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Turnitin Percentage: What Is The Acceptable Percentage?

Perhaps you just ran your assignment through Turnitin to check for plagiarism and the result indicates a certain percentage but you don’t even know what that means, then you should read this article.

Whether you’re writing an essay or thesis, it is important to know the acceptable Turnitin percentage or similarity index. This is to avoid getting your work rejected or getting a low grade.

Turnitin percentage tells you the amount of matching or similar text present in your work on a scale of 0 to 100% (0 being the least and 100% being the highest).

In short, it detects if you copied someone’s work closely or verbatim. However, there’s more to plagiarism than matching text.

Learn what a good similarity score is as well as other factors instructors consider when determining plagiarism in this article.

What is the acceptable Turnitin percentage?

While there is no universally specified Turnitin percentage , a similarity index of 10% and below is okay and widely accepted . However, different universities and colleges have their own reference and citation guidelines.

The acceptable Turnitin percentage also varies by course of study. For instance, law students may be allowed 40% to 60% of references for certain assignments because certain legislations or case materials cannot be rephrased without changing their entire meaning.

The percentage also varies for each academic degree level. For instance, a master’s thesis may allow up to 20% plagiarism because the paper heavily depends on citing existing authorities.

Whereas a doctorate original dissertation should have less than 10% reference. In fact, Ph.D. students would be required to synthesize materials to produce 100% original content in case of dissertations.

If we also consider the type of paper, the acceptable percentage for essays like literature is 5% and below. Acceptable publication manuscripts must be within 5-7% of referencing also.

What does the Similarity Index percentage indicate?

Is plagiarism good.

Although plagiarism is unethical, having a decent amount of matching text in your work proves that it is well-researched and links to other sources. So, yes, the right amount of plagiarism is good.

Failure to have a few matching texts in your work means that you didn’t use any reference or any other source in your work which is not possible.

So, a similarity index of 1% to 10% is okay except in unavoidable cases when the names of books, government bodies, and organizations may increase the score significantly.

Difference between similarity and plagiarism

To be clear, Turnitin doesn’t scan for plagiarism, rather it scans for matching text. Plagiarism is actually determined by your instructor.

Plagiarism is the act of taking someone else’s work and passing them as your own and that depends on many factors of which the similarity index is one.

Having a high percentage of similarity score may not necessarily be counted as plagiarism. Instructors use the highlight of matching text in your work as an investigative tool to determine if the match is acceptable or not.

If the sources in your work are attributed and quoted rightly, then that isn’t considered plagiarism. However, you shouldn’t have too many references in your work, so your own ideas can shine through.

A good research paper shouldn’t contain more than 45 references. Systematic reviews could have as many as 49 references but a good case study doesn’t need more than 29 references.

What causes plagiarism?

Since a high Turnitin percentage doesn’t necessarily translate into plagiarism, what factors then determine plagiarism?

Here are some of the reasons why your work may be flagged for plagiarism:

1. Not crediting the source

This is the first and major cause of plagiarism. Refusing to reference other people’s ideas in your work is in fact an academic crime. It is interpreted as claiming ownership of someone else’s work.

One mistake students make is thinking that by paraphrasing they would not have to quote or acknowledge a source. Conversely, even if you put an idea from a particular source in your own words, you still have to reference it to avoid plagiarism.

2. Paraphrasing too closely

Another thing that can contribute to plagiarism is by using almost the same word as the source, even after referencing the source.

So, instead of changing a few words or the order of the original words of the author, write yours in completely different words. Better still, you could use the exact words from the source but make sure that you quote the text.

3. Using statistics without reference

If you’re using statistics, charts, and tables in your work, it is important that you credit the owner else you’d be guilty of plagiarism. By citing the source of your statistics, table, or chart you can support your claim and strengthen your argument.

Keep in mind that the most reliable statistics come from government reports, scholarly journal articles, conference papers, and the like.

4. Using images without citing the sources

As surprising as it may seem, attaching an image you got online in your work without citing the author counts as plagiarism. Any image downloaded online has a creator who deserves credit for their work.

Additionally, if you use a photograph taken by you, it is best that you cite yourself as the creator so your instructor can know where the image is coming from.

5. Copying or buying someone else’s paper

Outsourcing your research work to someone else or lifting an already published work from the net is a grievous academic crime. By hiring someone to write your research paperwork, you risk having a large part of your work plagiarized.

If you also take someone else’s work from the net or copy a large part of it, you can be sure that your work will contain a high similarity score.

The punishment for such academic misconduct could be harsh. As such, I will advise that you work hard to ensure originality in your work by all means.

6. Padding your bibliography or reference list

This means compiling a fake list of bibliography or references to show that you have researched when you haven’t. As a result, the paper will highlight a lot of bibliographies or references not related to the work.

Students could be charged with gross academic misconduct which could lead to serious consequences. So, it’s important that you painstakingly highlight a bibliography that pertains to your work.

What Turnitin percentage is too high?

If your work has a matching text that’s above 25%, that’s a really high Turnitin percentage. This could be the result of copying another person’s work word for word, a lengthy bibliography, or direct citations.

What does a Turnitin percentage of 100% mean?

A similarity score of 100% means that Turnitin found a 100% matching text to your work in its database.

What does a 50% Turnitin score mean?

A similarity score of 50% means that half of your work has a matching text to another source in the Turnitin database.

Is a 1% Turnitin score good?

Yes , it is .

However, a score of 1% may be suspectable, because it may mean that you didn’t reference all your source and a good research paper should have at least a 5% similar index.

Final Thoughts

Plagiarism is unethical and can result in disciplinary action from your institution so you want to avoid it at all costs. By running your work through Turnitin, you can get to reduce the percentage of matching texts in your work.

Although Turnitin can help with plagiarism, keep in mind that it doesn’t detect plagiarism. So, it is best that you read this article to know the factors that cause plagiarism and avoid them.

Lastly, you should read the article on the differences between an academic GPA and a total GPA .

I hope this article helped. Thanks for reading.

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Turnitin: A staff guide to interpreting the Similarity Report

Introduction.

This guide describes what a similarity report shows and how to interpret matches highlighted on a student’s assignment submitted to Turnitin.

The similarity report is an effective way to:

• Check that online sources in an assignment have been properly cited and the text has not simply been copied without appropriate referencing.
• Help students as a formative learning tool around referencing and that you can use with your students to improve their skills.
• Identify collusion between students on their course and potentially from other institutions who use Turnitin in the UK.
• Ensure a level of equality and parity when checking the similarity of students’ work against the vast range of possible online sources.
• Deter students from plagiarising and encourage good academic practice.

It’s important to know that a simliarity match does not always means plagiarism . You will need to apply your academic judgment by understanding how the report works and what it shows.

The similarity report is best used in conjunction with other methods to prevent and detect plagiarism and as part of a co-ordinated approach to maintaining the academic integrity of students’ written work.

Turnitin guide:  Setting reasonable expectations for the Turnitin Similarity Score

How to interpret the Similarity Report

The similarity index percentage.

