Turnitin FAQs

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Turnitin is a third-party service used at LSE to identify similarities between student submissions and other sources. For answers to common questions, see below. For help enabling Turnitin, see: How to enable Turnitin similarity reports within Moodle assignment activities. For guidance on reading reports, see: How to use and interpret Turnitin similarity reports.

This FAQs gathers together all of our advice on setting up Turnitin for assignments at LSE, managing submissions, and working with similarity reports. If you have any Turnitin queries not covered here, please contact eden.digital@lse.ac.uk.

1. What is Turnitin?

Turnitin is a service that matches text from student assignments against its extensive databases of current and archived internet content, student work previously have submitted to Turnitin, periodicals, journals, and publications. Turnitin produces a similarity report and a score (%) of matched text.

Turnitin provides a useful indicator to markers of the extent of matched text within a document, but it cannot determine what those matches mean. It is no replacement for academic knowledge and judgment in determining cases of academic misconduct/plagiarism.

Turnitin can also be used for marking and feedback. For more information on this, please see the Turnitin as a marking and feedback tool section.

2. How is Turnitin used at LSE?

Due to disciplinary differences, and the fact that Turnitin only matches text, academic departments use Turnitin differently, or not at all. According to the LSE policy on the use of Turnitin, all academic departments, in which students engage with essay-based assessments, are required to have a local policy detailing how they use Turnitin.

Turnitin is used by most academic departments at LSE to check the whether work that is submitted by students contains text matches with other sources.

The LSE policy on the use of Turnitin requires that departments, in which students engage with essay-based assessments, allow students to view their similarity report for at least one formative assessment in every year of their studies. This is so students can use the report as a development tool to improve their academic writing. How frequently students are given such access is determined at department level and should be contained with the departmental policy on the use of Turnitin. For information on how to allow students access to their similarity reports, see the How to enable Turnitin similarity reports within Moodle assignment activities guide.

Turnitin can also be used as a marking tool by teachers to provide feedback on work submitted by their students via Moodle. For more information on this, please the Turnitin as a marking and feedback tool section of these guides.

3. What is the benefit of using Turnitin similarity reports?

Turnitin similarity reports can be used pedagogically to improve student’s understanding of best citational practice, and can also be a helpful tool for supporting academic integrity. It is up to individual departments and instructors how they use the reports. For more detail on what these reports do and do not show, please see: How to use and interpret Turnitin similarity reports.

4. How do I enable/disable similarity reports for Moodle assignments?

Turnitin reports for student work can be toggled on or off by a teacher or manager within the settings of any Moodle assignment. You can enable them when initially setting up the assignment, or add them at any time before the due date. For a step-by-step guide to enabling similarity reports and choosing your settings please see: How to enable Turnitin similarity reports within Moodle assignment activities.

5. Can I set up an assignment that will enable me to grade work using Turnitin Feedback Studio?

Yes. We are currently developing guidance to support this. These will soon be available in the Turnitin as a marking and feedback tool section of these guides. In the interim, please email eden.digital@lse.ac.uk and we will arrange a meeting to discuss your requirements.

6. When will I/my students see their similarity reports?

Students can only see similarity reports if ‘Display Similarity Reports to Students’ is set to ‘Yes’. When similarity reports are generated will depend on how you set up Turnitin for your assignment. This is managed by the setting called ‘Report Generation Speed’. For more information on this, please see How to enable Turnitin similarity reports within Moodle assignment activities.

7. Are similarity reports visible to students?

It is possible to make similarity reports visible to students and this can be enabled when setting up Turnitin within a Moodle assignment.

For more detail on the various setting options to allow student access to similarity reports, please see: How to enable Turnitin similarity reports within Moodle assignment activities.

8. Can I allow students to check their similarity report before final submission?

Yes, Turnitin can be set up to allow students to see their similarity report for drafts submitted before the due date.

This is so students can use the report as a development tool to improve their academic writing.

For details on how to allow student access to similarity reports, please see How to enable Turnitin similarity reports within Moodle assignment activities.

