www.le.ac.uk
How effective are electronic plagiarism detection systems and does it matter how you use them?
4th International Plagiarism Conference 23 June 2010
Dr Jo Badge (@jobadge)School of Biological SciencesUniversity of Leicester
http://bit.ly/eDetection
Electronic Detection Systems
• Software to automatically search for non-original text
• dynamic list of software online [link]
Plagiarism detection services
Turnitin CopyCatch
SafeAssign
WCopyFind
Effectiveness
• Cross comparison reviews mostly focus on usability
• Live testing with scoring for detection rates carried out by Debora Weber-Wuff– Rates Safeassign above Turnitin in terms
of detection rates
Mode of use: prevention
1. Long term effects
2. Risk / benefit perceptions
3. Punishment as education
1. Long term effects : Culwin, 2006
Deterrent : Badge, 2007
Detection rate/ %
pilot 2.06 Year 1
2.73
Year 2
0.94
2. Risk / benefit perceptions : Woessner 2004
3. Punishment as education
• Punitive tutor-supported access
• Students shown originality report prior to penalty
• Most common but least studied
• Form of student access to originality reports
Mode of use: student access
1.Punitive supported access
2.Outside institutional systems
3.Institutional open access
4.Tutor supported access
2. Outside institutional systems
first: spelling check; second: grammar check; third: originality check
3. Institutional open access
Still fairly rare in UK
• IFS
• York (controlled training session trial)
Braumoeller & Gaines, 2001
• Marked on grading curve
• Feedback on effect of plagiarism on grades
Assignment 1
Plagiarised papers
Assignment 2
Plagiarised papers
Politics 100 C (n=78) 10 1Politics 100 D(n=73) 9 0
4. Tutor supported accessLedwith & Risquez, 2008
Proportion of matching text for both assignments submitted through Turnitin
Ledwith & Risquez, 2008
Barrett & Malcolm, 2006
Davis & Carroll, 2009
Reduction in– Amount of plagiarism (45.5%)– Over-reliance on one source (45.5%)– Citation errors (62%)– Insufficient paraphrasing (38%)
Percentages= total final drafts showing reduction where n=66 (over 3 years 2007-
2009)
http://bit.ly/eDetection
AcknowledgementsHigher Education Academy
University of Leicester Teaching Enhancement Forum
GENIE CETL
Dr Nadya Yakovchuk
Dr Jon Scott