Turnitin FAQs (for students)

What is Turnitin?

Turnitin is a service that matches text from student-submitted work against its extensive databases of previously submitted student assessments (submitted to either LSE or other institutions that also subscribe to Turnitin), websites and academic papers. Turnitin produces a similarity report and a score (%) of matched text. The similarity report contains any matches to sources along with the relevant links.

Turnitin offers staff the ability to investigate any concerns about the originality of a submission. It can also help students identify where their writing requires development, particularly regarding the use of sources, citation, referencing and paraphrasing.

How is Turnitin used at LSE?

Departments have control and responsibility for developing their local policy on the use of Turnitin. The department policy, including a rationale for the use of Turnitin with the department, should be shared with students.

Turnitin as a student academic writing development tool

The LSE policy on the use of Turnitin makes it, “compulsory for all LSE Departments (in which students engage with essay-based assessments) to offer their students the opportunity to use Turnitin to help them develop their writing, referencing, paraphrasing and citation skills.”

This means that, where students engage with essay-based assessments, “students have access to their Turnitin similarity report and score (%) for at least one of their formative essay-based assessments for every year of their studies (the latter is applicable, if students continue to engage with essay-based assessments in their consecutive years of study).”

Where students engage with essay-based assessments, in addition to allowing access to their similarity reports, departments should direct students to support and training in the use of Turnitin. This support and training may be offered by either the department or LSE LIFE.

Turnitin to support academic integrity

Turnitin is used by most academic departments at LSE to check the originality of work that is submitted by students taking their courses.

Turnitin for marking and feedback

In some cases Turnitin is also used as a marking tool by teachers to provide feedback on work submitted by their students via Moodle.

Will my work be submitted to Turnitin?

The conditions of registration for all students at LSE states, “all [students] assessed coursework (essays, projects, field reports, literature reviews, dissertations etc.)… may be analysed by text matching software.”

Teachers and programme staff should be able to provide more specific details of how Turnitin will be used on individual courses; and how it will affect your Moodle use when submitting assignments.

What do I do if I submit the wrong file?

Contact your teacher and/or your departmental administrator to inform them about the mistake. Depending on where you have submitted the file, they may be able to reset your assignment submission for you to resubmit or they may need to request the deletion of your paper from TurnItIn (through Eden Digital). It is very important for them to know whether you submitted in a wrong assignment portal within the same Moodle course or in the wrong Moodle course. If you are unsure about anything you can contact eden.digital@lse.ac.uk.

Which file formats are accepted by Turnitin?

Please consult Turnitin’s File requirements page for the most up to date information regarding acceptable file formats.

Can I see my similarity reports?

This setting is specific to each individual assignment and so is determined by the course teachers and programme staff, in accordance with the departmental Turnitin policy. When Turnitin is used within Moodle there are three options regarding students seeing the similarity reports:

• students can see their similarity report prior to the final submission of their work, meaning they have the option to re-submit their work based on improvements.

• students can see their similarity report after they have submitted their work with no further submissions allowed.

• students can’t see the report at all.

If you have any questions about how Turnitin similarity reports are used on a course you are taking, you should contact the programme manager or course convenor in the first instance.

What is the maximum percentage of similarity that is allowed?

The similarity percentage is not, in itself, indicative of plagiarism. Therefore, there is no set percentage to indicate academic misconduct. The similarity report should be evaluated using academic judgement before any allegation related to academic misconduct (i.e., plagiarism) is communicated to students. If you need more advice about this, please contact LSE LIFE.

Why can’t I see a Similarity Report after I submitted my assignment?

There are number of reasons why a similarity report may be delayed or unavailable, including:

• the assignment has been set up to not show the similarity reports to students. Please check with your teacher, if you wish to find out why the assignment has been set up in that way.

• The file format is not accepted by Turnitin. Please consult Turnitin’s File requirements page for the most up to date information regarding acceptable file formats.

• The length of the paper. Long papers (e.g., several hundred pages) can take up to 24 hours to generate a report.

• The level of demand on Turnitin. If lots of papers are being submitted to the system, the generation of the reports can take up to 24 hours.

I re-submitted my assignment and I haven’t got a similarity score yet.

Where resubmissions to an assignment are allowed, you will be able to view the score immediately. However, if you have made more than three resubmissions, you will need to wait 24 hours before you can view the score and report.

How can I interpret my similarity report?

Undergraduate students: The Academic Integrity module of LSE LIFE’s Prepare to Learn Moodle course  contains a section on Understanding your Turnitin report and using it to improve your writing.

Postgraduate students: The Academic Integrity module of LSE LIFE’s Prepare to Learn Moodle course  contains a section on Understanding your Turnitin report and using it to improve your writing.

LSE LIFE also deliver interactive, task-based workshops on understanding Turnitin reports and using them to improve academic writing skills.

Where should I go if I have questions about my similarity report?

If you need further guidance on how Turnitin similarity reports relate to your submitted work, or on any other aspect of your academic work, then support is available from the LSE LIFE team in the LSE Library.

If you have specific questions about how Turnitin similarity reports are used on a specific course you are taking, you should contact the programme manager or course convenor in the first instance.

I can see similarity reports for some but not all my assignments. What does that mean?

Departmental Turnitin policies, in line with the LSE policy on the use of Turnitin, should specify how frequently similarity reports will be shared with students. Some departments may only allow students to see similarity reports for one formative assessment a year, while others may allow students to see similarity reports for all formative and all summative assessments. The LSE policy on the use of Turnitin contains more detail on this (see the ‘Models for using Turnitin as a student academic writing development tool’ section).

If you have specific questions about how Turnitin similarity reports are used on a specific course you are taking, you should contact the programme manager or course convenor in the first instance.