Turnitin and iThenticate

Turnitin can be used as both a text-matching tool and an educational tool. Turnitin generates ‘similarity reports’ on student submissions which can provide instructors with information about plagiarized sources. The reports can also be used as part of a formative or low-stakes assessment to help students understand the proper use of quotation marks, how to cite sources properly, and how to paraphrase.

It is important that instructors, TA's, and students know how to use Turnitin and interpret its reports.

Artificial Intelligence Writing Detection

Using Turnitin in your course

As of Spring 2018, all course outlines must include the following boilerplate statement (whether you intend to use the software or not):

Turnitin.com: Text matching software may be used to screen assignments in this course. Turnitin® is used to verify that all materials and sources in assignments are documented. Students’ submissions are stored on a U.S. server, therefore students must be given an alternative (e.g., scaffolded assignment or annotated bibliography), if they are concerned about their privacy and/or security. Students will be given due notice, in the first week of the term and/or at the time assignment details are provided, about arrangements and alternatives for the use of Turnitin in this course.

You must provide students with an alternative to Turnitin. Because students’ submissions are stored on a U.S. server you must give students an alternative (e.g., scaffolded assignment or annotated bibliography) in order to protect their privacy and security.

Using Turnitin as a text-matching tool

Turnitin can be used by instructors to identify how much of an assignment is not original. Turnitin will generate a similiarity report, which indicates the percentage of text that was matched, and which highlights the matched text and shows the corresponding source it was matched to.

Note: that there is no percentage that can fully indicate whether plagiarism has occurred. If Turnitin is being used as a text matching tool to detect plagiarism, it is important to check each paper to judge whether the overall similarity report that has been calculated is due to chance matches, matches to common terms or phrases used for an assignment (e.g., the title of a key document, process, legislation, etc.), matches to quotations or a reference list, or intentional copying from a source that has not been cited.

To use Turnitin as a text-matching tool when creating a new dropbox, under "Evaluation & Feedback" and select the "Manage Turnitin". To add Turnitin to an existing dropbox, under "Evaluation & Feedback" and select the"Manage Turnitin" and configure your settings (for example, to exclude bibliographic material, quoted materials, or to allow late submissions). Once you’ve configured your settings, click "Save" and you can close this window.

Using Turnitin as an educational tool

Turnitin can be used so that students have an opportunity to review issues in their draft, and make changes to their final submission. The following practices are recommended for using Turnitin as an educational tool:

  • For each assignment, limit students to one draft submission and one final submission.
  • Advise students to submit their draft early so that they have time to interpret the similarity report and make the necessary changes to their draft before the assignment is due.
  • The Turnitin dropbox is to be used only for their submission of their draft of that assignment (i.e., no other assignment).
  • The draft assignment will not be graded.
  • The similarity report for the draft assignment will not be reviewed by the instructor or TA: it is for the student’s use only.
  • Only content related to the course may be submitted to the Turnitin dropbox. Materials for use in other courses are not to be submitted. Unauthorized submissions will be treated as a breach of academic integrity

To use Turnitin as a text matching tool as well as an educational tool, allow students to submit a draft to Turnitin and make changes before submitting their final version to the dropbox. Create two dropboxes for the assignment: a ‘draft’ dropbox, and a ‘final submission’ dropbox. Enable Turnitin for both dropboxes using the ‘Using Turnitin as a Text Matching Tool’ steps (above). In the ‘draft’ dropbox folder, under "Evaluation & Feedback", select the "Manage Turnitin", and select ‘Allow students to view Similarity Reports’. Students will then be able to view the similarity reports for their draft submission and make changes before submitting their final version. Note that Turnitin will not compare their final submission to their draft submission.  

Interpreting Turnitin Reports

When the similarity report is ready, you will first see the similarity index which indicates how much of the submission was not original. The similarity index is a percentage that represents the number of words that the program finds in common with database content and divides that number by the total number of words in the file. If, for example, the overall similarity index for a submission is 10%, then 10% of the total words in the document can be matched to sequences of words in the database. These words may be in one passage or may be in several, separate passages.