An overall percentage score (with colour code) is shown next to a student’s name under the Similarity column in the Assignment Inbox. This shows the total amount of matched text as a proportion of the assignment.

This ‘at a glance’ guide should not be used as a measure of plagiarism. Even a 1% score could potentially be plagiarised.

There is no ideal percentage to look for . Students’ work is bound to contain some words from other sources. The percentage will vary depending on the type and length of assignment and the requirements of the work involved .

Individual matches need to be investigated by opening the student’s paper and viewing the match overview and breakdown panel.

What does the Similarity Index percentage indicate?

A 100% match means the assignment has no original work . It has most probably been submitted previously to Turnitin . This can happen if the student is making a re-submission of their work and the file had already been submitted to the Turnitin database. It could be a student error and they submitted to another assignment area by mistake. It can also indicate collusion or copying an essay from another student, either in their class, from a previous year or another institution.

Types of frequently found ‘acceptable’ matched text.

There are certain types of matched text that Turnitin will find, which can be safely excluded or ignored with discretion. These matches will be included in the overall similarity score for a similarity report and be highlighted as a matches on a student’s paper.

These include:

• Quotations: Properly referenced quotations can be ignored. These can be excluded using the filter.
• References and Bibliography: Other students will have used the same references at some point and these will show up.
• Matching formats: e.g. the same essay title.
• Tables and Charts showing shared or copied data or statistics.
• Appendices may also have a large amount of matching text as other students may well have used the same sources.
• Small matches that form common phrases in a sentence or subject terminology will be detected. These can be removed using the small match filter.
• Paraphrasing text from a source will be highlighted even where words in the phrase have been changed.  If the source has been cited, it remains the academic judgment of the tutor to decide if the text has been suitably paraphrased.

Examples of common match patterns found on assignments.

Page last updated on September 20, 2023 by adambailey

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Optimizing the Originality Report

Using Turnitin.com most effectively requires some preparation and planning on the part of the instructor, and is most successful when used to teach students correct uses of sources rather than being used surreptitiously for surveillance of students’ work. The following information can help instructors maximize the effectiveness of Turnitin for both evaluating results of an Originality Report and minimizing occurrences of plagiarism.

Summary of Steps

• Include a  statement of Academic Integrity in your syllabus.
• Announce that Turnitin will be used  in your course for all students.
• Discuss the use of Turnitin and the  consequences of plagiarism  with your students.
• Provide  instructions to students  in uploading papers.
• Understand how the  Originality Report  functions and evaluate each paper marked with a high similarity score manually.
• Additional suggestions to  reduce plagiarism.
• Final Policy Notes  and Policy Notes

1. Syllabus Statement on Academic Dishonesty

Senate Policy 43-00  (Syllabus) requires instructors to provide  a statement on academic integrity within a syllabus.  This statement reminds students that the university considers academic integrity to be a serious educational issue.

Your college or department may have a statement they want instructors to use. See  Penn State Policy Links on Plagiarism  for links to information for individual colleges and campuses.

2. Announce that Turnitin will be used in your course for all students.

Whether you use Turnitin as a detection tool, a teaching tool, or both, it’s a good idea to place a statement in your syllabus to notify students of your intent to use Turnitin.com in your course and how the results will be used in determining grades. Following is a suggested statement:

In this course we will be using a tool, Turnitin, to confirm that you have used sources accurately in your papers. You will retain all copyright use of this paper ( http://turnitin.com/en_us/privacy-center/copyright-protection ). If you have any questions about how to cite your sources, please review the materials available on the following pages: University Libraries Plagiarism and You iStudy module on Academic Integrity, Plagiarism and Copyright Plagiarism Tutorial for Students page Students are responsible for ensuring that their work is consistent with Penn State’s expectations about academic integrity. Additional information about the Turnitin plagiarism prevention tool is available on the  Turnitin site  and on the  Student Paper Upload into Turnitin  page.

3. Discuss the use of Turnitin and the consequences of plagiarism with your students

Giving students information about what plagiarism is and how to prevent it can help prevent cases of “accidental plagiarism” including inappropriate paraphrase and mistaking information requiring citation for “common knowledge”.

The resources on the  Plagiarism Resources and Links  page points to information for both students and faculty.

4. Provide instructions to students in uploading papers

Probably the simplest method to add student papers to the Turnitin database is to have students do the uploading into your Turnitin course space.

Detailed student instructions are available in  Upload Instruction Information for Students . Should any students have a problem with having their work submitted to Turnitin, their concerns should be addressed by the instructor on an individual basis.

Other options for adding students are listed on the  FAQ page. Note:  If a student submits a paper, the teacher can allow the student to view the report; if the instructor makes the submission, the report is not available to the student.

5. Understand the Originality Report

How the originality report works.

Text in paper submitted to Turinitin are compared to sources within the Turnitin.com database. This database includes other course papers submitted to Turnitin.com as well as a large store of content available on the Internet and material from other sources.

The Originality Report flags passages similar to text in another source, but it does not mark it as plagiarized or plagiarized. The higher the percentage, the more text similar to another paper Turnitin has identified. Note that for the reasons listed below a high percentage score is not “proof” of plagiarism.  Faculty must evaluate passages individually to make a more accurate determination that a case of plagiarism may have occurred.

Quotations and Originality Report

It’s important to note that  properly quoted and cited text will be included in the report.  For this reason alone, all papers should be reviewed. If an assignment relies on quoting from outside sources, a paper could include multiple text matches and still not be plagiarized. An additional benefit of Turnitin is that instructors can evaluate the quality of a citation. Note:  An instructor should determine what the score of an acceptable assignment would look like ahead of time. One option would be to submit a test paper of a good assignment.

False Positives

A false positive, that is a paper with a high similarity score that is not the result of a student committing plagiarism, can occur for the following reasons.

• If a rough draft is stored in the Turnitin repository, you may get a false positive for a final draft.
• If a student submits a paper to Turnitin.com independently of the course to check for plagiarism, the version uploaded for the course will be a “copy.”
• It is possible  your student is being plagiarized.  The Originality Report identifies matches, but does not necessarily identify which is the “copy” and which is the “original.”
• A student could be expanding previous research for a new assignment, but copying text from the original research.

False Negatives

A false negative, that is a paper with a low similarity score, but actually plagiarized or incorporating some other form of academic dishonesty can occur when the source is not in Turinitin. For instance this can happen if:

• The student dishonestly “commissions” the paper from another student or a custom paper writing source.
• The source is a rare resource, especially a print resource.
• The source is from an electronic Library database not included in the Turnitin.com database.

Note that in both instances, an instructor may suspect plagiarism because the writing style is  different from what is seen before.  This type of academic dishonesty is one reason that it is advised that instructors collect research notes, drafts or early bibliographies in the paper writing process so that there is more documentation of the process.

6. Additional suggestions to reduce plagiarism

In addition to using Turnitin.com to review final assignments, you may want to consider these strategies to reduce plagiarism.

