Using Technology to Detect Plagiarism

The ECTL does not, in general, recommend the use of software to detect plagiarism.  Rather, we suggest that students be given developmental assignments (turning in progress reports, prospectuses, drafts, bibliographies) both to discourage plagiarism and to encourage good research and revision habits.

For additional information, see Instructional Computing Services FAQs.

Among the many services that compare text submissions to Internet documents are Turnitin and EVE2.  Finding Turnitin inadequate, UW has selected EVE2.  Like any mechanical text search, EVE2 should be used as a tool and should play a minor part in assessment.

How to Use EVE2

• Obtain a UW account name and registration password from the ECTL or the Office of Academic Affairs.

• Download EVE2 from http://www.canexus.com/eve/downloads.html, and run the self-executing install file.

In your local folders, set up the papers you wish to search as files in plain text, MS Word, or Wordperfect.  Select the files in EVE2's submission window.  The program runs in a few minutes for simple searches.  Results are returned in the EVE2 window and are also logged in your local submission folder as RTF files. 

Example of Test Results with EVE2

EVE2 does not provide direct links between passages from the submitted text and source documents found.  In other words, to discover plagiarism, instructors must review the source documents retrieved, perhaps with a string search, to spot exact duplication.  The following tests used these EVE2 settings:  Quick search, 50% cutoff.

1. A Robert Frost essay appearing as an HTML (text) file at www.robertfrost.org/essay.html
   >> Submitted as "The Most of Rhodora" by Lilliwhite Hands
   >>>> Result: Original source (HTML essay) found. 30% match

2. A cut-and-paste combination of two reviews of the book "Xanthippic Dialogues" by Roger Scruton, one at www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/2564/scruton.htm and one at www.staugustine.net/review.html
   >> Submitted as "Xanthippe's Presence" by Constant Cadger
   >>>> Result: One original source, the Geocities page, was found; the St. Augustine Press page no longer on the web. 43% match

3. A short report, four paragraphs with headings, by someone named Justin on a Geocities page at http://www.geocities.com/lizards_312/Justins-Universe-dense-objects.html
   >> Submitted as "Afterlives of Stars" by Justice Knott (verbatim, in full)
   >>>> Result: Original source (Geocities page) found. 75% match.

4. An essay from David Corker at the University of East Anglia (American Studies) on methaphor, available at http://www.uea.ac.uk/eas/People/corker/In%20Defence%20of%20Metaphor.htm
   >> Submitted as "Metaphor Rules" by Diablo Corker (verbatim, in full)
   >>>> Result: Original source found (UEA faculty page). 100% match.

5. The first seven pages of an essay on tourism in national parks from a Dutch university source, in PDF form, by Jan van der Straaten, found by searching for "environment rain forest species" in Google, at http://greywww.kub.nl:2080/greyfiles/worc/1996/doc/17.pdf
   >> Submitted as "What's All This Then About National Parks" by Margy Bargy
   >>>> Result: Original PS source found ("greywww.kub.nl"), but with a low match level, either because only the first few pages were submitted or because the Postscript file would contain many extraneous printer language commands.  12% match.

6. A report on recombinant DNA in PostScript form (text with embedded commands) at www.ai.mit.edu/research/abstracts/abstracts2000/ps/z-abelson.ps
   >> Submitted as "Recombining" by Joe Schmo
   >>>> Result: Found 11 sources, mostly MIT sites, including the original, but not the original abstract. 67% match.

7. A brief extract from a longer observation on Chaucer's Clerk's Tale, from http://www.richardhay.com/chaucer.html
   >> Submitted with slight variations in wording, and a couple of additional sentences inserted.
   >>>> Result: Not found, possibly because the 50% match criterion was not met due to the brevity of the extract relative to the original document.

Comments

EVE2 succeeded in most cases, finding obvious internet documents along with original Postscript sources, amateur pages on commercial servers, and overseas university pages.  The ECTL advises, however, that instructors never use EVE2 results alone to judge essays.  As the last test shows, mechanical matching driven by parameters can yield false negatives.  False positives can be generated by earlier versions of the test document or by lengthy quotations.

Click here to learn more about plagiarism searches from Instructional Computing Services

For additional information, see Instructional Computing Services FAQs.

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