Fairleigh Dickinson University recently entered into a licensing agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism on student papers. At present, this license only applies to undergraduate classes, although we may extend this service to graduate classes in the next fiscal year.

While the Turnitin.com system is a powerful tool for detecting student plagiarism, it is also a tool that has implications for copyright of student work, student privacy, and other issues. Therefore all faculty users of Turnitin.com must understand and comply with the following policies.

Notice to Students.In all classes for which you think you may use the Turnitin.com service, you must notify your students. You must include a written notice in your syllabus, and on any assignment instructions for which Turnitin.com may be used. If your class meets face-to-face, you must also inform the students verbally prior to the use of the service.

This is the notice that must be placed in your syllabus:

Fairleigh Dickinson recently entered into a licensing agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism on student papers. I will be using the Turnitin.com service at my discretion to determine the originality of student papers. If I submit your paper to Turnitin.com, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database as long as their service remains in existence. If you object to this storage of your paper, you must let me know no later than two weeks after the start of this class. If you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, I will utilize other services and techniques to check your work for plagiarism.

This is the notice that must be placed on assignment instructions:

Papers submitted in fulfillment of this assignment may be submitted to Turnitin.com, a service that detects some forms of plagiarism on student papers. If I submit your paper to Turnitin.com, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database as long as long as their service remains in existence. If you notified me at the start of the semester that you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, I will utilize other services and techniques to check your work for plagiarism.

Student Privacy. Student papers are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as they are educational records that contain personally identifiable information. While Turnitin.com has assured its licensees that FERPA is not violated by submitting student papers, we nonetheless require faculty to take additional steps to protect student privacy.

Before submitting a paper to the Turnitin.com service for originality analysis, remove all reference to the student’s name or any other identifying information. Provide each student in your class with a unique identifier or alias, and use this alias for tracking purposes when you submit papers.

When you submit papers to Turnitin.com, your name and e-mail address will be permanently associated with your students' papers. If another instructor submits a student paper that matches your student’s paper, it is possible that the other instructor will contact you. If you are contacted, do not provide any information to the requester, even if he or she is an FDU instructor. Immediately contact the Assistant Provost for Educational Technology for instructions on how to proceed.

Similarly, if you submit a paper for analysis that matches another student’s submission, do not contact the other instructor. Again please contact the Assistant Provost for Educational Technology for instructions on how to proceed.

Evaluating Originality Reports. When you submit a paper to Turnitin.com, an originality report is generated. The originality report tells you what percentage of the paper is similar to or exactly matches other sources found in its database. Links are provided for you to evaluate the degree of match.

You must always examine these originality reports to determine whether plagiarism has actually occurred, as Turnitin.com simply identifies phrases or passages that match other sources. A properly-cited direct quote will be listed as a “match” by Turnitin.com, but ordinarily would not be considered a case of plagiarism.

Turnitin.com is only a tool. You must still critique the reports, and use your own judgment to determine whether plagiarism has actually occurred.

Similarly, not all cases of plagiarism are detected by Turnitin.com. If the original work is not available in the Turnitin.com database, Turnitin.com cannot detect the plagiarism. If you have a paper that you feel is suspicious, ask a librarian to help you investigate the paper more deeply.

Suspected Plagiarism.In a case of suspected plagiarism, please refer to the University Academic Integrity Policy as outlined in the Faculty Manual. If you are uncertain how to proceed, contact your department chair or school director, or the dean of your college.