• Develop more unique assignments.  Examples of generic term paper assignments are easily found, but assignments which are more focused or more customized have fewer sources which can be copied. Meeting with students about topics can also help motivate students.
• Require drafts, preliminary bibliographies, study notes. These preliminary steps can help students maintain a proper timeline and also show where a problem could be occurring.
• Elaborate on the difference between collaboration and academic dishonesty. The prevalence of group work in the modern academic environment can create ambiguities for some assignments. Explain what students must each submit and what is acceptable collaboration.

Read more on the  Plagiarism Guide.

7. Final Policy Notes

If you believe a student has committed plagiarism or another infraction of the University’s Code of Conduct related to Academic Dishonesty,  you should schedule a time to meet with the student,  review the information that has lead you to believe that a violation occurred, and provide the student with the opportunity to respond to the allegation.

If after this meeting you still believe the student is responsible for a case of plagiarism, follow the guidelines that have been established for reporting an Academic Integrity violation which are outlined in  G-9 Academic Integrity . More information on the procedures can be found through your College/Campus Academic Integrity Committee.

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Why is a student paper self matching?

Apr 3, 2024 • knowledge article, information.

A similarity score of 100% indicates that Turnitin found 100% matching text to one or more sources stored in the Turnitin database. When the source of the match is another submitted paper, it is likely that the source is the student's own work. This may be defined as a self-match. If a student submits the same paper to multiple assignments in the same class , those submissions will not match each other thanks to the default self match exclusion. This is to allow users to make draft submissions without papers matching themselves. The self-match will show up in the "exclude sources" section of the Similarity Report and can easily be re-added to the report by following the steps in this guide below: Viewing excluded sources However, a self-match can occur when a student submits the same paper to assignments in different classes where at least one of the assignments is set to save papers to the repository. This is because papers submitted to different classes are not automatically excluded as self matches. If required, instructors can exclude any self-match by following the guidance below: Excluding sources Note: Deleting a paper from the assignment inbox does not remove it from the Turnitin database. Therefore, a paper deleted from an assignment may still come up as a 100% matching source on another paper's Similarity Report.

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Acceptable Turnitin Similarity: How much is too much Percentage

Acceptable Turnitin Similarity

The question of acceptable Turnitin similarity and how much percentage is too much arises when your paper contains copied content. Any student needs to know the best Turnitin similarity index, especially when you want to escape any issues with your professor.

First and foremost, let us know what Turnitin is. It is an online tool used for checking plagiarism in submitted documents and displays what percentage of plagiarism your assignment has. All this is processed and presented as a report with percentages.

This is really where our focus question arises from. In this post, we delve into this issue in detail.

Turnitin Similarity how Much is too Much

The Turnitin similarity of 20% and above is too much because it illustrates that a fifth of your paper’s content was copied and not original.

However, this varies with universities due to different referencing and citation guidelines. But with no universally specified similarity score, the widely acceptable Turnitin percentage is less than 10%

For example, a doctorate original dissertation reference should be less than 10% to consider the literature review in which direct quotes that are quoted properly from an expert’s subject matter will most likely occur.

However, in the case of a dissertation, you will be requested to synthesize material, after which you generate your information so that the content is primarily original.

On the other hand, a master’s thesis can be allowed up to 20% since the larger part of the paper is heavily dependent on existing authorities.

If you take an example of an essay like literature, a plagiarism score of 5 % and below would be acceptable.

When writing a publication manuscript, there should be a very little amount of plagiarism, like 5-7%, apart from the few quotations with proper citations. However, it should be noted that all is not about a low score.

While having a 0% score is ideal, sometimes there are scores due to unavoidable content or phrases. Therefore, many people still want to know which Turnitin score is safe for them to submit their assignments.

Turnitin Similarity varies from one University to Another

The acceptable plagiarism score varies from university to university because of the differences in the plagiarism policies they use to administer their testing procedures.

Some universities are more strict than others because they adopt different citation and referencing rules.

This is because determining the acceptable similarity index is the role of examiners or supervisors and the institutions’ prerogative. They decide if or if not, the presented document is plagiarized and how much plagiarism is committed.

The reason is that Turnitin highlights all the matching materials in a paper. Just like SafeAssign, Turnitin flags off all matching content. However, you can cheat Turnitin and SafeAssign by cleverly uploading your task or paraphrasing content to avoid a plagiarism score.

Why a Little Plagiarism is Good

A little plagiarism is good because it indicates that a paper is well-researched and contains external information from other writers and sources. It is impossible to write a paper with external sources and fail to have a few matching tests to give low scores on the scanner.

A plagiarism score of between 1% and 10 is really good. In fact, we encourage writers to use external sources to back up their arguments, which is why good quality and well-researched papers will always have some low plagiarism.

For this reason, some scholars argue that little plagiarism is healthy. However, if plagiarism goes beyond 25, it is bad and should be corrected.

While some educational institutions allow up to 40% for well-referenced papers, we do not allow anything above 15% as a matter of precaution. We only allow anything higher in cases where it is unavoidable.

The cases of unavoidable plagiarism include the names of books, government bodies, and organizations.

When such are repeated many times in a paper, the paper can show a high score of plagiarism yet no copy-pasting was done.

What Percentage of Turnitin is bad?

A Turnitin similarity score is considered bad if it is beyond 30% on the originality report and the matching content is not cited and referenced.

While the exact bad score varies with different universities, anything beyond 49 is generally considered unacceptable since it shows that you copied too much from the internet or other sources.

The Turnitin score tells how much you have copied. If you have a report you deem bad, you must remove the plagiarism. Supposing you are writing an essay, a term paper, a research paper, a thesis, or a report, you can apply two ways in which to reduce the plagiarism score;

• One is paraphrasing the source content; however, this approach could omit some important details since you are trying to avoid plagiarism. You need to paraphrase well and retain the points.
• Two is by summarizing in your own words the source material; this will make your professor happy since you understood the source and wrote the paper in your own words; hence you will have 0% plagiarism because summarizing is all your own words.

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The Acceptable Percentage for Turnitin

The widely acceptable Turnitin percentage is 15% and below. However, there is no universally specified similarity score because plagiarism policies vary with institutions.

Some universities accept Turnitin scores of 10%, others entertain as high as 45% if the sources are well cited.

No matter the accepted score, anything above 20% is just too much plagiarism and shows a lot of copying.

Turnitin has no acceptable plagiarism percentage; however, this could vary with your university’s guidelines. If your university’s guidelines and assessment file states 100% original, it must be 100% original — no buts or ifs.

In case the plagiarism report reads above 10% similarity. Your paper will get grades with negative scores for plagiarism if your school’s acceptable percentage for Turnitin is 10%.

However, if your professor permits a range of 5% plagiarism against the norms of the university, then you will be fine with your assignment.

What contributes to the Acceptable Percentage of Plagiarism?

For very strict institutions, a single plagiarized sentence will result in being charged with violating the academic integrity policy of your school.

The percentage rating given by Turnitin is simply a guide for the score of similar content copied from other sources.

It enables the professors to determine how much of the student’s work is original.

However, a custom essay with a low percentage of plagiarism on a paper is still unacceptable, and an essay with a high percentage could be Ok.

