Using Turnitin to Detect Plagiarism in Student Submissions

Using Turnitin to Detect Plagiarism in Student Submissions

The use of Turnitin has been mandated for use by students of the Sydney Business School.  The Turnitin system is a resource provided to assist in the detection of forms of plagiarism, however, the overall assessment of a students’ work, and whether or not plagiarism is detected is a matter of academic judgement by the Lecturer. 

The final determination of whether an individual student submission is plagiarism is up to the individual Lecturer.

1. Using the Similarity Percentage to Detect Plagiarism

A consistent approach is required when reviewing assignments – that is excluding quotes and references from the Similarity Percentage calculation through the use of Turnitin functionality. 

Close examination by the Lecturer of any remaining matches on the Originality Report is required to eliminate non-plagiarism matches such as:

(a) use of incorrect punctuation to identify quotes, or within quotes

(b) incorrect formatting of references

(c) use of matches due to restatement of the assignment question

(d) use of common words, phrases or popular authors

(e) a large number of <1% matches (usually due to use of common words or phrases)

Where these non-plagiarism situations generate percentages, Lecturer should deduct these values from the overall Similarity Percentage before determining penalties, or using the Student Misconduct process. 

Students with issues 1a, and 1b should be referred to Learning Development and the UoW Website to address the situation/s.

2. Penalties for Plagiarism Related Percentages

If, after considering the issues 1a-1e (above) a large overall and/or individual Similarity Percentage remains that can be classified as plagiarism, the following penalties are to be applied to the individual assignment, and the reasons for the deductions highlighted to the student.

Adjusted Overall  Turnitin Similarity Percentage	Individual Incident Similarity Percentage	Deduction from Assignment Mark
>30	>5	Refer to Subject Co-ordinator or Deputy Dean
20-30	≤5%	-10%
10-20	≤2%	-5%
<10	<2*	No marks deducted

*Students with a <2% may have an issue with close paraphrasing, which will be identified by Turnitin, and should be highlighted to the student, so that it can be addressed in future submissions.

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