Texas A&M University provides access to the Turnitin.com services to promote the academic integrity and fight against plagiarism.

What is Turnitin.com?

Turnitin is a plagiarism detection service as well as an online resource for educators and students concerned with developing quality writing and research skills. It scans submitted works for similarity to material that may have been copied from the web, academic journals, and essays and assignments previously submitted to the Turnitin database.

Turnitin uses a matching algorithm to detect an identical string of words as short as eight words. However, detection of these strings does not mean the work is plagiarized as these strings might be properly referenced or cited. The final decision as to whether plagiarism occurred or not is made by the professor.

What is Plagiarism?

Texas A&M University Student Rule 20.1.3 defines plagiarism as"Failing to credit sources used in a work product in an attempt to pass off the work as one’s own; Attempting to receive credit for work performed by another, including papers obtained in whole or in part from individuals or other sources."

Plagiarism is one of the worst academic sins, for the plagiarist destroys the trust among colleagues without which research cannot be safely communicated.

The new university plagiarism web site is available at http://library.tamu.edu/aggiehonor.

Instructional Technology Services is the contact and administrator for the Turnitin services.