This is determined if the high percentage is a result of the wrong settings of Turnitin in such a way that properly quoted material is flagged as plagiarized mistakenly.

References also contribute to a good and acceptable similarity score. It is worth noting that the Turnitin percentage is always 0 when no external sources are used as references.

However, whenever you use sources, you will always have a low similarity score of either 5% or less than 10% utmost. In fact, a 0% score is not healthy for a research paper because it indicates that no sources were used to back up the arguments/points/findings presented

Why is your Turnitin Similarity Index too high?

Turnitin highlights the similarities of your content to other sources; it doesn’t determine if your paper is plagiarized; that is the assessor’s prerogative.

The assessor determines if the similar text is attributed accurately and quoted correctly. The context is very important; however, Turnitin doesn’t account for context.

 In many cases, a high similarity index is usually due to either or a combination of the following:

1. Not Crediting the Source

 You are copying every word from some other source without including the original words inside the quotation marks and including a citation about the source of the original text. Although you put the ideas from a particular source in your own words, you have to credit the source.

2. Paraphrasing too Closely, Although you Credit the Source

You can’t take ideas from some other text, even if you put them into your words, and fail to cite the source. However, there is another kind of plagiarism when you paraphrase someone else’s work.

When you put ideas and words in a different order from the original text and mix your original words, you will still plagiarize, although you cite the source.

3. Using Statistics without Crediting the Source

Statistics, charts, or tables inside a text are the property of whoever created them. And from this fact, you must credit the original creator in your text.

There is an oratorical advantage when you cite the source because an author has reached statistics that support your claims in your paper, strengthening your argument.

4. Using Photographs/ Images without Citing Sources

The practice is similar to identifying a figure or a table. If you take someone else’s photograph and place it in your text, and write a description, to make it apply to your paper and show a point you will be arguing without acknowledging the source is plagiarism.

Even when you have taken a photograph, it is advisable to cite yourself since you are the creator, and the source will be clear to all readers.

5. Copying or Buying Someone else’s Paper

It is obvious that hiring someone to write your essay is plagiarism, and copying someone else’s work is equally bad. This raises the safety issue when buying essays or from someone else. This can also happen by contracting essay-writing services to do your assignment

Copying some parts of a paper or the whole paper from old lab reports or old papers essay bank is a good example of this type of plagiarism.

6. Padding a reference list or bibliography to show that you have researched when you haven’t

Academic misconduct that mostly happens when students don’t complete their assignments and leave them till the last moment, especially when their professors have requested that they include various articles and books in their reference list.

If you face this problem, you can easily learn to put your paper in APA for free or ask our editors for some help.

How to Reduce Similarity on Turnitin for your Essay

In most cases, it’s impossible to reduce plagiarism alerts on Turnitin. However, you can decrease it by following these steps to make sure your essay is free of plagiarism:

1. Paraphrase your Content

If you have found information that suits your research paper, read and understand it, then put it in your own words.

Ensure you do not write the above two words consecutively from the text you found.

In case you write the above four words in a row, it is advisable to use quotation marks.

2. Cite your Sources

Citing is the most effective way to avoid plagiarism. Follow the formatting guidelines of the document, such as MLA, APA, or Chicago, used by your college. Citing a quote is different from citing paraphrased material.

This practice involves adding a page number or adding a paragraph number when writing web content. To ensure a better score, get someone to format the paper for you if you do not know these referencing styles,

3. Properly use Quotation Marks

You must use quotation marks when you write a quote exactly as it appears from the source. No one likes to be misquoted. A scholar must be able to paraphrase most material effectively.

The process takes time, but the efforts are rewarding. Quoting should be done well to be free of plagiarism allegations.

4. Referencing your sources

The most effective way to avoid plagiarism is by adding a page of cited works or reference pages at the end of a research paper.

Also the page should also meet the formatting guidelines of referencing used by your college.

Difference between Similarity and Plagiarism

There is a difference between similarity and plagiarism. The teacher defines plagiarism as making a judgment that someone copied. Similarity, on the other hand, is the matching of content with another, as shown by the scanner’s report

Scanners like Turnitin and SafeAssign cannot scan for plagiarism; they only scan for similarity. It is from the similarity report that a professor can judge whether there is plagiarism or not.

Those two are different, and a similarity score does not imply plagiarism. Sometimes, you can get a false positive, where Turnitin says you plagiarized but didn’t , which needs the intervention of your teacher.

In most cases, some systems can have errors occasionally and scan the references. If the match is on the references, that is not considered plagiarism.

Final Take: Avoid Plagiarism at all cost

Turnitin is a plagiarism detection tool that detects the plagiarized content in your paper. It is always advisable for students to stay away from plagiarism by following the steps given in this write-up.

To avoid issues with your instructor, it is important that you know the acceptable percentage for Turnitin. This will help you know how much plagiarism is allowed for your essay in your institution.

However, if you are not confident that you will write an original paper, you can contact us to help with your essay and guarantee an original paper. NO PLAGIARISM HERE.

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FAQs on Acceptable Plagiarism Percentage

What does it mean when turnitin says 0 similarity.

A Turnitin similarity of 0% means that you did not copy anything from online sources word for word or directly. While it shows your work is original, it may also indicate your prowess in paraphrasing.

You might have copied but paraphrased to cheat Turnitin. As it is recommended by academic writing experts, it is ideal to have a 0% plagiarized paper if you want to score higher. However,

Is a little plagiarism good? If so, why and how little is too little?

A little plagiarism is good because it shows you included ideas and arguments from other writers or credible sources. A 0 score may indicate a lack of resourced content since a little plagiarism shows that you researched well. However, it should be noted that what is liked is a little plagiarism but not a lot. Anything less than 5-10% is good if well referenced and cited using the right referencing formats like APA, MLA, and Chicago. A little is good but not too much.

How do I remove similarity from Turnitin?

Ideally, the best way to remove similarity from the Turnitin score for your paper is to rewrite the affected content. You can read and understand the content, then write from your mind.

The other best way is to paraphrase the affected areas. Be sure to cite and reference the sources of your content properly.

Does Turnitin count References

Ideally, Turnitin does not count references because they are not part of the main content of a paper or an essay. However, this depends on your faculty/university’s settings for the plagiarism scanning system. In most cases, most universities do not allow the scanning of references. Therefore, this should not be a worry for you. Either way, references should not worry you because they are good for a paper and do not constitute plagiarism. In reality, references do not comprise the plagiarism report, even if scanned and highlighted for matching.

Watch this video to learn more about this.

Jessica Kasen is experienced in academic writing and academic assistance. She is well versed in academia and has a master’s degree in education. Kasen consults with us in helping students improve their grades. She also oversights the quality of work done by our writers.

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• Saudi J Anaesth
• v.13(Suppl 1); 2019 Apr

Turnitin: Is it a text matching or plagiarism detection tool?

Sultan a. meo.

Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Muhammad Talha

1 Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The institutional integrity constitutes the bases of scientific activity. The frequent incidences of similarity, plagiarism, and retraction cases created the space for frequent use of similarity and plagiarism detecting tools. Turnitin is software that identifies the matched material by checking the electronically submitted documents against its database of academic publications, internet, and previously submitted documents. Turnitin provides a “similarity index,” which does not mean plagiarism. The prevalence of plagiarism could not reduce tremendously in the presence of many paid and un-paid plagiarism detecting tools because of the assortment of reasons such as poor research and citation skills, language problems, underdeveloped academic skills, etc., This paper may provide an adequate feedback to the students, researchers, and faculty members in understanding the difference between similarity index and plagiarism.

Introduction

The mechanism of broadcasting the scientific knowledge has experienced paradigm shift. Research publications have become an essential component of an academic promotion, research grants, innovative ideas, institutional growth, and eventually the economic and country development. Because of the lack of knowledge of similarity and plagiarism and for achieving an additional professional targets scientific misconduct has been slinked in the academic institutes. The research misconduct defined as “fabrication, falsification or plagiarism in writing, reviewing, or in reporting the research results.”[ 1 ] Academic plagiarism is increasing globally, which is a serious threat on academic integrity. Institutional pressure to publish, inappropriate training in principled scientific writing, ignorance, misunderstanding, and lack of constitutional controls and clear policies to deal with scientific misconduct in academics have led to increase research misconduct.[ 2 ]

In 1997, an internet based tool called “Turnitin” was established by iParadigms LLC. The Turnitin parent company “iParadigms LLC” also recognized a similar software service for books, newspaper editors, and magazine called “iThenticate.” The other similar types of tools included “Turnitin Suite” “GradeMark,” and “PeerMark.” The popularity of Turnitin has been expanded in academic institutions throughout the world. Turnitin tool checks the contents of any documents for its association with original contents. It identifies the similarities to existing sources of the original contents of the documents. Its prime role is to evade the plagiarism and improve the integrity of the academic institutions.

High morals are equally important in medical and other disciplines. In biomedical research, ethics are very important where the element human is involved.[ 3 ] Similarly, in other disciplines such as natural Sciences[ 4 ] and Arts and Humanities, principled issues are addressed in terms of plagiarism. Plagiarism derives from the Latin word “plagiarius” that refers to abducting or kidnapping. Plagiarism is the presentation of the thoughts or work of another under own name,[ 5 ] whereas citing the titles of papers will be detected as a similarity such as book titles or bibliographies, references and quotes, common phrases and constructs, etc. Some well-known kinds of plagiarism are briefly defined in the Table 1 .[ 6 ]

Types of plagiarism

The researchers and students frequently visit the various search engines as research tools and think cutting and pasting as an easy way of conducting the research.[ 7 , 8 ] Knowingly or unknowingly, they do misconduct that ultimately damage the integrity of the individuals and institutions. In general, plagiarism is not intentional or deliberate cheating, e.g., it can be because of certain reasons such as lack of interest in the subject, lack of research skills, fear of failing, procrastination, and/or poor referencing skills.[ 9 , 10 ] Chaudhuri[ 11 ] defines the plagiarism as “an unfair use of somebody else's work without giving credit for it. It is necessary to cite and acknowledge the sources even if those ideas are paraphrased and re-written with different words.” The newly entered students to higher education are often faced with such problems because of unawareness about academic culture, environment, and dignity. Therefore, it creates a space between skills of the individuals and expectations of the institutions.[ 12 ] The possible reasons of plagiarism are elaborated in the Table 2 .

Why do researchers plagiarise?

The present paper highlights the pros and cons of an educational resource which is “electronic text matching tool” and the most widely used tool, Turnitin. The Gill Rowell dismisses the myth that Turnitin is a “plagiarism detection software and clarifies the contribution that Turnitin can and cannot make to the detection and prevention of plagiarism.” In this study, we explore the misconception which is calling Turnitin “a plagiarism detection software.” It will be quiet sensible to recall it as “a text-matching tool” that electronically checks the similar text of submitted material against web contents, its database of academic publication and earlier submitted documents.[ 13 ]

Plagiarism detection is an academic judgment, which is depending on plenty of factors, and only expert academicians can do this job. Turnitin or other similar software's produce “Originality Reports,” which is then interpreted by a person on the basis of the importance of the findings. Before creating the originality reports, bibliography, quoted material, and small matches (words or percentage) should be excluded. The interpretation of originality reports can be tricky depending on the expertise of the team member. For instance, it is not wise to simply rely on the percentage of similarity index 38%, human intervention is must to rule out the facts by thorough inspection of each single matching. For example, is it extracted from one source or gathered many small portions from different sources? Is it 38% extracted from methodology or discussion section? It is also relevant to see that all the matching portions are correctly cited to display the source.[ 13 ] Sometimes Turnitin matches your own (same) paper and shows the similarity index more than 90%; in this case, you have to analyze the originality report thoroughly by checking each and every single matched source. If it is verified that the matched source is your own paper itself, then this paper should be excluded from the originality report using given options. It is wise to select “no repository” option in “edit assignment settings” before creating new originality reports to avoid this problem. Using this option will not save the papers submitted to Turnitin database. The Table 3 presents various features of originality report, whereas Table 4 illustrates the color scheme with respect to percentages of similarity index.

Originality report

Interpreting results according to the originality report

Safe percentages

There are no sharply defined rules as all work will perhaps carry certain words from other sources. The percentage varies from university to university, however, a considerable percentage would be anything above 25% (Yellow, Orange, and Red). It is essential to understand that the “Similarity Index” is NOT a “plagiarism index”; there is no percentage that is characteristically “good” or “bad.” However, 0% (an authentic result) does not essentially mean that all is “OK” with the paper, and 75% (high similarity text) does not certainly mean that the researcher should flunk. Academic judgment (human intervention) is must to evaluate the originality report and to rule out the true plagiarism, if persists. The originality reports are solely tools to uncover potential sources of plagiarism or text, which could have been erroneously cited. There are a large number of uses for the Turnitin tool. Students frequently practice it to check the papers for missing citations, and faculties use the Turnitin to check the plagiarism in students' assignments, master/PhD theses, manuscripts, etc. If plagiarism suspected, better to discuss with concerned student, researcher, or faculty member first because researcher could be the victim of someone. Be a smart enough to look at the report and decide what is going on here? A hotchpotch of tips to avoid plagiarism is described in the Table 5 .

Ten tips to avoid the plagiarism using the Turnitin tool

It is essential to understand the difference between two elements – Similarity and Plagiarism. An example is incorporated to understand this dilemma. It is obvious from the Figure 1 that there are many words, abbreviations, names of the tests, diseases etc., one cannot change or paraphrase them and has to write the sentence/s as it is. In this case, the Turnitin shows 64% similarity index, which does not mean plagiarism. It means that 64% of your work is matched with already published work, this may include billions of pages available on internet, which does not qualify as plagiarism.

Example of an originality report presenting the similarity index

Clanton[ 14 ] argues that unless academic dishonesty is reasonably suspected, it is ethically problematic to necessitate submission through plagiarism detection services such as Turnitin because of multiple reasons. The plagiarism detection tools cannot identify each and every occurrence of plagiarism because their databases are not complete,[ 15 , 16 ] but these tools are increasing their capability for detecting and deterring plagiarism.