A lower percentage rating indicates that most of the content is original; a higher percentage rating indicates that much, or all, of the content matches content found in other sources. The percentage ranges are associated with colours, as follows:

  • Light Blue: 0%
  • Green: 1% to 24%
  • Yellow: 25% to 49%
  • Orange: 50% to 74%
  • Red: 75% to 100%

Turnitin’s similarity report highlights and colour-codes the phrases and series of words that match text that exists in the Turnitin database or on the web. These highlighted areas can help you identify where students have used direct quotes and where students might have intentionally or unintentionally used poor paraphrasing when summarizing information from another source.

Note: that there is no “safe” colour or percentage: no percentage or colour in the similarity report can fully evaluate whether text has been plagiarized. For example, Turnitin will identify direct quotations as matched text and this will be reflected in the similarity index score. However, as long as those quotations are properly cited, plagiarism has not occurred. Rather than focusing solely on the percentage, go through the paper and look at the highlighted sections. Along with the identification of matched text, Turnitin provides a link to the original source of that matched text as well as the option to view the original source in full. This enables instructors to evaluate the quality of students’ sources.

If Turnitin is being used as a text matching tool to detect plagiarism, it is important to check each paper to judge whether the overall similarity index that has been calculated is due to chance matches, matches to common terms or phrases used for an assignment (e.g., the title of a key document, process, legislation, etc.) or intentional copying from a source that has not been cited.

Instructors can configure Turnitin to exclude bibliographic or quoted materials under "Evaluation Feedback" and select "Manage Turnitin" when they are editing a dropbox folder, or creating a new folder. Similarity reports need to be interpreted on a case-by-case basis and any determinations of plagiarism require human judgement. Depending on the number of students in a course and the length of their papers, this process can be time consuming. However, the evaluation time will likely be reduced as the reader becomes more familiar with, and adept at, using the similarity report.

Turnitin Guides for Instructors and Students

iThenticate®  

iThenticate® is text matching software that is designed to be used by researchers to ensure the originality of their written work. University of Waterloo authors can check documents they have authored such as articles and book chapters to be submitted for publication, grant proposals, theses and dissertations, and other writing created by individuals in connection with their role at the University. iThenticate is particularly beneficial for:  

  • Authors seeking to ensure they have sufficiently cited their sources  

  • Researchers who are preparing to submit a manuscript for publication  

  • Graduate students preparing to submit a thesis or dissertation 

iThenticate® cannot be used to check work that you have not authored or co-authored.* This means iThenticate® cannot be used to check manuscripts for which you are serving as reviewer (e.g. for publication or conferences), or work created by your students, including graduate student theses or dissertations. NOTE: iThenticate is not to be used to check papers or essays to be submitted as a course assignment. It is not to be used by instructors to check student course assignments.   

*iThenticate can be used to check works you have co-authored, but co-authors should be informed that their work is being submitted to the software.

Update to iThenticate 2.0 

iThenticate has been updated to iThenticate 2.0. Starting on September 1, 2026, users must create a NEW account and login using Waterloo credentials (what you use to login to Waterloo systems like LEARN, email, HR-Workday, etc.). 

New Terms of Use must be accepted before your account on iThenticate 2.0 can be created. It can take up to 30 minutes for account creation. Account creation should be automatic for all groups below except “Other”:   

  • Faculty member  

  • Graduate student 

  • Staff / Employee  

  • Research associate 

  • Postdoctoral scholars  

  • Visiting Scholar  

  • Other (e.g. undergraduate students) — must request iThenticate 2.0 account via Jira Form.

New Terms of Use 

  • You must be the author or co-author of any work you submit to iThenticate. It is recommended that you inform co-authors that their work is being submitted to iThenticate. 

  • You may not submit work authored by others. This includes, but is not limited to, work created by your students (e.g., theses, dissertations, coursework) and manuscripts authored by others which are under review for journals or conferences. For example, supervisors may not submit their students' work, and researchers may not submit manuscripts they are reviewing for publication. In addition, students may not submit work that will be submitted as a course assignment. 

