How to interpret a plagiarism report

How to interpret a plagiarism report

PlagiarismCheck.org is able to detect:

  • Word-to-word matches
  • Word rearrangements
  • Substitutions of words with synonyms
  • Changes from passive to active voice and vice versa

Overview of the report

The algorithm differentiates between similarities found in quotes, references, the body of papers, and reflects them in the corresponding sections:

  • Body of the paper
  • Quotes
  • References

All these parts are visualized separately so a user can decide either to include or exclude them from the calculated similarity score. Choose a source where similarities were found on the right and a corresponding phrase in the report will be highlighted:

  • If a source is marked as ‘Your institution database’, it means that the similarity is found in a paper previously submitted by other user(s).
  • ‘Internet source’ means that similarity comes from this online resource.

There are two types of similarity shown in the report: ‘Identical’ corresponds to word-to-word matches, whereas ‘Changed text’ shows rearranged or paraphrased text. The respective color code appears on to each source, too. Depending on the type of similarity, each source can get an orange or a red dot, or sometimes even both.

The report highlights phrases that match external resources. For each match, you get a direct link to the source from which information has been taken. In case there is more than one source, the system will show all sources that have similar content.

By clicking on the ‘Compare’ button, you will open an original source with the highlighted text that has been detected as a match.

By clicking on the link under the source title, you will follow the link to the original source.

The overall percentage of plagiarism is calculated based on the sections you select to include in the report. By default, it contains only similarities found in the body of the paper and excludes quotes and references

The things you can do with the report:

  1. An Owner, Teacher, or user of an individual account  can modify the report: Remove the checkmarks near the sources you wish to discard or apply a filter with the minimum similarity percentage to be counted and hit “Save changes.” The overall similarity percentage in the report will be automatically recalculated. The sources will remain visible in the report in case you decide to include them.
  2. As a Teacher, you can also add comments in the report. Just click and drag on the text you wish to comment on and click on the comment icon that will appear. This will open the comments menu. Alternatively, you can click on the comment icon in the top section of the report. This will allow you to leave feedback to the entire paper and see all comments that have already been added.
  3. Teacher or Owner can also initiate Fingerprint Authorship Verification in case there are doubts that the text was written by the person who submitted it. 
  4. Teacher, Owner, or a user of a private account can access the AI Detector’s report by clicking on the AI Detector button.
  5. All users can download a PDF report:
  6. All users can share a report with someone else. Click “Share” to enter an email and add a comment.

    An e-mail with an attached PDF report and comments will be sent to the recipient.

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