Scientific integrity is the main concern of the global research community. That is why many plagiarism prevention tools are introduced for the ease of researchers to check the originality of their work before publishing the document(s). Many ethical committees and code of ethics have been introduced to avoid plagiarism and deal with misconduct cases at institutional levels. Various universities and research institutes have established their rules and regulations to avoid the plagiarism and misconduct issues. Plagiarism prevention is essential to appropriately admit to the contributions and scientific inventions introduced by other persons. Honoring and crediting individual work who really deserve rather than misleading the persons who read it to wrongly consider that the work belongs to another individual. Therefore, it is pertinent for students, researchers, and faculty members to comprehend that the Turnitin is not a plagiarism detection tool, but it is a text matching tool that provides the similarity of the document/s with already published work, which is the foremost purpose of this paper. To avoid misconducts and its consequences, one should acknowledge the work of other persons appropriately by properly referencing and citing it.

Author's contributions

SAM: Writing and reviewing the manuscript, MT: Conceived, literature search, and writing and reviewing a draft.

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the College of Medicine Research Centre (CMRC) and Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for supporting the work.

One size does not fit all: Interpreting Turnitin's AI writing score

Learn more about AI-generated text and how Turnitin is partnering with educators to face the threats, responsibilities, and promise of this moment

Learn more about why and how you should include AI writing tools like ChatGPT in your classroom

Five ways to approach AI proactively and create writing assignments that incorporate this rapidly evolving technology.

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As a former educator, I recall those times when–much like my secondary English Language Arts students–I wanted a simple right or wrong answer to questions. Sadly, these types of responses are rare in spite of their comforting nature. Generative AI writing tools and usage of Turnitin’s AI writing indicator have one thing in common: there is no one “right” approach. An “appropriate” approach may be a more accurate term as determining generative AI parameters may vary greatly from one assignment to another, or from one student to another. Determining the significance of the AI writing score for and with your students is a key step in helping students navigate the world of generative AI writing tools.

The unknown is always frightening and overwhelming. Let's start with what IS known and use that as a framework for understanding the new.

How does the AI writing indicator compare to the Similarity Score?

Linking new ideas to existing knowledge is a strong strategy, so let’s begin with the Turnitin Similarity Score, already familiar to many educators. While there are some significant differences between the two scores, the need for nuance and context is a common element. Veteran Turnitin users know that setting an arbitrary percentage for the Similarity Score without considering the assignment or student lessens the likelihood that this information will be used to inform a meaningful conversation about the student’s writing.

Perhaps the most significant difference between these two percentages is how they are determined. While Turnitin’s Similarity Score is an exact match to a large body of content for similarity checking , the AI writing score indicates the percentage of text in a document that was likely generated by an AI tool ( See #9 of AI detection results and interpretation ). This difference makes some uncomfortable because the AI writing score is a seeming gray area, but shifting that perspective is necessary to harness the power of this information.

The fact that an exact match isn’t identified does not make the information less valuable. In fact, it makes little difference when used as intended: as a single data point that informs the educator’s understanding of the student’s thinking and work. The educator’s own knowledge of the student and their work is as crucial to understanding the AI writing score as the percentage itself. In and of itself, the score cannot stand alone;it is arbitrary and less meaningful without an educator’s sense of the assignment, the student, and overall context.

We at Turnitin encourage educators to take a similar approach to the AI writing score as we recommend for interpreting the Similarity Score. Ideally, this is step one of a conversation that takes place in the formative space , rather than being used as a summative or punitive measure. When the “score”--Similarity or AI writing–is looked upon as the starting point for a dialogue rather than a definitive statement about a student’s work, then these conversations take on vigorous purpose as an opportunity for learning.

To that end, our team of veteran educators developed a helpful resource to support educators and academic decision makers who are looking to understand the similarities and differences between Turnitin's Similarity Score and Turnitin's AI writing indicator. Below, you'll find a downloadable infographic that spells out how each tool can and should be used to responsibly support original student work.

The case for not setting a single AI writing score for a course

While some might argue that a “one score fits all” approach is fair, a closer look at assignment and student dynamics makes this patently untrue. In the interests of fairness and equity, educators should consider multiple factors when reviewing student writing:

• Genre of the assignment . When reviewing a creative or personal narrative, a lower AI writing score would be more expected as original thinking that is personal to the student is expected. When reviewing a research-based piece of writing, a lower AI writing score might indicate a lack of cited evidence to back up the student’s claims, whereas a higher score might indicate a more appropriate level of evidence to back up the student’s claims, or it may reveal some intended or unintended misconduct. A conversation with the student during a review of the work can help the educator determine what happened, why, and what next steps might be.
• Length of an assignment . When reviewing a briefer essay versus a longer research paper, the issue of false positives may need to be considered. Submissions with fewer than 300 words have a greater likelihood of presenting a false positive. But again, while guidelines may be appropriate when considering the impact of the AI writing score, the AI writing indicator isn’t what determines that impact. Only the educator who is familiar with both the assignment parameters and the student can determine how weighty an impact that could and should be.
• Guidelines for usage of AI writing tools . Some assignments may specify that the use of generative AI writing tools is unsanctioned or that they can only be used in certain ways, and these are important factors to consider as well when speaking to students about their work.
• Student needs . While the above mentioned variables would remain similar for an assignment, the greatest variable that must be factored into this decision-making is the student. Not penalizing students with exceptionalities for using tools that are documented to address their particular circumstances is paramount. A student who is an English language learner might be permitted to use a translation tool powered by AI that flags some or all of the submitted work as AI-generated. Not considering that this might unfairly penalize the student while also potentially violating the terms of their allowable accommodations.

While this is not an exhaustive list of exceptionalities or other factors that might impact an educator’s judgment about a student’s AI writing score, the educator’s knowledge of the student and the application of that knowledge is essential to making a fair and reasonable determination. As always, when there is any doubt as to whether academic misconduct has occurred, erring on the side of caution is best.

What factors influence whether the AI writing score merits a conversation?

As with any tool, the success of Turnitin’s AI writing indicator largely depends on how it’s used. When educators look at the AI writing score and utilize it as a single data point rather than a definitive response, then it is being used as intended. No tool can replace the educator’s judgment combined with other data points to determine whether such a conversation is needed.

As education leaders approach these important decisions with vigilance and care, it's important to consider different reasons scores may vary and how they might be addressed. Let's discuss a possible way to demonstrate the thinking and decision-making process in the next section.

Why is an AI writing score of __ ok for Student A, but not appropriate for Student B or Student C?

Because educators know their students, their work, and any special circumstances or needs, this knowledge supersedes an arbitrary score except as a possible starting point.

Assume that I have been building relationships with these students all semester. For the sake of this example assignment, the use of AI was allowable as a brainstorming tool and to help with writing a thesis statement if needed. These guidelines, including the expectation that AI tools and other resources be cited, were communicated with the rest of the parameters when introducing the assignment. Although this is not my first conversation about writing with these students, it is the first one about the AI writing indicator and score, and so I want to prepare for the conversation so that all participants leave the conversation satisfied with the outcome.

