UT-Austin test results for TurnItIn
These tests were performed by Dr. Susan "George" Schorn Links to an external site., Writing Coordinator for the School of Undergraduate Studies. If you have any questions regarding this report please contact Dr. Schorn directly.
2015: Six test essays consisting entirely of unoriginal text were assembled with the help of undergraduate instructors and library staff, and submitted to TurnItIn. Of the 37 sources in the sample, TurnItIn correctly identified 15, and indicated partial matches for six others. Sixteen of the sources were wrongly classified as "original" by TurnItIn.
Total Sources: 37
Found: 15 (40%)
Partial: 6 (16%)
Not Found: 16 (44%)
|
Found original source |
Found |
|
Found enough text in a non-original source to infer plagiarism, or found non-viewable source |
Partial |
|
Classified as "original" |
Missed |
|
Document Name |
Original Source |
TurnItIn Result |
|
Test Essay One |
GMU History News Network |
Missed |
|
Société des architectes modernes |
Missed |
|
|
Salem Mercury (newspaper) |
Found |
|
|
Brainia.com |
Found |
|
|
echeat.com |
Found |
|
|
Twitter feed of @ShaunKing, 3/10/15 |
Missed |
|
|
|
||
|
Test Essay Two |
San Diego International Law Journal |
Missed |
|
Journal Of Democracy |
Partial |
|
|
Popular Music & Society |
Found |
|
|
Contemporary Music Review |
Missed |
|
|
Muziki: Journal Of Music Research In Africa |
Found |
|
|
Immigration |
Found |
|
|
|
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|
Test Essay Three |
The Columbian (Vancouver, WA newspaper) |
Missed |
|
Paris Review |
Partial |
|
|
Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. |
Found |
|
|
MIT Open Courseware |
Found |
|
|
Plwikipedia Google Chrome translation |
Missed |
|
|
Wikipedia; word & sentence boundary changes |
Missed |
|
|
The Riveter |
Found |
|
|
|
||
|
Test Essay Four |
UT CLA Student Affairs web page |
Missed |
|
Goodreads |
Found |
|
|
Change.org |
Found |
|
|
Tumblr post by user unlikehisname |
Missed |
|
|
McDougal, Throes of Democracy |
Partial |
|
|
Buchsbaum, Ralph. Animals Without Backbones |
Partial |
|
|
Newberg et al, Why God Won't Go Away |
Missed |
|
|
|
||
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Test Essay Five |
http://www.ntsb.gov/ Word and syntax changes |
Missed |
|
http://www.ashpmedia.org Edits & patchwriting |
Missed |
|
|
Wikipedia patchwritten w/ other sources |
Found |
|
|
http://www.nwf.org patchwritten |
Found |
|
|
http://www.smithsonianmag.com patchwritten |
Missed |
|
|
|
||
|
Test Essay Six |
Pinkwater, Daniel. Fish Whistle (Kindle) |
Found |
|
Wolcott, James. Wild in the Seats (Kindle) |
Missed |
|
|
Wikipedia with simple word substitutions |
Found |
|
|
Wikipedia: word subs, deletions, re-positioning |
Missed |
|
|
Wikipedia: word subs and sentence boundary shifts |
Missed |
|
|
Wikipedia: phrase shifts, word & punctuation changes |
Missed |
|
2007: Six test essays consisting entirely of unoriginal text were assembled with the help of undergraduate instructors and library staff. These essays were submitted to TurnItIn and SafeAssign, and also subjected to targeted Google searches. Of the 23 sources in the sample, TurnItIn correctly identified eight. TurnItIn also indicated partial matches for six of the sources. It wrongly classified nine of the sources as "original."
SafeAssign performed more poorly than TurnItIn, correctly identifying eight sources, providing partial matches for two others, and wrongly classifying 13 as "original."
Google searches of the essays (using word strings containing three to five nouns) correctly identified 21 of the 23 sources.
|
Software |
TurnItIn |
SafeAssign |
|
|
Percentage of sources found |
60.76% |
43.4% |
91.3% |
|
Ratio of sources found:sources missed |
14:9 |
10:13 |
21:2 |
|
Document Name |
Original Source |
TurnItIn |
|
SafeAssign |
|
|
|
TeapotDomeTEST.doc |
1. George Mason University’s History News Network |
P[i] |
Y |
Y |
||
|
2. Wikipedia |
Y |
Y |
Y |
|||
|
3. U.S. Senate |
Y |
N |
Y |
|||
|
4. GIGA Quotes |
Y |
N |
Y |
|||
|
|
|
|
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|
ShakespearePlag.doc |
5. All Free Essays |
Y |
N |
Y |
||
|
|
|
|
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|
Test essay (Ostrow) |
6. Hispanic Online |
Y |
Y |
Y |
||
|
7. American Prospect |
Y |
Y |
Y |
|||
|
|
|
|
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|
journalandbookTestEssay |
8. Geographical Journal |
Y |
Y |
Y |
||
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9. Applied Animal Behavior Science |
N |
N |
N |
|||
|
10. A Faith Interrupted (book) |
N |
N |
Y |
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11. Tools of Radio Astronomy (textbook) |
N |
N |
Y |
|||
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12. A03 Judicial Findings: Liens |
P |
Y |
Y |
|||
|
13. Babelfish translation of Web page |
N |
N |
N |
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|
|
|
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|
NightWatchAnalysis |
14. Echeat.com |
N |
P[ii] |
Y |
||
|
|
|
|
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|
Race and Culture |
15. Counterpunch |
N |
Y |
Y |
||
|
16. Newman, David (textbook) |
N |
P |
Y |
|||
|
17. Encyclopedia Britannica |
P |
Y |
Y |
|||
|
18. MIT Open Courseware (syllabus) |
N |
N |
Y |
|||
|
19. Penn State Department of Anthropology |
N |
N |
Y |
|||
|
20. Rokeach, Milton, 1973. The Nature of Human Values |
P |
N |
Y |
|||
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21. Turner, Victor. Symbols in African Ritual |
N |
Y |
||||
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22. Turner, Victor. The Forest of Symbols |
Y |
N |
Y |
|||
|
23. Weber, Max. Economy and Society |
P[iv] |
N |
Y |
|||
Y = found original source (for Google, indicates find on first page of results)
P = found non-original source or found unviewable source
N = did not find source
[i] [i]TurnItIn found three sentences of the primary source on George Mason U’s site, but attributed two additional sentences from the same site to a student paper.
[ii] SafeAssign found a single sentence of the essay at echeat.com, but did not flag any of the remaining text. SafeAssign also flagged an (apparently) entirely coincidental match with the sentence fragment “Almost like you could reach out and touch it.”
[iii] TurnItIn found some text embedded in a 13-page German-language PDF at University of Basel, Switzerland.
[iv] Cannot tell if this match links to the original source. TurnItIn’s link is to a subscription-only site.