9. How can I help my students to interpret Turnitin similarity reports?

Students can access LSE LIFE’s Academic Integrity unit (part of the Prepare to Learn Moodle course, links below) to learn how to interpret similarity reports and use them to develop their academic writing. LSE LIFE also run workshops for students on understanding Turnitin reports and using them to improve academic writing skills. For more details on theses, please contact LSE LIFE.

• LSE LIFE Academic integrity unit (undergraduate)

• LSE LIFE Academic integrity unit (postgraduate)

10. How can I evaluate students’ similarity reports results?

Full details on how Turnitin detects and displays similarities between submitted work and other sources can be found here: How to use and interpret Turnitin similarity reports.

11. What if my student's similarity report shows extensive text matching?

Firstly, check through the report using the interpretation guidance: How to use and interpret Turnitin similarity reports. This will help you to understand exactly which parts of a high similarity score might indicate intended plagiarism.

If you feel a piece of work submitted to you needs to be a considered a plagiarism case then you should consult the LSE Regulations On Assessment Offences [PDF] for details on how to proceed.

12. How do I remove sources with very small amounts of similarity?/ What is 'Exclude Small Matches'?

Turnitin can be set to ignore any sources where the amount of matching material falls beneath a certain word-count or percentage of the student’s total word count. You may set these limits yourself. For example, setting ‘Exclude Small Matches’ to 2% will cause Turnitin to ignore sources that match less than 2% of the content of a student’s submission.

You can also filter out small matches when you are viewing a student’s report even if you have not done it when setting up an assignment. See: How to use and interpret Turnitin similarity reports.

12. How can I exclude matches from quotations and bibliographies?

When setting up an assignment, you can choose to exclude quotations and/or references from the similarity score and report generated by Turnitin. This can be done via the assignment settings when you set up your Moodle assignment.

You can also filter out quoted material and/or a bibliography when you are viewing a student’s similarity report, even if you have not so when setting up an assignment. See: How to use and interpret Turnitin similarity reports.

13. I have noticed that in some cases the overall report score (%) changes over time. What has happened?

Reports can be generated immediately upon submission; however, they are regenerated again on due date. The addition of new files to Turnitin in the interim - including submissions by other students completing the same assignment - may affect the report.

We recommend that you check the reports after the due date, when the report score (%) will be finalised. The amount of time it takes to regenerate the reports will depend on various factors, e.g. the amount of papers submitted to the assignment, the size of the papers submitted to the assignment, and traffic on Turnitin’s own servers.

14. Similarities to a paper submitted to another university have been flagged in a student’s work. How can I gain access to that paper?

Papers submitted by students are hidden to protect intellectual property; however, you can request to see a copy of the paper by clicking on the name of the institution to which it was submitted within the similarity report. Clicking the button to request a copy will email the instructor of the course to which the work was submitted (or their department office). If they decide to grant your request, Turnitin will notify you by email.

15. What file formats does Turnitin accept?

Turnitin accepts a wide range of file types but can only create a similarity report if the file contains text. Files must also be under 100MB in size, or under 2MB if they only contain text. They must contain at least 20 words and be under 800 pages long. To check which file types are currently accepted, please refer to Turnitin’s File requirements page.

16. What happens if a student submits an unsupported file type?

If a student uploads a file type that is accepted by Moodle but is not on the list of approved file types for Turnitin, the document will still be accepted for the Moodle assignment but no similarity report will be generated.

If a student submits an unsupported file type before the due date, the student should re-submit the file in a supported format. For support in instances where the deadline has already passed, please contact eden.digital@lse.ac.uk.

You can read more about Turnitin’s file requirements on their site. We advise limiting uploads to file types allowed by Turnitin to avoid this issue. See: How to enable Turnitin similarity reports within Moodle assignment activities.

17. Can my students submit multiple files? Will Turnitin check them all?

If your assignment requires that students submit multiple files as part of their assessment, Turnitin will generate a report for all files uploaded - provided they are acceptable file types.

Where a student replaces a draft with a new document, Turnitin will generate a similarity report according the ‘Report Generation Speed’ settings for the assignment. For more information on this, please see How to enable Turnitin similarity reports within Moodle assignment activities.

