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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