D.R. Jones Judy Kaul Case Western Reserve University School of Law Library Plagiarism Detection Software2

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software PDS  Bibliography lists articles that evaluate various systems  Some no longer in existence  Beware of My Drop Box, aka Plagiserve, EduTie.com: Suspected of uploading student papers to term paper mills

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Detection with Software or Systems  Natural language (text) programs  Turnitin (Plagiarism.org)    Essay Verification Engine (EVE2) 

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Detection with Software  Glatt  CD-ROM  Tests students knowledge of “own” work  WCopyFind: Used with Google or other search engines  Alternative tool: LexisNexis CiteCheck

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Turnitin: What It Does  Searches 8-word strings  Currently searches against 3 databases of content:  Currently & extensively archived copy of publicly accessible Internet pages & term paper mills (2 billion)  ABI/Inform, Periodical Abstracts, Business Dateline (ProQuest)  “Tens of thousands of electronic books”  Every student paper ever submitted to Turnitin  Does seem to retrieve PDFs

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Turnitin: What It Does  iThenticate© algorithm: able to detect embedded paragraphs from multiple sources

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Turnitin: Reports  Yields Two Reports  Printable report: 2 sections  Originality Report: 3 sections  Percentage of Suspected Plagiarism Color Coded

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Turnitin: Limitations  Once submitted, a paper is only reported as a paper in the database- no originality report—even if serious evidence exists  Reports first several relevant hits—but they may not be the actual official original source  Presently does not search LexisNexis, Westlaw & Hein-Online

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Turnitin: Value to Law Schools  Value for Law Schools could be improved if it could also search LexisNexis, Westlaw and Hein-Online

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software EVE2: What It Does  User identifies file from local system  EVE2 strips formatting –turns into plain text  Uses “Advanced Searching Tools” to match potential sources from the internet  Does search term paper mills  Not much more information forthcoming from EVE

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software EVE2: Limitations  Seems to ignore punctuation, e.g., quotation marks, resulting in false hits  Varying results  If you run 3 times in a row, you can get different percentage of suspected plagiarism

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software EVE2: Advantages  Low-cost if you just have a one-time paper you need to check  Even Turnitin will recommend this product  Generates report in RTF and saves automatically to your hard drive

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Turnitin Pricing  Site license: Plagiarism Prevention  Single campus institution (12 months)  $ annual licensing fee +.60 per student (Minimum: $ )  Unlimited classes/instructors  Unlimited originality reports  Campus administrator with department administrator options

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Turnitin Pricing - Extras  Additional costs for:  Extended HelpDesk for Faculty ( only) would be 20% total cost: $220  Extended HelpDesk for Faculty & Students (E- mail only) = 30% total cost: $330

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software EVE2  Time consuming search runs from your computer  Searches the internet, including term paper mills  Yields 2 part report:  List of sources  Highlighted student paper  Click on comparison option to see side-by-side  Also time consuming

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software WCopyFind   Developed at University of Virginia  Simple program  Generates report comparing the student paper and documents you locate with Google.  Shareware  Limitation: Finding sources for comparison  Limitation: Doesn’t search internet or databases

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software LexisNexis CheckCite  Not a PDS  You can get clues that quotation marks are missing  Only works with cases and law review articles  Only generates sample report for case law?

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Demos   Eve2   WCopyFind 

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Plagiarism Detection Strategies  Most complete list in Paul Clough’s article: “Plagiarism in Natural and Programming Languages: An Overview of Current Tools and Technologies” (2000)

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Clough’s Detection Strategies  Uses of vocabulary  Changes in vocabulary  Dependence on unique words & phrases  Frequency of words  Distribution of words  Common spelling mistakes

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Clough’s List  Statistical similarities  Readability of text  Flesch Reading Ease Formula  SMOG Index  Average length of sentences (words)  Average length of paragraphs (sentences)  Usage of passive voice (expressed as percentage)  Number of prepositions as % of total number of words

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software Clough’s Detection Strategies (continued)  Long sequences common text – unattributed  Order of presentation of information, facts  Amount of similarity of text  Sudden incoherence of text  Preference for long or short sentences

CALI 2004: Plagiarism Detection Software More signals  Abrupt stylistic changes  Format variations  Footnotes don’t jive with text  Different citation formats  Change of level of sophistication