Introduction
Turnitin is an academic integrity tool used by UC San Diego Extended Studies to ensure your work is original and reflects your own understanding. This guide will explain the Similarity Report and Similarity Score and what you need to know if you have a high Similarity Score.
Article Contents
What is the Turnitin Similarity Score?
What to do when you have a high Turnitin Similarity Score
What is the Turnitin Similarity Score?
When you submit your work to be scanned by Turnitin, you will receive (depending on your instructor's assignment settings) a Similarity Report with a Similarity Score.
From Similarity Report Ranges, Turnitin: The Similarity Score indicates how similar any part of your submission is to other works in the Turnitin database. The color of the report icon indicates the similarity score of the paper, based on the amount of matching or similar text that was uncovered. The percentage range is 0% to 100%.
The possible similarity ranges are as follows:
- Blue: No matching text
- Green: One word to 24% matching text
- Yellow: 25-49% matching text
- Orange: 50-74% matching text
- Red: 75-100% matching text
Read more: Similarity Score Ranges - Students - Turnitin
What to do when you have a high Turnitin Similarity Score
A high Turnitin score doesn't always mean plagiarism, and your instructor knows that. Many times, totally benign content can be flagged, needing only the expert review of your instructor to be dismissed. Your instructor will reach out to you to clarify any questions they may have about the quality and content of your work.
Here's what to do if you receive a high score:
- Review the flagged areas: Turnitin highlights text that has a high similarity to existing text in its vast database. If your work is highlighted, take the following steps:
- Ensure you have not accidentally committed plagiarism by copying another person's work without using quotation marks or citing the source.
- Be sure that anytime you have paraphrased content, you have rephrased it in your own words and in a form that differs from the original structure. And always be sure to cite your sources accurately.
- Contact your instructor: If you're unsure about a flagged area in your report, either because you are sure you've paraphrased properly or because the text that is flagged is not your own words but a part of the assignment (e.g., test question or essay prompt), communicate with your instructor for next steps.
- Note: Remember, your instructor wants all of your academic tasks to be meaningful and productive. Do not revise or resubmit work without first consulting with your instructor. Additional submissions may create problems. You may not need to do extra work on your submission so long as your work is original and follows academic best practices for paraphrasing and source citation.
Related Articles
Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism (Students)
Paraphrasing and Scholarly Citation in Academic Writing (Students)