Can we rely on text originality check systems? : Evaluation of three systems used in higher education and suggestion of a new methodological test approach

• This study investigates the reliability of three originality check systems from the university teacher's perspective. It also describes a method for evaluating this type of systems. The three systems are examined with respect to the time used for the search, the ability to find plagiarism and the layout of the similarity report. The study was conducted in conjunction with the national procurement of a new national agreement for originality check systems and a Swedish higher education institution choice of a new system. The background is the teachers' use of the originality check system as part of the pedagogical efforts to prevent plagiarism and detect suspected fraud. The study does not discuss the whole plagiarism issue in higher education. Instead it focuses on the method used for the evaluation of and comparison between systems. Over 68,000 words from 167 plagiarized references, from different sources and subject areas were used to test the systems. The results show that systems can find only a portion of the plagiarized texts that were sent in to the systems for control and that there are major differences between the capabilities of the systems. 20, 63 and respectively 84 of the 167 references were indicated as plagiarism. Turnitin conducted searches of up to five minutes while the other two systems sometimes took considerably more time for the analysis. The investigation of the originality reports´ interface revealed that factors the evaluators considered differed between these systems. This disclosed that the reports can be more or less difficult to interpret. We can therefore not solely rely on the originality check system´s reliability. Consequently this leads to the conclusion that other educational activities should be emphasized as a much needed complement in the work of preventing and detecting fraud in the form of plagiarism

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Information Systems (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Higher education

plagiarism

originality check system

Computer and Systems Sciences

data- och systemvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)