Turnitin

Turnitin
Basic data
developer	iParadigms LLC
Publishing year	1997
German speaking	Yes
turnitin.com

Turnitin ( English [ turn-it-in ] for "give it in") is an Internet- based service for the detection of plagiarism that has been developed by iParadigms since 1997. Many universities and colleges acquire licenses that allow them to upload papers to the Turnitin website; The uploaded texts are automatically checked for copied text passages at Turnitin. The results of this investigation can then be used to analyze similarities to existing sources or, in the context of formative evaluation , help to show trainees how plagiarism can be avoided and thus the quality of one's own work can be improved.

One way to prevent high school and college students from creating their works by plagiarizing is to submit a request directly to the Turnitin website. This is already particularly common in high schools in the United States. There, however, the practice also attracted criticism and led to protests from affected students, among other things because they saw it as a violation of the presumption of innocence . In addition, critics criticized a possible disregard for data protection of the users and a violation of copyright.

The maker of Turnitin, iParadigms LLC, also offers a similar plagiarism detection service called iThenticate for researchers and editors and operates the information site Plagiarism.org. Turnitin is divided into three services. "Turnitin Feedback Studio" offers the plagiarism check with associated feedback and grading , "Turnitin Revision Assistant" takes over the formative evaluation to improve the work and "Turnitin Scoring Engine" offers automated grading.

function

Turnitin checks whether text has potentially been taken from other sources by comparing the work to be checked with several databases using a proprietary algorithm . Turnitin's own databases are used, as well as external academic databases with which Turnitin has concluded license agreements.

Use of the reviewed work

The work submitted for checking on Turnitin is stored in a database and used for comparison in subsequent plagiarism checks in order to prevent one student from plagiarizing the work of another.

In addition to the work in this database, comparisons are made with scientific articles, books and journals from various sources. In addition, Turnitin compares the work with Internet pages, for which also websites that are no longer accessible are archived.

Integration into the classroom

Typically, the work is uploaded directly to the Turnitin service as individual documents so that the responsible teaching staff can access them later. However, lecturers can also submit individual or multiple files (also as ZIP files ) and have them analyzed. It can be set whether the trainees should have access to the results of the analysis in order to be able to submit an improvement.

Several e-learning systems can be set up so that submissions are automatically forwarded to Turnitin for analysis. Blackboard , Moodle , ANGEL , Instructure , Desire2Learn , Pearson Learning Studio , Sakai and Studywiz offer different options for integrating Turnitin.

Controversy

privacy

In 2006 there was a debate in Canada as to whether Turnitin could ensure the security of the submitted work, as the USA Patriot Act grants US authorities access to all data stored on servers within the USA. Some students and universities were concerned that this would include an analysis of their work submitted to Turnitin. The president of the Ryerson Student's Union, a student association, expressed this concern as follows: “It's of real concern for students, especially those of minority backgrounds who already feel targeted” (German: “It is a real concern of students, especially for those who feel that they are under observation because they belong to a minority ”).

Copyright problems

Since Turnitin saves the uploaded work of pupils and students so that they can later be compared with the work of others, the question arises as to whether Turnitin has the right to do this. Some students expressed their opinion that they disagreed with Turnitin making commercial profit on their intellectual property, which is why a lawsuit was subsequently filed (see section Legal disputes ).

In Germany too, there are doubts about the legality of submitting work to Turnitin. The general student committee of Bielefeld University assesses the use of Turnitin as a violation of copyright law.

Students under general suspicion

Critics interpret the obligation that often prevails when using Turnitin that students or pupils have their work analyzed by Turnitin as a general suspicion against students and, so to speak, as a violation of the presumption of innocence . Some professors and teachers are critical of this suspicious atmosphere and advocate that Turnitin is not used in their educational institutions.

WriteCheck

iParadigms, the company behind Turnitin, operated a website called WriteCheck, where students could submit their work and it was then compared against the same databases as Turnitin. As a result, students could check in advance whether their work would later be recognized as plagiarism as part of the analysis using Turnitin or not. Economics professor Alex Tabarrok from George Mason University says: "They are warlords who are arming both sides in this plagiarism war" (German: "They are warlords who arm both sides in this plagiarism war"). The service ended on June 30, 2020.

Legal disputes

In 2004, in a lawsuit over the mandatory use of Turnitin, Jesse Rosenfeld, a McGill University student, refused to have his academic work analyzed at Turnitin because he found it offensive to students who work hard to produce their own intellectual property . Ultimately, the University Senate decided that Rosenfeld's work should be graded without Turnitin. In 2005, in a similar case at the same university, a decision was made against the use of Turnitin. In 2006, the Senate of Mount Saint Vincent University ruled that work produced by students should not be given to Turnitin or similar services. Also, Princeton , Harvard , Yale, and Stanford decided not to use Turnitin.

