EECS Student Handbook 2023/24

Turnitin is a web-based plagiarism prevention system used by most universities in the UK.  This statement describes how Turnitin is used within the school and the data it creates about your work.

 

1           How Turnitin works

 

1.1          A Turnitin assignment is set up by a member of staff, either on QMplus or directly on Turnitin’s own website. You then access this assignment online and upload your work before the due date.  Turnitin will analyse the submitted work to identify text matches with other sources and will compare the work against:

• the current and archived web; 
  
• previously submitted work; 
  
• books and journals.
  

1.2          For each piece of submitted work Turnitin provides two things:

• A similarity index, which indicates the percentage of the submitted paper that Turnitin has identified as matching other sources.
  
• An originality report, which shows each of these matches in more detail, including the source(s) that Turnitin has found.
  

 

2           How Turnitin is used within the school

 

2.1           Turnitin is used on the majority of undergraduate and post-graduate assignments that contribute towards your final grade.  Turnitin will not normally be used on the following assignments:

§  short assignments (under 500 words)

§  contributions to online discussions

§  exercises submitted on paper

§  exams

§  computer programs

2.2          For those assignments where Turnitin is used, all submissions to that assignment will be submitted to Turnitin.

2.3          How we use the information provided by Turnitin

2.3.1         Only academic staff will make a judgement on whether plagiarism has occurred in a piece of work.  An academic may interpret the originality report to help but Turnitin itself does not make this judgement.

2.3.2         We do not use a threshold percentage to identify whether plagiarism has occurred and may review any originality report in detail.

2.3.3         Turnitin will highlight matching text such as references, quotations, common phrases and data tables within work that has no plagiarism issues at all.  Those interpreting Turnitin reports will discount such matches and so initial percentages are often irrelevant.

2.3.4         Where it is suspected that plagiarism has occurred in a piece of work, the originality report may be submitted to the Head of School and possibly to an Assessment Offences Panel for further investigation.

 

2.4          How you can use the information provided by Turnitin

2.4.1         There will be an opportunity for you to see a Turnitin report on your work before Turnitin is used on your assessed work.  You will be informed of the QM+ assignments using Turnitin.  Turnitin use is module and assignment dependent.

2.4.2         No other student will be able to see an originality report on your work.

2.4.3         To help you understand what the report is telling you, please ensure you have followed the guidance on the E-Learning Unit’s website (http://www.elearning.capd.qmul.ac.uk/guide/interpreting-your-originality-report/).

2.4.4         Where assessments allow a Turnitin submission prior to final submission you may find it helpful to resubmit your work after reviewing the originality report and you will generally be given one opportunity to do this.  Where this is the case, the idea is to use the report to help you identify any potential issues you may not have spotted before, and not to change individual words to avoid a match.  Be aware of the referencing and plagiarism guidance available on page 35.

2.4.5         If you have a question about your originality report that is not answered by the material linked to in 2.4.3 above, please direct these to your module organiser in the first instance.

 

2.5          Other things you should know

2.5.1         Turnitin stores a copy of most work submitted to it in its repository.  This does not affect the ownership of or any copyright in the original work.

2.5.2         Staff may configure a Turnitin assignment such that copies of submissions are not stored in its database.  This will be done for all test-runs or any ‘dummy’ assignments used for training or demonstration purposes.

2.5.3         Staff on your course will ensure that no commercially or otherwise sensitive documents are stored in Turnitin’s repository. 

You cannot opt out of having your work scanned by Turnitin, but if you believe that your work should be deleted after it is scanned you should contact your lecturer.

Details of how to reference the material that you have used in assessed coursework are available from our Key Skills web page.  You should make sure that you are familiar with all the advice contained here especially if you are submitting written work for the first time. (http://www.library.qmul.ac.uk/referencing)

If plagiarism is suspected in an item of assessed coursework worth 30% or less of the overall course mark, then the work will be subject to a School investigation.  Students will be invited to comment on any allegations of plagiarism.  Penalties that can be imposed range from a formal warning to failure in the coursework element without any opportunity to re-submit. 

A major item of assessed coursework is one that is worth more than 25% of the total course mark.  This includes your project report.  If plagiarism is suspected in a major piece of coursework, then the case will be referred by the School directly to the Academic Secretary who in turn will bring it to the attention of the Chair of the Examination Offences panel.  The Chair and the panel are able to deal more severe penalties which include failure in the module, failure of the year or even expulsion from College.