This guide explains the function of the “Index All Submissions” setting in Turnitin and provides instructional recommendations for when to enable or disable it. The goal is to help instructors make informed choices that align with the type and purpose of each assignment.
Article Contents
Overview of Turnitin and Indexing
When Indexing Can Cause Problems
1. Rote or Formulaic Assignments
2. Draft-Based or Iterative Assignments
How to Change Indexing Settings
Overview of Turnitin and Indexing
Turnitin is a tool that checks student submissions for similarity by comparing them to a large database of internet sources, academic publications, and other student papers. One setting within Turnitin assignments is “Index All Submissions.”
When this setting is enabled, submitted work is stored in Turnitin’s institutional database and used as a comparison source for future submissions. When disabled, submissions are still reviewed for similarity against Turnitin’s broader content repositories, but they are not saved for future comparison.
When Indexing Can Cause Problems
Indexing student work is not always beneficial. In some instructional scenarios, enabling indexing can lead to inflated similarity scores and unnecessary concerns about academic integrity.
Instructors are advised not to enable indexing in the following cases:
1. Rote or Formulaic Assignments
These assignments ask students to repeat known content or follow a fixed structure. Examples include:
- Providing definitions
- Answering comprehension questions from a textbook
- Submitting fill-in-the-blank responses or structured reflections
Because students often use similar wording and formatting, indexing these responses causes future submissions to trigger high similarity scores, even when the work is original.
2. Draft-Based or Iterative Assignments
When students submit multiple versions of the same assignment (e.g., draft 1, draft 2, and final submission), enabling indexing causes the system to compare each version against the previous one. This is expected behavior, but a known issue in Turnitin may result in an inflated similarity score, even when the student has improved or rewritten their work. This can misrepresent a student’s academic integrity and cause confusion.
When Indexing Is Recommended
Instructors are encouraged to enable indexing for assignments that require students to produce original, expressive, or synthesis-based work that will not be resubmitted in later stages.
Examples include:
- Final essays, position papers, and original research
- Creative or reflective writing tasks where students apply personal analysis or insight
- Capstone projects or portfolios representing a student’s culminating work
In these cases, indexing supports academic integrity by protecting student work from unauthorized reuse in other courses or terms.
Quick Reference: When to Enable Indexing
| Assignment Type | Enable Indexing? | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Final essays or research papers | Yes | Original work should be protected from future reuse |
| Capstone projects or portfolios | Yes | Culminating assignments benefit from integrity protection |
| Creative or reflective writing | Yes | Encourages originality and supports authorship tracking |
| Drafts or iterative submissions | No | Repeated content causes inflated similarity scores |
| Definitions or textbook questions | No | Formulaic responses are likely to match across students and sections |
| Low-stakes, structured activities | No | Similar language used across responses can distort Turnitin results |
How to Change Indexing Settings
- To access Turnitin assignment settings, click Edit on any assignment, and then scroll down to the "Plagiarism Review" section, where you can see all settings.
- Check or uncheck the box depending on the instructional application of the assignment.
- Click Save at the bottom of the page after you make changes.
- Read more about these settings in the article Turnitin Scan Settings and Optimization (Instructors)