Check Similarity

When an assignment is submitted, Turnitin will generate a Similarity Report. The submitted paper will be compared to other sources in the Turnitin database and analysed for similarity to these. 
Turnitin does not check for plagiarism in a piece of work. It finds potential matches which should then be checked by Faculty staff. 
 
When viewing submissions in the assignment inbox, the Report column features icons that indicate the percentage of the Overall Similarity Index, with a corresponding colour on a blue to red scale. The score will be affected by the settings that were chosen when the assignment was created.
 

To access the similarity report, complete the following steps: 

  1. Go to bb.imperial.ac.uk 
  2. Enter your College username and password and log in 
  3. Navigate to the course that contains the relevant Turnitin assignment 
  4. Select the Turnitin assignment link, navigating you to the Turnitin Inbox 
  5. Each student enrolled on the course will be listed here. If they have made a submission, and an originality report has been generated, it will appear in the Similarity column as a coloured percentage. Select this to check the submission. 
  6. Turnitin Feedback Studio will now launch in a new window. From here you can interpret the similarity report of the assignment. Specific sources can be excluded, as well as excluding the bibliography, small matches and quoted sources. Changes that are made here only affect this submission.  
  7. When you have excluded the sources that you wish and made any other changes, you can generate a new similarity report.  

For further details on similarity reports in Turnitin, please see the Turnitin support page.  

If you are need assistance in interpreting an originality report score, it is recommended that you contact your Faculty Ed Tech team. Additional resources on plagiarism are provided by the Library.
For further details on similarity reports in Turnitin, please see the Turnitin support page. 

 

Similarity Reports Requests

Turnitin matches students’ submitted papers to many electronic sources including other student papers held on the Turnitin UK database. The database will include papers from students at Imperial College London as well as other UK Universities who use Turnitin.

If a match is made between two student papers, Turnitin will highlight this in the Similarity Report and the paper will be partially viewable.

Through Turnitin, you can automatically send a request to view the entire matching paper. This request will be sent to all teachers associated with the assignment that the matching student paper was submitted to. This can be from another institution or from Imperial College.

If you are a teacher on a course that contains a Turnitin assignment, you might be involved in this process by either sending a request to another university or receiving one.

Sending a paper request

Sending a view request is done through the Similarity Report in Turnitin.

  1. Access the Similarity report and click on an underlined link
  2. Select the option to send a view request by clicking on the name of the institution.
  3. A new window will open in which you can add your email address and send your view request.

Receiving a paper request

Teachers enrolled on a course with a Turnitin assignment will receive a paper request for that course.

Paper request sample

If you receive a paper request it will be entitled ‘TurnitinUK Paper View Request’. The template below shows you what the e-mail request will say.

"Dear <instructor name>,

TurnitinUK is forwarding this request on behalf of <requesters name>, an instructor at <institution>. This instructor requests your permission to view the paper, "<name of paper>" submitted to your <name of class> class at <name of institution> on <date of submission>. This instructor has found a <percentage> match to this paper in a paper submitted to his or her <name of class> class. If you choose to grant permission to the instructor to view the paper, simply reply to this email. Please confirm the text of the student's paper is displayed in your reply email. By replying to this email, you will be sending an email (including the text of your student's paper) to the requesting instructor, <name>.

The text of the paper previously submitted to your class is included below. Please remove any identifying student information in the text below to respect the privacy of your student prior to sending.

Thank you for using TurnitinUK,

The TurnitinUK Team
--------------Begin Paper--------------

Notes

  • The student paper that is attached to the e-mail is the entire student paper that the other teacher is requesting
  • If you choose to grant permission to the instructor to view the paper, simply reply to this email. Please confirm the text of the student's paper is displayed in your reply email. By replying to this email, you will be sending an email (including the text of your student's paper) to the requesting instructor
  • Before you send the email with the requested paper, please remove any information that might identify the name of the student who submitted the paper.