18. Why has a similarity report not been generated for a submission?

There are several reasons why a similarity report might fail to appear. For more information on this, please see What to do when Turnitin doesn’t generate a similarity report?

19. Why can I do if a student submitted the wrong file or submitted their file to the wrong assignment portal?

Even if a student has already received a similarity report, they can still replace their assignment with a new submission if the assignment has been set up to allow it. (See: Can I allow students to check their similarity report before final submission?) The same is true if you delete the student’s assignment and allow them to resubmit.

Important: Where a student submits a file to in the wrong assignment portal a paper deletion request must be submitted to prevent flagging for self-plagiarism when the file is later submitted in the correct place. This must be done by contacting eden.digital@lse.ac.uk, citing the TurnItIn Paper ID and the assignment to which the file was incorrectly submitted.

20. What happens if Turnitin is down when my students try to submit their work?

Turnitin outages will not affect Moodle assignments and files submitted by students will still be securely saved and available for grading and management in Moodle.

Similarity reports may be slightly delayed if Turnitin goes down; however, Moodle will keep automatically resubmitting the paper until service is restored, at which point the similarity report will be generated and sent to Moodle. No further action will be required in Moodle to make this happen.

See also Turnitin Service Status.

21. I have received a request through Turnitin to share a student paper. What should I do?

Occasionally, you may receive and email from a colleague in another department or institution asking for permission to view a paper. Please see: How to deal with requests to view student papers.

22. Are student papers kept by Turnitin? / What is the ‘standard repository’?

Work submitted to the standard repository is added to Turnitin’s database and becomes part of the collection against which new submissions are checked. This prevents submissions from being re-used by students in other universities or year groups.

When enabling Turnitin for an assignment, instructors may choose between the ‘standard repository’ and ‘no repository’ options. (See: How to enable Turnitin similarity reports within Moodle assignment activities.) If ‘No repository’ is selected, submissions will be checked for similarity and receive a report, but will not themselves be added to the database. Resubmission of the same work in future will not be flagged.

We recommend the ‘standard repository’ option for summative work, and the ‘no repository’ option for formative work that will later be developed and resubmitted in a final form.

23. How long are submitted papers saved by Turnitin?

Files submitted to the ‘standard repository’ will stay there as long as Turnitin are operating their service. However, teachers are able to request that submissions are removed. For more information on this, please see How to request the removal of a submission from Turnitin’s repository.

24. How are LSE students informed of the use of Turnitin in the School?

Section 21 of LSE’s conditions of registration (22/23 entry) states “all assessed coursework
(essays, projects, field reports, literature reviews, dissertations etc.) […] may be analysed by text matching software”.

In addition, the LSE policy on the use of Turnitin states, “it should be made clear to all students within each Department how Turnitin is used within the Department. This should include a rationale for the way in which it is used within the Department.” How departments communicate this with students may vary.

25. Do I need to inform my students if I plan to use Turnitin’s similarity check in Moodle?

We recommend that you inform your students if you are using the Moodle/Turnitin similarity check. When a student first submits work to a Moodle assignment with Turnitin enabled, they will need to accept the Turnitin Terms and Conditions.

26. I already have access to my own/a departmental Turnitin account. Can that be integrated with Moodle?

To prevent confusion or duplication of costs, the Moodle/Turnitin integration is connected to a single central account.

If you log in to the Turnitin website you will see a list of all of the Turnitin accounts to which you have access. All courses and assignments created through the Moodle/Turnitin similarity check integration will appear in the account ‘LSE Moodle’.

Please contact your department for any support with department-specific accounts.

27. Can I use Turnitin to produce an similarity report on my PhD thesis?

No – if you want to use an originality report to cross check and develop the referencing and citation in your thesis then you need to use the iThenticate service. LSE PhD students can gain access to this by emailing the LSE PhD academy team at phdacademy@lse.ac.uk (please note: only research students will be granted access to the iThenticate service; it is not available to taught students).

28. What is the difference between Turnitin and iThenticate?

Both services are run by the same company, but Turnitin is designed to support and check the work of taught students, and to enable teachers to grade these submission in class groups. iThenticate is designed to support professional academic writers and checks against a different database of resources when feeding back areas for improvement in a document.

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