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The author details a number of critiques of Turnitin's recently released study purporting to show that Turnitin use results in a major decrease in plagiarism at institutions where it is used. The core of the critique is that Turnitin tends to start in classrooms where plagiarism has been a problem so the baseline is high and that it is often used in conjunction with a campus discussion about academic honesty and how to teach in ways that inhibit the drive to plagiarize.

"The study presented here explores the responses and perceptions of a group of first year students at an Irish university after their first contact with anti-plagiarism software in the context of peer-reviewed assignments. The results indicate that the use of anti-plagiarism software led to a decrease in Internet plagiarism and to lower grades being awarded in peer reviews. Additionally, students were found to have a positive attitude towards the anti-plagiarism software in the context of peer reviewed assignments." - from the abstract.

An experiment analyzing over 1,200 undergraduate papers at a selective liberal arts institution found that requiring students to complete a tutorial on academic honesty substantially reduced the likelihood of plagiarism.

This tutorial from Indiana University on recognizing (and avoiding) plagiarism is wordy, but the "Examples" and "Practice" sections in particular would be useful to students.

In particular, see the sidebar on "Preventing plagiarism in research papers."

Turnitin released a report covering over 1,000 institutions for a five year period that shows a substantial decrease in what it calls "unoriginal writing" at schools using Turnitin. While some of that reduction is certainly a result of using Turnitin, there are a number of flaws to their claims which we'll see in a follow-up post to this one.

This tutorial from the Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin consortium walks through academic honesty issues in a way which might be more engaging (and more detailed) than a short policy statement could be. Part of a larger "plagiarism resource site."

Very interesting podcast episode. Turnitin inspires some strong reactions. Some professors are intentional and creative in the way they integrate it with their writing pedagogy. Others raise a number of important ethical questions about they way the tool makes assumptions about your classroom environment.