An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Turnitin.Com as a Tool for Reducing Plagiarism in Graduate Student Term Papers

Plagiarism is a continual problem in academia. Plagiarism-detection tools like Turnitin have been used for nearly ten years to help university faculty and administration combat this form of cheating (turnitin.com). This paper evaluates the difference in plagiarism levels in graduate-student term papers when students are not provided access to Turnitin to evaluate their own work versus the level of plagiarism in student term papers when students have access to Turnitin to check their work as they are generating their papers. Descriptive statistics and a T-test comparison of the two groups are provided along with a brief literature review of plagiarism and academic integrity violations. (Contains 3 tables.)