The Truth About Plagiarism Checkers

Here you may find a little investigation about plagiarism detection systems prepared by the PaperDueNow researchers. We decided to answer some important questions about plagiarism detectors:

• Is plagiarism software safe? Does it protect your data? What happens with the submitted content?
• Are these services actually free, do they have any hidden fees?
• Are plagiarism checkers reliable and helpful?

How We Selected Services

We searched the web using such keywords as “plagiarism software,” “online plagiarism detection,” “plagiarism scanner,” “plagiarism analysis,” “plagiarism test,” “online plagiarism checker,” etc. After this, we visited websites that we found and made a list of tools. We identified free tools and tools that didn’t work (the latter were removed from the list). Finally, we got a list of 32 websites.

How We Tested Services

On every website, we checked such sections as Terms of Service, Frequently Asked Questions, Privacy Policy, Disclaimers, and so on. Our goal was to find any information on licensing, data protection, liability limitations, the location of the service, and the use of the submitted content. We also compared the location presented on each service’s website and compared it to the WHOIS database. Sometimes we needed to visit social media to find more information.

Results

We divided results of our research into several columns, considering location, names, and the use of content. You can see the table of results below:

According to our results, 25% of plagiarism checkers store the scanned content, and 28% don’t. We couldn’t find any information on whether the remaining 44% save the submitted content.

13% of online plagiarism websites admit they use the checked content for their own purposes, 31% don’t use it, and there’s no information about the remaining 56%.

34% of services are located in countries with healthy copyright regulatory systems, 25% are located in countries where copyright violations are common, and there’s no information about the remaining 41%.

Conclusion

Students, copywriters, website owners, web marketers, teachers, and many other people use plagiarism software every day. According to the results of our research, many such tools are not safe in terms of data protection. There are many plagiarism checkers that store and use the submitted content. Most free plagiarism checkers don’t provide accurate information about their location, as well as about the use of content. Some owners of plagiarism tools can publish your content as their own and use it for their own purposes.

Results of our research explain why online plagiarism services are interested in a constant stream of fresh content. Most tools use a limited number of sources to detect plagiarism. They add thousands of new web pages every day in order to make their services more effective. Given that such companies store your content, there is a big chance of copyright violations. In addition, these companies may change their Privacy Policies and Terms of Use any time they want.

These companies may use your content for various purposes. For example, your content may be used in so-called content-spinning programs, which paraphrase articles to produce more original content on the same topics. Therefore, writers themselves make their content less original by giving new content to spinning services.

We can conclude that plagiarism checkers are not a good choice for students and freelance writers. There’s no need to risk. You never know what these online services are going to do with your content. Your texts can be rewritten or sold to third parties. If you want to check the originality of your paper, you can just use search engines, checking fragments of your essay or article.

Do Plagiarism Checkers Work Honestly?

Almost all content on the internet is not completely original, however, all professors and teachers require their students to provide unique content only. Plagiarism is a serious issue for MBA, high-school, and university students. It existed long before the internet was invented, but now, there are much more opportunities for copyright violations than ever.

It’s not easy for professors to check thousands of papers for plagiarism, so there’s no surprise most of them rely on online plagiarism checkers. These simple tools facilitate the whole process and make plagiarism checking really fast. Many of them are accurate enough so the majority of users don’t doubt the efficiency of such software.

Plagiarism checkers compare the submitted text to similar pages on the internet and previously uploaded texts. Given that teachers always ask their students to check all papers using plagiarism software, their databases are constantly updated. Results are expressed as a percentage of original content.

Of course, such a method has its drawbacks. For example, sometimes students just forget to cite used sources properly, and then correct quotations get marked as plagiarised elements. Some well-known expressions written by Shakespeare or Dickens are often a reason why students’ papers demonstrate low originality. Writing academic papers, every student should understand the importance of using proper citations to avoid plagiarism.

Another reason for plagiarism is common phrases and idioms. On one hand, cliched phrases sometimes make your text more persuasive. On the other hand, it’s better to avoid cliches and write in your own words. Most plagiarism detection services cannot distinguish commonly used phrases from plagiarism, so you need to correctly cite all the used materials, even if you’re using paraphrasing instead of direct quotes.

The use of plagiarism detectors also has its ethical side. Teachers and professors shouldn’t rely solely on plagiarism checkers. They need to make sure their students understand the concept of plagiarism. Some students just don’t know the difference between proper quoting and quoting without citations. Moreover, international students may have a completely different understanding of copyright and originality, as copyright laws differ in any particular country. Some students even consider plagiarism a form of respect, quoting their professors without citation, and so unintentionally committing intellectual theft. It’s necessary to provide clear definitions of academic honesty and dishonesty so that students won’t want to plagiarize. Teachers need to devote more time to reading students’ works and learning their writing styles. It’s easy to detect plagiarism when a teacher knows the capabilities of each student.

Another important thing to understand is that popular topics will lead to a higher percentage of plagiarism. Whether or not students cite sources properly, commonly assigned topics will lead to less original papers. The more unique the topic, the more problems students will have with copying somebody else’s papers. In this case, properly cited content will also less likely to be flagged by plagiarism checkers.

Another problem is relationships between teachers and their students. Many professors speak about plagiarism so often that their students don’t feel trusted. Teachers must be able to find positive motivation for students to follow the honor code.

Finally, teachers must understand that their main goal is to teach, not to control. Plagiarism checkers can detect the problem but they don’t solve it. If students are willing to use somebody else’s content, it means that they don’t have enough knowledge or don’t feel confident. This problem can be solved only by teachers.