In 2007, two students from McLean High School and two students from Desert Vista High School sued the company iParadigms, which is responsible for Turnitin, in the United States Circuit Court . The students accused the company of violating copyright law in its business practices. However, the court dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that it was fair use under American copyright law, and the appeal was unsuccessful.

See also

• plagiarism

Web links

• Turnitin.com
• Plagiarism.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264452242_Let_Them_Plagiarise_Developing_Academic_Writing_in_a_Safe_Environment
2. ↑ Wendy Warren Austin: Virginia High School Students Rebel Against Mandatory Use of Turnitin.com. In: www.ncte.org. September 16, 2008, accessed May 28, 2016 . 
3. ^ Jess McDiarmid: DSU takes on Turnitin.com . In: Gazette . Dalhousie University. March 16, 2006. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
4. ↑ Turnitin Found Not To Violate Copyrights Student | Techdirt. In: Techdirt. Retrieved May 28, 2016 . 
5. ↑ iThenticate information. In: Academic Integrity. April 8, 2013, accessed May 28, 2016 . 
6. ^ Turnitin Launches Feedback Studio - THE Journal. In: THE Journal. Retrieved May 28, 2016 . 
7. ^ Turnitin, expanding beyond plagiarism detection, launches Revision Assistant. In: www.insidehighered.com. Retrieved May 28, 2016 . 
8. ^ Turnitin Releases Scoring Engine for Essays, Short Answers - THE Journal. In: THE Journal. Retrieved May 28, 2016 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Answers to Questions Students Ask About Turnitin. (No longer available online.) Turnitin, 2010, archived from the original on March 28, 2016 ; accessed on May 28, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ^ Turnitin Integrations . iParadigms, LLC. 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
11. ^ Students using Turnitin Vulnerable to the Patriot Act. In: The Brock Press. November 14, 2006; Retrieved May 28, 2016 (American English). 
12. ↑ Turnitin Found Not To Violate Copyrights Student | Techdirt. In: Techdirt. Retrieved May 28, 2016 . 
13. ↑ ^{a b} Foley & Lardner, Id. , Pp. 3-5
14. ^ Jan H. Terstegge: AStA Bielefeld University: TurnItOut! Plagiarism software harms students. In: www.asta-bielefeld.de. Retrieved May 28, 2016 . 
15. ↑ Nick Carbone: Turnitin.com, a Pedagogic Placebo for Plagiarism . 2001. Archived from the original on October 4, 2006. Retrieved January 28, 2007.
16. ↑ writecheck.com. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 3, 2020 ; accessed on May 28, 2016 . 
17. ↑ Elizabeth Murphy: Plagiarism software WriteCheck troubles some educators . In: USA Today . September 9, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2011.
18. ↑ WriteCheck officially closed on June 30, 2020. Retrieved on August 5, 2020 (English). 
19. ^ McGill student wins fight over anti-cheating website. In: www.cbc.ca. January 16, 2004, accessed May 28, 2016 . 
20. ^ Liam Churchill: Students: 2, Turnitin: 0 . In: McGill Daily . December 2, 2005. Archived from the original on May 17, 2007. Retrieved April 15, 2007.
21. ↑ Ravi Amarnath: Mount St. Vincent bans Turnitin.com . In: The Gazette . March 15, 2006. Archived from the original on July 30, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 28, 2011. 
22. ↑ Julia Osellame: University opts not to 'Turnitin' . In: The Daily Princetonian . April 4, 2006. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
23. ^ R. Vanderhye: AV, et al. v. iParadigms, LLC: Amended Complaint for Copyright Infringement (PDF) April 16, 2007. Archived from the original on March 20, 2009. Information: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 20, 2009. 
24. ^ Maria Glod: McLean Students Sue Anti-Cheating Service . In: The Washington Post . March 29, 2007, ISSN  0190-8286 ( washingtonpost.com [accessed May 30, 2016]).
25. ↑ Turnitin Found Not To Violate Copyrights Student | Techdirt. In: Techdirt. Retrieved May 28, 2016 . 
26. ↑ Claude Hilton: Memorandum Opinion (PDF) United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division. 2008. Archived from the original on July 5, 2010.
27. ^ Wilkinson, Motz, Traxler: Appellate Decision (PDF) United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. April 16, 2009. Archived from the original on April 19, 2009. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 17, 2009.