Strategies
for Detecting Plagiarism
The following list of
questions is meant to help with detecting plagiarized
papers. There will probably be more than one indicator
that a paper has been plagiarized in whole or in part.
Your instincts as an instructor are also important.
FORMAT
Strange formatting may indicate
material cut and pasted from a web document or a
paper from a paper mill. |
- Is the formatting what was required by the
assignment?
- Are there line breaks or page breaks at odd
places?
- Is there a URL or article number at the end
of the paper?
- Are there odd or out of place sentences such
as "click here" or "graphic
omitted" that might indicate a former
incarnation as a web page or online journal
article?
|
CITATION
Citations can be a
big clue to plagiarized work.
|
- Are all of the citations old? Online
paper mills often include old papers with even
older citations.
- Are a large number of the citations to
materials that the ISU library does not own?
Most undergraduate students do not
interlibrary loan much or any of their cited
works. (They may have used a hometown
library, however.)
- Are the citations consistent with the
content? Does the bibliography match the
citations or footnotes in the text?
- Do the
citations look "stuck on"?
- Does the paper lack citations?
- Are there
lengthy, well-written sections without
attribution?
|
STYLE
These style questions might also
point to poor or exceptional writing skills, but
style can be a good indicator of a plagiarized
paper. |
- Is the writing style and level consistent
with the student's previous work?
- Is the level of writing far below or above
the writing of others in the class? (This can, of
course, indicate an exceptional student.
However, it might indicate plagiarizing of a
published article, or a high school-level
paper from a paper mill.)
- Are past events referred to in the present
tense or as if they are recent?
- Is the style of the paper (expository,
creative, etc.) what the assignment required?
|
CONTENT
Content can be very revealing.
It can be difficult for the plagiarizing student
to find a paper that really meets the assignment. |
- Does the paper match the assignment?
- Did the student ask for a last-minute change
of topic? This could be an indication of
intention to submit a plagiarized paper.
- Does the paper seem pieced together?
This could indicate that a student is plagiarizing a paper by
piecing together multiple, uncited sources.
- Is the student's relevant information
appended to less relevant or overly general
content? This could indicate a student's
attempt to adapt another person's work to fit
the assignment.
- Are
sentences suspiciously long? The
average sentence length of a first-year
college student is about 15 words.
|
What
you can do if you suspect plagiarism
- Ask the student to summarize verbally her / his
paper for you.
- Search unique phrases from the paper using Internet
search engines and article databases. Note that web
search engines
vary and do not index databases, so it is not a
conclusive test.
- Have the student describe her / his research process.
- Visit any URLs cited as sources.
- Verify that the ISU library owns at least most of
the items cited in the paper.
- Follow ISU procedure on confronting the student and
reporting the suspected incident.
Web search
engines to
try
All the Web
Put phrases in quotation marks or use the advanced search feature to
perform an "exact phrase search." This search engine, which rivals
Google, allows for searching in a variety of languages.
Dogpile
Enclose a phrase in quotation marks and search. This
meta-search engine will look for phrases using various
search engines.
Google
Enclose a phrase of 10 or fewer words in
quotation marks and search. Google will
search for stop words. Use this same technique
searching Google Groups to see if material has
been copied from Usenet discussion forum
postings.
Internet
Essay Exposer
Select “Web Search” and insert one or two
sentences between the quotation marks provided. This
service will check up to 10 search engines. Beware, each
search engine has its own window.
Article databases to
try
ABI/Inform (Proquest)
Enter a phrase in the search box to scour the
full-text of business articles, including those
from The Wall Street Journal.
Business and Company ASAP
Using the keyword search, select the option to search
for words in the entire article content. Insert a phrase
of no more than 8 words. There is no need to include
quotation marks.
Expanded Academic ASAP
Using the keyword search, select the option to search
for words in the entire article content. Insert a phrase
of no more than 8 words. There is no need to include
quotation marks.
LexisNexis Academic
Try various libraries and files within the database.
Insert phrases in the basic search’s keyword box to
search for the string of words in headlines and first
paragraphs. Use the guided search to perform full-text
searches.
Search the invisible web
Plagiarists may
get information from the web that isn't
detectable using search engines. Here are some
sources from the deep web you may want to try.
Bartleby.com
A free online source to literature, speeches,
encyclopedias and other references sources.
Search for phrases using the search box.
Biography.com
Biographical information on a wide variety of
people: historical figures, newsmakers, the
infamous, pop culture personalities, and more.
Phrase searching is not available but you can
still search by name and keywords.
Xrefer
Provides full-text access to a variety of
subject-specific encyclopedias for a fee, but
users can take advantage of free 30-day trials.
Plagiarism
detection software
Eve2.2
Searches the Internet for signs of plagiarism in
papers. There’s a free trial copy of EVE that can be
downloaded and used for 15 days.
Glatt
Plagiarism Services
Offers different services, including a program to
teach students about plagiarism, a screening program
to detect plagiarism, and a self-detection program to
catch unintentional occurrences of plagiarism. The
screening program works by
eliminating every fifth word of the suspected
student's paper. The student is then asked to supply
the missing words.
The
Plagiarism Resource Center
at the University of Virginia
The Plagiarism Resource Center at The University of Virginia
Physics professor Lou Bloomfield creates and distributes for free
Wcopyfind. The software allows professors and departments to create a
database of student work, which allows for comparing documents to
each other.
Turnitin.com
Checks submitted papers by comparing them to
what is on the Internet and to papers in
Turnitin.com's files. Offers a free trial. You
may request price estimates online.
