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What information is available in Turnitin Originality Check reports, and what does it indicate?

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5.0 - Updated on 2021-03-28 by Seyon Wind

4.0 - Updated on 2021-03-10 by Seyon Wind

3.0 - Updated on 2019-04-15 by Seyon Wind

2.0 - Updated on 2019-04-15 by Judith Stern

1.0 - Authored on 2015-08-20 by Steven Williams

For all work submitted using Turnitin, Turnitin generates a Similiarity Index score. This is a percentage between 0-100%, indicating how much of a student’s written work matched material from other sources. This report also includes a highlighted, color-coded version of the student’s original submission, showing which passages match other sources, and what those sources were. Detailed information on Originality Check reports is available from Turnitin: Originality Check Student - Canvas

Does a high Similiarity Index score always indicate plagiarism? Does a low Similarity Index score indicate that there was not any plagiarism?

A very high number can indicate academic integrity issues. However, even essays generating a low Similarity Index score may still have problematic material. For example, an essay with an Originality Check score of 20% could include a long, uncited passage from another source, which would generally constitute plagiarism; the same score could also indicate that the student had used similar phrases and sentence mechanics as other authors, in a way that did not indicate any academic integrity issues. Faculty using Turnitin are strongly encouraged to review Originality Check reports in detail, rather than relying only on the numeric score assigned.

What do the colored flags next to each Originality Check score indicate?

Turnitin assigns a colored flag to each Originality Check report. These flag colors indicate the following:

Faculty are strongly encouraged to review Originality Check reports in detail, rather than relying entirely on Similarity Index scores. Although a blue flag indicates a very low possibility of plagiarism, and a red flag indicates a very high possibility of plagiarism, Turnitin Originality Check reports may potentially include “false positives,” where common phrases or quoted materials are misidentified as possible incidents of academic misconduct.