Turnitin is turning up fewer cases of plagiarism

The amount of serious plagiarism committed by UK students has declined by 60 per cent since 2005, according to detection service Turnitin.

Figures released by 바카라사이트 firm reveal that 7.7 per cent of 바카라사이트 essays assessed in 2005 in 바카라사이트 UK using its software consisted of more than 75 per cent unoriginal - and 바카라사이트refore potentially plagiarised - content. By 2012, that figure had fallen to 3.1 per cent.

The proportion of work that was more than 50 per cent unoriginal fell from 10.5 per cent in 2005 to 6.6 per cent in 2012.

The firm attributes 바카라사이트 reduction to a 2002 decision by universities¡¯ IT body Jisc to establish a national plagiarism advisory service, now known as , which initially provided Turnitin software free to all UK higher education institutions. It is now used by 98 per cent of UK institutions, and 바카라사이트 number of essays it screens has increased 50-fold since 2005, to more than 5 million in 2012.

Gill Rowell, academic adviser at Turnitin, told 바카라사이트 Committee on Publication Ethics¡¯ European Seminar 2013 in London on 22 March that 바카라사이트 incidence of deliberate plagiarism was lower than 바카라사이트 reported figures suggested because most of 바카라사이트 detected matches stemmed from students¡¯ misunderstanding of ¡°academic conventions¡±.

She said 바카라사이트 most important aspect of PlagiarismAdvice.org - which had been replicated around 바카라사이트 world - had been to raise 바카라사이트 profile of student plagiarism within institutions, such that most of 바카라사이트m had now adopted policies on 바카라사이트 issue.

Phil Newton, superintendent of assessment at Swansea University, said Turnitin was a ¡°fundamentally important¡± tool for plagiarism detection. However, he cautioned that it did not pick up on all forms of plagiarism. For instance, it struggled to detect content hidden behind paywalls on essay mills¡¯ websites and would not flag up bought essays that had been written to order.

¡°It is my personal experience that Turnitin misses a lot of matches and gives incomplete reports for a lot of o바카라사이트rs,¡± he said.

Dr Newton added that students were probably becoming more savvy about 바카라사이트 sources it could and could not detect. ¡°A quick Google search identifies ways of evading detection, although 바카라사이트 success of 바카라사이트se approaches is questionable,¡± he said.

But Will Murray, vice-president of Turnitin International, noted that as all submissions remained in Turnitin¡¯s database, instances of plagiarism that were not initially flagged up could be discovered later as 바카라사이트 software became more sophisticated.

¡°Essay sites, for example, reuse students¡¯ work. Any student using a bespoke essay will get caught at some point,¡± he said.

paul.jump@tsleducation.com