Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined under the federal regulations and the university’s policy and procedures concerning research misconduct as “the appropriation of the ideas, processes, results, or words of another person, without giving appropriate credit.” Plagiarism is a growing concern in both the academic and scientific research realms and needs to be avoided at all costs. There are now tools available to allow you to screen your documents for copied text to ensure that all content is properly cited and to ensure originality of the content. OSU licenses one such software, iThenticate, from the company iParadigms, for use by OSU faculty, staff, students.

About iThenticate

iThenticate is an anti-plagiarism software for use in screening scholarly research documents for possible copied or plagiarized text. When you use iThenticate to screen a document, the software runs your uploaded document against a database of more than 40 million published articles, web pages and other scholarly content. iThenticate cannot identify plagiarism specifically, instead it identifies text that matches other materials in the database. The user must determine if the matching text represents plagiarized text.

iThenticate is different from TurnitIn, another anti-plagiarism software package OSU licenses from iParadigms. TurnitIn is used for screening academic (course) work products and screens uploaded documents against different databases than iThenticate.

How can I access iThenticate?

Any OSU faculty, staff, student, or associate can use iThenticate. In order to use iThenticate, you need to first create an account. The account and any reports generated are maintained on the company’s servers.

The steps for creating your account are given below:

• Click on the link https://go.osu.edu/ithenticate and that will take you to an OSU log on page
• Log in with your OSU name.# and password
• You will next be asked to agree to T&C page, select the “I agree” button and click the “submit” button

This will create an account for you and open a window to your personal dashboard.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

In order to be recognized as being under OSU’s license for iThenticate you need to use the link https://go.osu.edu/ithenticate to access the system.

Do not change your user ID or your password for your iThenticate account. The system is configured to sync with your OSU name.#/password and will automatically update anytime you update your OSU name.# password.

Where can I find training materials and tutorials?

iParadigms, the maker of iThenticate, has created a library of training materials and tutorials. Please go to:http://www.ithenticate.com/training to access information on using the software and understanding your results.

Also see the Using iThenticate FAQ page at: http://www.ithenticate.com/products/faqs#ithenticate for more information on system requirements, document size limits, understanding reports, etc.

FAQs

Is my document added to the iThenticate database when I upload it to check for copied text?
No, documents uploaded to iThenticate are NOT saved to their database. The report that is generated will remain on their server until you, as the owner, delete the report.

Can other people access my manuscript or the iThenticate reports in my account?
No, the only people who can access your account are you and the Director of the university’s Office of Research Compliance (ORC) who serves as the university’s account administrator. The Director of ORC will not access an iThenticate account without the express approval of the account owner or under direct authorization by the Office of Legal Affairs.

I am an undergraduate student and want to check my coursework, should I use iThenticate?
No, you would use TurnItIn to check any materials related to your academic coursework. If you are unsure, please check with your course instructor. If they have not done so, your course instructor will need to set up for you to use Originality Check with your assignments.

For additional information, please contact Dr. Jennifer Yucel, Director, Office of Research Compliance & Research Integrity Officer at (614) 247-8831 or yucel.4@osu.edu