Turnitin

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Turnitin

A sample Turnitin report page, with explanations
Developer: iParadigms, LLC
Platform: Internet
Use: educational
Website: http://www.turnitin.com or http://www.submit.ac.uk (UK)

Turnitin (also known as Turnitin.com) is an Internet-based plagiarism-detection service created by iParadigms, LLC. Institutions (typically universities and high schools) that have bought licenses submit essays to the Turnitin website to check for plagiarism.

Students may be required by schools to submit essays to Turnitin, as a deterrent to plagiarism. This has been a source of criticism, with some students refusing to do so in the belief that requiring it constitutes a presumption of guilt. Additionally, critics have alleged that use of the software violates educational privacy and intellectual property laws.

Parent company iParadigms, LLC, also offers a similar plagiarism detection service for newspaper editors and book publishers called iThenticate, and run the informational website Plagiarism.org. Other services marketed under the Turnitin brand are aimed at the educators' market, such as grade marking and peer review services.

Contents

[edit] Function

Turnitin checks for possible plagiarism by comparing submitted papers to several databases using a proprietary algorithm. It scans its own database(s), and also has licensing agreements with large academic proprietary databases.

[edit] Databases

  • A current and extensively archived copy of the publicly accessible internet. The company uses a webcrawler to continually archive the web, except for robots.txt exclusions.
  • Millions of commercial pages from books, newspapers, and journals;
  • Tens of millions of student papers already submitted to Turnitin.

[edit] Student paper database

The essays students submit are stored as part of the database used to check for plagiarism. This prevents the use of one student's paper by another student by identifying matching text between papers. Supporters state that maintaining a student's paper in the database protects the student's intellectual property (or that of the university, in some cases) from future plagiarism. However, in the view of others, this caching of students' papers amounts to copyright violation.

[edit] Classroom integration

Teachers may submit student papers to Turnitin.com as individual files, a bulk upload, or a ZIP file. Teachers can also set up the assignment analysis options so that each student can review their originality reports before their final submission. A peer-review option is also available, should instructors wish to use that service in their courses.

Some virtual learning environments can be configured to support Turnitin, so that student assignments can be automatically submitted for originality analysis. Moodle, WebCT and Blackboard all support Turnitin integration with course sections and assignments.

Turnitin acts as a tool for identifying matching text but is often not considered the final word on whether plagiarism has occurred. It is left up to teachers or professors using the service to decide if matching text identified by Turnitin is an unreferenced source, or mere coincidence, as opposed to outright plagiarism.

[edit] Criticism

Turnitin has not been without critics. While all agree that combatting plagiarism is important, they claim the software violates student privacy and intellectual-property rights, especially in situations where papers were submitted without student knowledge or permission. In addition, schools have been criticised by their students for requiring submission to Turnitin.

[edit] Privacy

The U.S. federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prohibits disclosing confidential information about students to third parties without their or their families' permission. Critics of Turnitin argue that sending papers to Turnitin without student permission thus violates their rights.

Turnitin claims its archiving of student papers complies with FERPA, since the statute only applies at two points: when it is transmitted to them, and when it is released from the data base when a match is found with another submission. In the former case it is not considered part of the educational record since it has not yet been graded, and in the latter it does not divulge personal identifying information.[1] However, the Family Compliance Policy Office, the department of the Department of Education responsible for enforcing FERPA, has stated that institutions may submit student papers to Turnitin only if they remove all personally identifiable information from the papers[2].

The Student Union at Dalhousie University has criticized the use of Turnitin at Canadian universities because the American government may be able to access the submitted papers and personal information in the database under the U.S. Patriot Act. [1] Mount Saint Vincent University became the first Canadian university to ban Turnitin's service partly because of implications of the U.S. Patriot Act. [2]

[edit] Possible violation of student copyright

Since Turnitin archives all papers it receives and sells its services, including that database, for profit, it has also been charged with violating student copyright since students are not compensated for the use of their work. Turnitin founder John Barrie claims the company is merely making fair use of student work since, despite iParadigms profiting from the sale of the software, it is ultimately for educational purposes. The company also says the archiving does not detract from students' future ability to profit from their work, and in fact should even help them by guaranteeing its originality.

Lawyers for the company also claim that student work is covered under the theory of implied license to evaluate, since it would be pointless to write the essays if they were not meant to be graded. That implied license thus grants permission to copy, reproduce and preserve, it says. Dissertations and theses, the company's lawyers note, also carry with them the implied permission to archive in a publicly accessible collection such as a university library.[3]

University of Minnesota Law School professor Dan Burk counters that the company's use of the papers does not meet the fair-use test for several reasons:

  • The company copies the entire paper and not just a portion;
  • Students' work is often original, interpretive and creative rather than just a compilation of established facts, and
  • Turnitin is a commercial enterprise.[4]

[edit] Presumption of guilt

Some students also argue that requiring them to submit papers to Turnitin creates a presumption of guilt, which may violate not only scholastic disciplinary codes but also applicable local laws and judicial practice. Some teachers and professors also support this argument when attempting to discourage their schools from joining Turnitin[5].

[edit] Controversies

This article documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

In one well-publicized dispute over mandatory Turnitin submissions, a student named Jesse Rosenfeld at McGill University declined to pass his academic work along to Turnitin. The University Senate eventually ruled that Rosenfeld's assignments were to be graded without the use of Turnitin. [3] In 2005 another student at McGill University named Denise Brunsdon who refused to submit her assignment to Turnitin.com won a similar ruling from the Senate Committee on Student Grievances. [4]

In September 2006 students at McLean High School in the Washington, D.C. suburb of McLean, Virginia, organized a Committee For Students' Rights to protest the school's recent adoption of Turnitin. In addition to the presumption-of-guilt argument, the McLean students also claimed it was a violation of their intellectual property rights for Turnitin to archive their papers for future commercial use without compensating them.[6] [6] On March 27th, 2007, with the help of a pro bono attorney, a group of students from Mclean High School and Desert Vista High School (located in Phoenix, Arizona), filed suit in United States Circut Court (Eastern District, Alexandria Division), alleging copyright infringement by iParadigms, the parent company of turnitin.com.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Foley & Lardner; July 2002; Turnitin U.S. Legal Document, retrieved September 29, 2006, 2, 5.
  2. ^ Family Policy Compliance Office (2006). Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Retrieved on January 28, 2007.
  3. ^ Foley & Lardner, Id., 3-5.
  4. ^ Foster, Andrea L.; May 17, 2002; Plagiarism-Detection Tool Creates Legal Quandary; The Chronicle of Higher Education; retrieved September 29, 2006
  5. ^ Carbone, Nick (2001). Turnitin.com, a Pedagogic Placebo for Plagiarism. Retrieved on January 28, 2007.
  6. ^ a b Glod, Maria; September 22, 2006; Students Rebel Against Database Designed to Thwart Plagiarists; Washington Post; retrieved September 28, 2006.
  7. ^ Vanderhye, R. (2007). Complaint of Copyright Infringement. Retrieved on March 29, 2007.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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