FAQ's for Dr. DuncanTips, practices, and answers for student success

In the questions you should never ask a faculty column, let's consider these gems:

  • What plagiarism percentage will you allow on a Safe Assign or Turnitin report?
  • What is your "similarity line" when reviewing plagiarism reports?

In short, no plagiarism is acceptable. However, similarity on a Safe Assign or Turnitin report does not necessarily mean plagiarism.

The similarity score on Safe Assign and Turnitin reports is a starting point for investigation. The student and faculty must know how to interpret the similarity to determine if there are potential problems. No one should make their decisions based on a percentage alone.

For example, consider a student who buys a paper from a cheat mill or hires someone to write it. Either situation may show zero percent similarity on a similarity report while being egregious academic integrity policy violations.

Conversely, a high percentage on a Turnitin report may invite investigation but not be a problem.

For example, imagine a scenario in which the student has permission from the faculty to apply content from a prior paper. In some courses, the final project integrates previous assignments into a final document. As a result, the similarity checker report for the final project will have high levels of similarity. That similarity reflects the student spent the entire course developing a final project. It does not reflect plagiarism within the course.

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