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 [PDF] [Intranet] in the relevant UM VLE areas
• The students submit their work [PDF] [Intranet] (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 are 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
• In the case of taught study-unit assessments, tutors may provide feedback via Turnitin Feedback Studio [PDF] [Intranet]
• Students can view the feedback [PDF] [Intranet] provided once the Feedback Release Date has elapsed.

Turnitin makes no decisions as to whether or not the work has been plagiarised; it simply highlights sections of text 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.