted to SimilarityCheck. Talk in class about the Similarity Report and how the Similarity Report score will be used in your course, even if it's also written in your syllabus. 

As a means to open dialogue, we recommend you allow students to test the tool. You might do this by creating a Turnitin assignment that requires students to submit a piece of original text. Then, provide time in class or during office hours to review the Similarity Report with students and allow them to ask questions.

If you plan to run SimilarityCheck on an assignment, we strongly recommend that SimilarityCheck be run for all students in the course as opposed to a select few.

Use the reports as a learning opportunity.

For students and instructors alike, a Similarity Report by itself is not useful. It displays which sources are similar to a student's paper, but tells nothing about what is considered a credible source, how to research credible sources, or how to use those sources to enhance writing. 

Here are a couple ways you might use SimilarityCheck as a learning opportunity for students:

• Make reports available to students. In order for a Similarity Report to help enhance students' research and writing skills, the students need to be able to view the report. This allows them to see both the strengths and weaknesses of their papers. You might then encourage students to schedule an appointment during office hours to review the report.
• Create separate Assignments for draft submissions and final submissions. Giving students the option to submit a draft through Turnitin before submitting their final paper provides an opportunity to discuss research and citation techniques. You might then require students to schedule an appointment to review their draft.

Sample Syllabus Statements

If you choose to use Turnitin in your course, we encourage you to use these statements or something similar in your syllabus and in the relevant Assignment description.