Guidelines on Turnitin
How to Interpret Originality Report (Guidelines)
- Similarity index of the originality report is showing matches of submitted work with internet content. It is not verdict that document with high similarity index is plagiarized.
- Similarity index is based on percentage of matched text out of total number of words in the document.
- Instructor/Faculty member has to verify each and every similarity index for potential clue of plagiarism.
- If similarities in the document are significant then scholar/student may be guided accordingly or case may be reported on the basis of that evidence.
- The similarities in the document may contain matches with author's previous work; it may be ignored if it is the same work.
- Bibliography and quoted material may be excluded after verifying. It is important to note that too much quoted material is not desired as per policy.
- Common phrases and proper nouns also appear as similarities in the report, therefore every instructor/faculty member should ignore matches returned from them.
- Originality report will show similarities from three major sources: internet, periodicals and student repository. Similarities returned from student repository may be ignored if it is author's own same work. Similarities from Student repository helps in detecting collusion in the documents.
- The graphs, tables, formulae and other pictorial material is not matched through the service therefore, it will only offer similarities with only text.
- The instructor/faculty member supervising students/scholars can give verdict of plagiarism after interpreting report. The report will be used as evidence of the report.
From the HEC website.
