Turnitin

Is Turnitin a plagiarism detection tool?
For Turnitin Live Assistance and Orientation

Dr. Ajay Tiwari

Arjun K. Dinesh

Veineithem Gena

If you require any live assistance or orientation on how to use Turnitin, please write to us at turnitin@jgu.edu.in

Timings for Library Orientation:
  • 9 AM to 12 PM
  • 2 PM to 5:30 PM

 
Guide Prepared by

Dr. Ajay Tiwari

Arjun K. Dinesh

Veineithem Gena

What is Turnitin?
Use cases - instructors, examiners, and administrators
The report The use of Turnitin at the University of Oxford: A guide for tutors, examiners and administrators (Education Committee, University of Oxford, 2019-2020) says Turnitin can be used in two modes:

"Formative, which focuses on a tutor or supervisor working with a student to encourage and develop acceptable academic writing and citation skills; or

Summative, which checks a piece of examined work to measure the extent of text matching between the student’s work and other electronic sources. Students do not receive a copy of these Similarity Reports."

You may see the report for more information.
Introduction by Turnitin
Faculty/Instructor - How to access Turnitin
Students - How to use Turnitin
Research scholars
Write to turnitin@jgu.edu.in for account creation and training.
For Turnitin Live Assistance and Orientation

Dr. Ajay Tiwari

Arjun K. Dinesh

Veineithem Gena

If you require any live assistance or orientation on how to use Turnitin, please write to us at turnitin@jgu.edu.in

Timings for Library Orientation:
  • 9 AM to 12 PM
  • 2 PM to 5:30 PM

 
How to create an Instructor Account
Instructor accounts are only provided to the faculties and their Teaching Assistants.

Step 1: Write a mail to turnitin@jgu.edu.in to create an instructor account.

Step 2: You will receive a welcome mail from Turnitin to set up your account. Follow the instructions mentioned in the mail. 

Watch the video guide to understand the procedure.
How to create Classes in Turnitin
After setting up the Turnitin account, the instructor can create classes in which they can enroll the students and create assignments.

The instructor can create a Master class and Standard Class.

A master class enables instructors to share the classes with Teaching Assistants (TA) or co-instructors throughout sections. Standard Class can be opted if there aren't any Teaching assistants.

See the video guide to understand the process of creating these classes.
Instructor - Master class
Instructor - Standard class
How to create Assignments
After creating the class, the next step is to create the Assignment.

Please watch the video guide to understand the process of creating an assignment in Turnitin.
 
Important Note: When you are creating an assignment, the repository option will be as 'No Repository' by default. Do not change this setting.
For Turnitin Live Assistance and Orientation

Dr. Ajay Tiwari

Arjun K. Dinesh

Veineithem Gena

If you require any live assistance or orientation on how to use Turnitin, please write to us at turnitin@jgu.edu.in

Timings for Library Orientation:
  • 9 AM to 12 PM
  • 2 PM to 5:30 PM
Originality report

Originality report shows each of the matches in more detail, including the source(s) that Turnitin has found. 
Source | 

 
Originality Check - Demo
False positive/negative
False positive - high similarity score not because of plagiarism:
  • Turnitin may show high similarity to a paper, if draft or other versions of the same paper is already stored in the repositories of Turnitin.
  • When one checks similarity of a paper using different accounts, Turnitin may show high similarity.
False negative - low similarity score, but actually plagiarized
  • There is a possibility that one could have copied from a source which is not indexed by Turnitin.
  • One could have copied from sources which are available only in print.
Similarity score
The similarity score is percentage of a paper's content that matches to contents of papers in Turnitin's databases; it is not plagiarism assessment. (Source)

 
Filters
Turnitin: A staff guide to viewing the Similarity Report - Blackboard Help  for Staff - University of Reading

Filters: One may include or exclude the bibliography, quotations, and/or irrelevant matches while conducting similarity check.

 
For Turnitin Live Assistance and Orientation

Dr. Ajay Tiwari

Arjun K. Dinesh

Veineithem Gena

If you require any live assistance or orientation on how to use Turnitin, please write to us at turnitin@jgu.edu.in

Timings for Library Orientation:
  • 9 AM to 12 PM
  • 2 PM to 5:30 PM
Paper Deletion from Turnitin
If the instructor has selected the 'No Repository' option in the assignment setting, there is no need to delete the paper, as the same will not be deposited in the repository.


How to delete the paper if you have selected 'Standard Repository'?

Step 1: Before deleting a paper, make sure to note down the Author's name, Paper title, Paper ID, and the date the paper was submitted.



Step 2: Select the paper you want to delete, and then select 'Request Permanent Deletion'


Important Note: Never select the 'remove from the inbox' option. If you select to remove the paper from inbox, then the paper and its details will not be visible for the instructor to request for permanent deletion.
For Turnitin Live Assistance and Orientation

Dr. Ajay Tiwari

Arjun K. Dinesh

Veineithem Gena

If you require any live assistance or orientation on how to use Turnitin, please write to us at turnitin@jgu.edu.in

Timings for Library Orientation:
  • 9 AM to 12 PM
  • 2 PM to 5:30 PM

 
How to use Turnitin for Bachelors & Masters Students
  • The library does not provide Turnitin accounts for students.​
  • Either the faculty / Teaching Assistant will collect the document/assignment by email or will enroll the student in a Turnitin class to submit the assignments.
  • Once the faculty registers the mail ID, the student will receive a welcome mail from Turnitin and can use the Class ID and Enrollment Key shared via mail to join the class.