Turnitin

Background

In Spring 2007, the Academic Integrity Committee (AIC) ran a pilot project to investigate the usefulness of plagiarism detection software in upholding Jacobs University's academic values.

As a result of this pilot, a proposal for a balanced approach - stressing both prevention and detection - was sent to the Academic Council. This approach asked for the procurement of two licenses. The first was a license to Turnitin plagiarism detection services. The second wasRefWorks bibliographic management software, in order to help students prevent plagiarism.

Both proposals were endorsed by the Academic Council, and the IRC was asked to implement both services.

General rules governing the use of plagiarism detection software

The AIC policy on the use of plagiarism detection software is important for both students and faculty to know. The main rules here are that:

  1. Faculty inform their classes about the use of plagiarism detection software.
  2. Not faculty, but students themselves upload their work to Turnitin.

Faculty getting started with Turnitin

If you want to use Turnitin plagiarism detection software there are two main steps:

  1. Mail a request for an account id and join password to irc-library@jacobs-university.de.
  2. Acquaint yourself with Turnitin.

Have a look at the User Manuals, Quickstart Guides, and Video Clips for instructors available in the Turnitin Training Center. The Instructor Quickstart Guide gives an excellent overview of basic functions.

For general questions students might have with regard to the use of plagiarism detection software, see also the Frequently asked questions about the use of plagiarism detection software below.

Students getting started with Turnitin

If your professor or instructor has announced that she or he will be using Turnitin plagiarism detection software, the following is important for you to know:

  1. How to enroll in a class set up by your instructor.
  2. How to submit your paper to Turnitin

Have a look at the User Manuals, Quickstart Guides, and Video Clips for students available in the Turnitin Training Center. The Student Quickstart Guide covers the most important points.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is considered plagiarism?

One of the most common definitions of plagiarism is using other people's work, thoughts, writings without giving proper attribution, that is, showing it off as if it were your own work.

In order to avoid plagiarism, which can be both intentional as well as unintentional, you need to:

  • organize your research well, keep notes of your research and clearly separate your own thoughts and writings from those that you pick up while reading through stuff you picked up in books, journals, and on the web
  • properly cite resources that you use, unfortunately, each academic discipline has its own methods for making citations

A website that might be helpful is Iris (scroll down the menu on the left to get to the plagiarism module).

Another interesting source might be Purdue University's online writing lab.

When in doubt: consult your instructor. Remember, the goal is to prevent plagiarism - saving both students', teaching faculty's and AIC's valuable time.

How does plagiarism detection software work?

After you have uploaded your paper to the plagiarism detection service, your paper is indexed and compared with other papers in the database of the detection service, with stuff generally available on the web, as well as with electronic texts (books, articles) from science publishers. The software searches for matching substrings of text.

If such substrings are found, they are presented to your instructor in the context of your paper as well as in the context of the paper that matched. It is up to your instructor to decide whether or not this is a case of plagiarism. The detection services only give an indication.

But what about students' copyright?

Jacobs University's legal counsel looked into this and concluded:

"As long as the students works are temporarily reproduced for matters of detecting plagiarism (and deleted afterwards), this kind of use is allowed under the German Copyright Act. Further uses that go beyond this purpose - including storage in a database for future plagiarism detection of other works - require the consent of the copyright holder."

This implies that the university has a right to check your work for plagiarism by using a detection service. However, the university cannot oblige you to store your work permanently in Turnitin's database.

You should keep in mind though that Turnitin does not republish your work in any way, but only uses it for comparison with future submissions. In a very real sense, Turnitin protects your copyright.

Nevertheless, if you don't want your work to be permanently stored in Turnitin's database, let your instructor know. She or he will take the necessary steps to get your paper removed from the database after the plagiarism check.

What happens if a student is suspected of committing plagiarism?

The goal is to prevent plagiarism, which is why use of Turnitin is set up as transparently as possible.

In line with this, you should always keep in mind, and adhere to Jacobs University's Code of Academic Integrity.

If your instructor is of the opinion you committed plagiarism, she or he will inform you about this and about the sanction. If you agree with the sanction, this has no further direct consequence, except that the sanction will be put on record at Academic Affairs. If this occurs a second time, the case will be brought before the Academic Integrity Committee, with sanctions which could be as drastic as expulsion from Jacobs University.