FAQs about Turnitin

Check the Turnitin settings, which you will see under the “Settings” tab when you click on the assignment. The most common problems are with the dates/times. If it’s before the begin date/time or after the due date/time, then students will not be able to submit. You can “allow late submissions,” but this will only apply to late initial submissions, not late resubmissions.

Next troubleshoot on the student side:

• Students may need to clear their browser’s cookies and cache or use a different browser. 
• The file may not meet Turnitin’s requirements for size or type.
• Sometimes students mistakenly try to submit directly to Turnitin.com.
• Students can contact odl@unr.edu for further assistance.

Turnitin is an LTI tool without Student View integration. If needed, you can use your own student account to view the assignment as a student. Contact odl@unr.edu for assistance.

Turnitin does not determine whether or not a paper has been plagiarized. Rather it is a tool to help users determine if plagiarism has occurred. Turnitin reports show potential areas of plagiarism, but these need to be interpreted by you. By clicking on a highlighted section of a report, you can compare the student’s language with the source to which it was matched. See Similarity Report scoring scenarios for five scenarios which may cause confusion when trying to interpret the report.

If you didn’t set up a WebCampus assignment with Turnitin but would like to see the Similarity Report for a student submission, follow the steps below.

1. Go to Turnitin.com.
2. Click the Log in link in the upper right corner.
3. Click the Forgot Password link.
4. On the next page make sure to enter the email address you have set up with Canvas and your last name. You will be emailed a link to create a new password. This password will be for Turnitin only and will allow you to log in directly.
5. Now you can log in to Turnitin and use it to check documents outside of Canvas.
6. At this point we suggest you click on the User Info link at the top of the page and set Activate Quick Submit to Yes (and save). This will add a Quick Submit tab to your Turnitin interface which makes it easy to upload files directly without creating an assignment.
7. Use the Quick Submit feature to run the Similarity Report for each paper.

Turnitin is a plagiarism detection tool optimized for use in classroom settings. It can be used in graduate student courses, but it is not recommended for use in checking graduate grant proposals, articles prior to submission for publication, thesis, or dissertations. 

iThenticate is a plagiarism detection tool designed to assist academic authors in avoiding plagiarism and copyright infringement when preparing items for submission to journals, conferences, and funding agencies. This program is often used by publishers to check originality of submitted articles prior to publication. Papers reviewed using this service are NOT added to or indexed in any other database and remain the proprietary property of the individual author. Please note that the University does not have a campus subscription to iThenticate.