Let’s take a look at some of my students: Student A, Student B, and Student C. Each has unique characteristics that factored into the decision to have a deeper conversation. My expectation was that there would be some variance in scores, but that they would also fall along certain expected levels. This was true for most students, but not these three, who received notably higher AI writing scores on the assignment.

In the table below, three student profiles are coupled with the specific concern that gives greater context to their AI writing score. The potential solution column outlines my thought-process as an educator or decision-maker, offering potential next steps with that student’s profile and particular concern in mind.

As highlighted above in the “Potential solution” column, a conversation is needed with all three students in order for clarification and perhaps to suggest some adjustments. While I would not expect that all students will have the exact same score or even fall within a range of scores, the main point of these conversations is to focus on writing and to ensure that the students are supported when using generative AI writing tools so that their writing showcases their own original thinking.

How can educators use the AI writing indicator to facilitate good writing instruction?

Acknowledging that the tools are there and sharing when/why/how generative AI writing tools can be used as an aid (never a substitute!) is important to students’ writing journeys. It seems obvious that AI writing tools are here to stay. Regardless of whether this innovation is positive or negative in everyone’s mind, it seems likely that generative AI will be used by students post-secondary-school, whether they go to university or into trade or some other aspect of the workforce.

Students use AI writing tools for a variety of reasons, but when the discussion is focused on solutions rather than misuse, then the opportunity for learning is centered. The idea of intentional misuse or not becomes less important than learning how to “fix” it. Helping students manage time more efficiently vs copying and pasting an entire essay; teaching in-text citations vs just inserting another writer’s or bot’s words; teaching paraphrasing vs … there are as many reasons students use generative AI writing tools as there are students and–just as importantly–solutions that maintain the student’s academic integrity.

When the AI writing score is used to inform conversations about student writing in the formative space, then these conversations become part of the process and support that students often need to improve their writing . The score is a good starting point for discussing how to use these tools while still maintaining the integrity of their work. Talking to students about their process and figuring out together how to respond to the challenges presented by writing when generative AI seems easier is important to helping students improve their writing.

In sum: Interpreting Turnitin’s AI writing score

Turnitin’s AI writing indicator provides a percentage and a report with highlighted text that indicates the text was likely generated using AI writing tools… and that’s really it. What it is not is a magic button that provides definitive answers in isolation. More important than any tool is the educator who sees the score and makes decisions balancing this information with their personal knowledge of their students, their work, and institutional policy.

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Viewing Turnitin Report Results

If you enabled the Turnitin feature in your class assignment, you can view the Originality reports for your students.  Reports often take 10-20 minutes after submission to appear, but can take up to 24 hours depending on the size of the document and whether the student is a new user.

Instructions

Log into Courses and click on the tab for your course.

• Click the Assignments tool in the left tool menu.

• The report is available to view when grading the assignment by clicking the student's name in the above step.

• Example: Hidden quotation marks could impact the amount of quoted material recognized in a document.
• Example: Some characters in different alphabets look the exact same to the naked eye (e.g. Latin: o; Greek: ο). While Turnitin's service will automatically swap out such characters for the similarity report, any effort to do so will be logged here.
• Overall Similarity: By default, this tab reveals an overall similarity percentage discerned from the source(s) with the highest degree (%) of match. Clicking the matched source tab will reveal options for viewing the full source.
• Document Details: This tab reveals important metadata about the submission, including the author's name, submission timestamp, assignment, class, etc. This tab also reveals analyses on the font(s) and spelling(s) in the document.
• AI: This tab opens in a new window and displays the percentage of the document that is determined, with 98% certainty, to be AI generated. Turnitin will NOT highligh content that is likely to AI generated, but rather highlights content that it can determine with a very high degree of certainty to be AI written.  View the AI Writing FAQ document to learn more about how Turnitin determines this percentage.

Additional Details

• In the "Overall Similarity" tab, instructors also have the option to click the "Sources Overview" dropdown to view a list of all sources that show any degree of match, including overlapping sources.  You can also click the gear icon to exclude quoted text, a bibliography section, citations, or small matches below a certain number of words as defined by you.  Be sure to click "Done" to update the current report.
• The icons immediately below the report allow you to zoom in, zoom out, or print/download the report to a file on your computer.
• Add a Turnitin assignment

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Check for unintentional plagiarism

Easily check your paper for missing citations and accidental plagiarism with the EasyBib plagiarism checker. The EasyBib plagiarism checker:

• Scans your paper against billions of sources.
• Identifies text that may be flagged for plagiarism.
• Provides you with a plagiarism score.

You can submit your paper at any hour of the day and quickly receive a plagiarism report.

What is the EasyBib plagiarism checker? 

Most basic plagiarism checkers review your work and calculate a percentage, meaning how much of your writing is indicative of original work. But, the EasyBib plagiarism checker goes way beyond a simple percentage. Any text that could be categorized as potential plagiarism is highlighted, allowing you time to review each warning and determine how to adjust it or how to cite it correctly.

You’ll even see the sources against which your writing is compared and the actual word for word breakdown. If you determine that a warning is unnecessary, you can waive the plagiarism check suggestion.

Plagiarism is unethical because it doesn’t credit those who created the original work; it violates intellectual property and serves to benefit the perpetrator. It is a severe enough academic offense, that many faculty members use their own plagiarism checking tool for their students’ work. With the EasyBib Plagiarism checker, you can stay one step ahead of your professors and catch citation mistakes and accidental plagiarism before you submit your work for grading.

Why use a plagiarism checker? 

Imagine – it’s finals week and the final research paper of the semester is due in two days. You, being quite familiar with this high-stakes situation, hit the books, and pull together a ten-page, last-minute masterpiece using articles and materials from dozens of different sources.

However, in those late, coffee-fueled hours, are you fully confident that you correctly cited all the different sources you used? Are you sure you didn’t accidentally forget any? Are you confident that your teacher’s plagiarism tool will give your paper a 0% plagiarism score?

That’s where the EasyBib plagiarism checker comes in to save the day. One quick check can help you address all the above questions and put your mind at ease.

What exactly is plagiarism? 

Plagiarism has a number of possible definitions; it involves more than just copying someone else’s work. Improper citing, patchworking, and paraphrasing could all lead to plagiarism in one of your college assignments. Below are some common examples of accidental plagiarism that commonly occur.

Quoting or paraphrasing without citations

Not including in-text citations is another common type of accidental plagiarism. Quoting is taking verbatim text from a source. Paraphrasing is when you’re using another source to take the same idea but put it in your own words. In both cases, it’s important to always cite where those ideas are coming from. The EasyBib plagiarism checker can help alert you to when you need to accurately cite the sources you used.

Patchwork plagiarism

When writing a paper, you’re often sifting through multiple sources and tabs from different search engines. It’s easy to accidentally string together pieces of sentences and phrases into your own paragraphs. You may change a few words here and there, but it’s similar to the original text. Even though it’s accidental, it is still considered plagiarism. It’s important to clearly state when you’re using someone else’s words and work.

