The University of Malta is committed to the use of electronic text-matching software - Turnitin - as one aspect of a broader strategy to deter and detect plagiarism. Turnitin is used by many universities around the world.

How does Turnitin work?

• The tutor sets up Turnitin Assignment activities in the relevant UM VLE areas;
• The students submit their work (assignment, FYP, long essay, dissertation, etc.) in the Turnitin Assignment activities. Students are allowed to submit a draft version of their work before submitting the final version for assessment purposes;
• Turnitin compares the students' work against electronic sources including the Internet, books, journals and other students' work;
• Turnitin generates a similarity report indicating which parts of the students' work is unoriginal, together with a list of sources;
• The tutor analyses the similarity report carefully as part of the decision-making process to determine if students' work may have been plagiarised.

Turnitin itself makes no decisions as to whether or not the work has been plagiarised; it simply highlights sections of text that have been found in other sources in a similarity report. Turnitin is not accessible to students unless the tutor creates the Turnitin Assignment activities in the UM VLE.