Plagiarism detection software or originality checking software may be used by supervisors and examiners to produce an originality report for a piece of academic work. It is also routinely used by some publishers to assess the originality of manuscripts submitted for publication. At Brunel, plagiarism detection software Turnitin is used.
It compares the work submitted to other published work, online content and other submissions, looking for matches. While often referred to as a plagiarism check, in fact this is not accurate. The results show matched content found, but do not give any judgement on whether plagiarism has occurred. This is because further review of the matches by an academic expert is required to determine whether plagiarism has occurred.
Matched content can occur, for example, where common jargon or terms are repeated, and in research, also where you have published articles or conference papers based on your prior research. The software can also help identify material which has not been correctly quoted or cited and is useful to support the development of good referencing and citation skills. When citing your prior work, you should cite and reference it in the same way as expected for any other third party work, to avoid self-plagiarism.
A range of support services are available at Brunel to help you with citing, referencing and academic skills.