Improper citations

Depending on the class, professor, subject, or teacher, there are multiple correct citation styles and preferences. Some examples of common style guides that are followed for citations include MLA, APA, and Chicago style. When citing resources, it’s important to cite them accurately. Incorrect citations could make it impossible for a reader to track down a source and it’s considered plagiarism. There are EasyBib citation tools to help you do this.

Don’t fall victim to plagiarism pitfalls. Most of the time, you don’t even mean to commit plagiarism; rather, you’ve read so many sources from different search engines that it gets difficult to determine an original thought or well-stated fact versus someone else’s work. Or worse, you assume a statement is common knowledge, when in fact, it should be attributed to another author.

When in doubt, cite your source!

Time for a quick plagiarism quiz! 

Which of the following requires a citation?

• A chart or graph from another source
• A paraphrase of an original source
• Several sources’ ideas summarized into your own paragraph
• A direct quote
• All of the above

If you guessed option E than you’d be correct. Correct punctuation and citation of another individual’s ideas, quotes, and graphics are a pillar of good academic writing.

What if you copy your own previous writing?

Resubmitting your own original work for another class’s assignment is a form of self-plagiarism, so don’t cut corners in your writing. Draft an original piece for each class or ask your professor if you can incorporate your previous research.

What features are available with the EasyBib plagiarism checker? 

Along with providing warnings and sources for possible plagiarism, the EasyBib  plagiarism checker works alongside the other EasyBib tools, including a grammar checker  and a spell checker . You’ll receive personalized feedback on your thesis and writing structure too!

The  plagiarism checker compares your writing sample with billions of available sources online so that it detects plagiarism at every level. You’ll be notified of which phrases are too similar to current research and literature, prompting a possible rewrite or additional citation. You’ll also get feedback on your paper’s inconsistencies, such as changes in text, formatting, or style. These small details could suggest possible plagiarism within your assignment.

And speaking of citations, there are also  EasyBib citation tools  available. They help you quickly build your bibliography and avoid accidental plagiarism. Make sure you know which citation format your professor prefers!

Great! How do I start? 

Simply copy and paste or upload your essay into the checker at the top of this page. You’ll receive the first five grammar suggestions for free! To try the plagiarism checker for free, start your EasyBib Plus three-day free trial.* If you love the product and decide to opt for premium services, you’ll have access to unlimited writing suggestions and personalized feedback.

The EasyBib plagiarism checker is conveniently available 24 hours a day and seven days a week. You can cancel anytime.  Check your paper for free today!.

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Visit www.easybib.com for more information on helpful EasyBib writing and citing tools.

For informational guides and on writing and citing, visit the EasyBib guides homepage .

Originality.ai Ranked Among Top-Tier AI Text Detectors According to the Study — “The Effectiveness of Software Designed to Detect AI-Generated Writing”

Originality.ai ranked among top-tier ai detectors according to the research in "the effectiveness of software designed to detect ai-generated writing.".

The study by William H. Walters, " The Effectiveness of Software Designed to Detect AI-Generated Writing: A Comparison of 16 AI Text Detectors ," provides a comprehensive evaluation of 16 publicly available AI text detectors. Based on the study’s findings, Originality.ai showed remarkable accuracy in identifying AI-generated text. 

Key Findings (TL;DR)

• Three AI text detectors — Originality.ai, Copyleaks, and TurnItIn — demonstrated exceptional accuracy across all three sets of documents examined in this study: GPT-3.5 papers, GPT-4 papers, and human-generated papers. 
• Although most of the other detectors in the study could distinguish between GPT-3.5 papers and human-generated papers with a reasonably high accuracy they were not as effective at distinguishing between GPT-4 and student-written papers.

Study Details

This study evaluated the accuracy of 16 publicly available AI text detectors in discerning AI-generated from human-generated writing. The evaluated document included 126 essays generated by AI and humans across various domains. 

Each detector’s performance was assessed for its overall accuracy, its accuracy with each type of document, its decisiveness, the number of false positives, and the number of false negatives. 

Originality.ai was one of the top three highest-performing AI detectors — demonstrating high accuracy with all three sets of documents.

AI Text Detection Tools

• 16 AI detection tools : Originality.ai, Copyleaks, TurnItIn, Scribbr, ZeroGPT, Grammica, GPTZero, Crossplag, OpenAI, IvyPanda, GPT Radar, SEO.ai, Content at Scale, Writer, Sapling, ContentDetector.ai
• Top performers : Originality.ai, Copyleaks, TurnItIn

GPT 3.5 and GPT 4 were each used to generate 42 short papers (literature reviews), similar to the type of papers typically assigned to students in first-year composition courses at US universities. The topics covered social sciences, natural sciences, and the humanities.

The 42 human-written documents were gathered from a set of 178 papers submitted by Manhattan College English 110 (First Year Composition) students during the 2014 to 2015 academic year. 

The 2014 to 2015 timeframe was selected because it occurred before the widespread availability of AI tools such as ChatGPT to ensure the papers were written without AI.

This dataset consists of 126 documents divided into the following:

• 42 undergraduate essays generated by ChatGPT-3.5
• 42 generated by ChatGPT-4
• 42 human-written essays from a first-year composition course

Evaluation Criteria

Each detector’s performance was assessed for:

• Its overall accuracy across all 126 documents.
• Its accuracy when tested against each of the three sets of documents.
• Its decisiveness (the relative number of uncertain responses).
• The number of false positives (human-generated papers designated as AI by the detector)
• The number of false negatives (AI-generated papers designated as human by the detector). 

The analysis involved four steps:

• Preparing the three sets of documents.
• Selecting the 16 AI text detectors to include in the study.
• Using each detector to evaluate the 126 documents and code the responses as AI, human, or uncertain.
• Evaluating the accuracy of each detector and its ability to identify AI-generated and human-generated text.

Originality.ai’s Performance

Originality.ai excelled at detecting both AI-generated and human-written documents with high accuracy. The study positioned it as a top-tier AI-generated text detection tool with a 97% overall accuracy rate.

All 126 documents

• Correct: 98%
• Incorrect: 0%
• Uncertain: 2%

GPT-3.5 Papers

• Correct: 100%
• Uncertain: 0%

GPT-4 Papers

Human Papers

• Correct: 95%
• Uncertain: 5%

Effectiveness of Originality.ai

• Overall Accuracy : Very high
• Accuracy, GPT-3.5 : Very high
• Accuracy, GPT-4 : Very high
• Decisiveness : High
• False Positives : Few
• False Negatives : Few

Final Thoughts

Originality.ai is positioned as a top-tier AI-generated text detection tool with exceptional accuracy. Its performance is on par with, and sometimes even better than, other leading tools like CopyLeaks and TurnItIn, ensuring the authenticity and integrity of the written content.

Jonathan Gillham

More from the blog, empirical study of ai-generated text detection — results as per an empirical study of ai-generated text detection tools.

Originality.ai exhibited outstanding AI detection capabilities, according to research in An Empirical Study of AI-Generated Text Detection Tools, 2023.

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KNOWLEDGE BASE

© 0000   Originality.ai

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