  • UWaterloo users who violate the Terms of Use of iThenticate will have their account suspended for one month. After the one-month suspension, suspended users can request reinstatement of their account by submitting a request to LEARN Help confirming that they have read, understood, and will comply with the terms of use. Reinstatement will only be provided once. After a second violation of the Terms of Use, the user account will be disabled on a permanent basis. 

What you need to do: 

  • Login to iThenticate 2.0 using your UWaterloo credentials: 

    • username@uwaterloo.ca (username is max 8 characters)  

    • WatIAM Password 

  • Login to iThenticate 2.0

Student or visiting scholar users

Visiting scholars may request an iThenticate® account if they are submitting a publication for review that they prepared while they were visiting at the University of Waterloo 

Undergraduate students can request an iThenticate® account to check an undergraduate thesis, essay or manuscript that they intend to submit for publication. The software cannot be used to check papers or essays to be submitted to instructors as part of a course assessment. 

Graduate students are encouraged to use iThenticate® to advance their understanding of good academic integrity practices. Graduate students are particularly encouraged to use iThenticate® to review their research milestones, including theses and research proposals and discuss the results with their supervisors before formally submitting these works. PhD students are normally required to employ iThenticate to review their comprehensive exams. Further information can be found in the Graduate Studies Academic Calendar section on Comprehensive Exams. 

Databases

iThenticate® checks submitted work against several databases, including: 

CrossCheck 
An initiative of the publisher association CrossRef, CrossCheck is a database populated with content (journal articles, conference proceedings and books) provided by publishers (365+ leading scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishers).  As of 2025, Crossref contained more than 175 million DOI records, and CrossRef publishers participate in CrossCheck, representing most large scholarly publishers.  An increasing percentage of scholarly journals using iThenticate to check manuscripts submitted for publication. 

Internet archive 
The vendor’s proprietary Internet crawler archives data that goes back to 1996. 

Aggregators, databases, content providers 
Over 90 million online and offline subscription content and research titles from leading aggregators, databases and content providers, including: ABC-CLIO, Cengage Learning, EBSCOhost, Emerald Journals, Gale InfoTrac, One File, Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Wiley, PubMed/Medline, SAGE Reference. 

PQDT 
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) is a research database that includes theses and dissertations from more than 1,000 North American and European graduate schools.

iThenticate features

Additional features of this software include the following: 

Fees 

There are no fees for users to check documents in iThenticate®.  The University has purchased a site license for use by members of the uWaterloo community.  

Retention of your work 

iThenticate® does not retain your submission for its own comparison database or add your manuscript to any other databases. However, your submissions are archived privately until you delete them. 

Submitting multiple versions 

Various versions of the same document may be submitted to the software over time. A revision of a previously uploaded manuscript can be uploaded and checked again, but users should limit resubmissions to no more than 5 versions of the same document. You may choose to submit a substantially revised manuscript as a new submission. 

File types accepted  

Several file types are recognized by iThenticate®. This includes MS Word, Word XML, Plain Text (TXT), Adobe PostScript, PDF, HTML, and RTF. 

Access to your account and reports 

Your iThenticate® account and reports are accessible only to you.  You may share your reports via email, printout, or download, or by giving another iThenticate user access to your folder. 

Differences between iThenticate® and Turnitin® 

iThenticate® and Turnitin® are both provided by the same vendor, but they are designed for different categories of users, and at Waterloo they are both accessed in different ways. Turnitin is course-based in our learning management system (LMS) LEARN, and requires instructors to set up courses and assignments. The instructors control the parameters of dropbox and submissions for each course.  iThenticate® is accessed through a front-end website by individual account holders and the individual controls what they upload and run through the system — they also have the ability to delete their files from the system.

Software support

Documentation and training materials are available on the iThenticate website:  

For support and more information, please review: 

Note: A similarity score is not a measure of plagiarism and there is no universal “safe” percentage. Review all matches carefully, paying particular attention to paraphrasing, quotation, and citation practices. 

Contact LEARN Help for technical support.