A Turnitin similarity report is a tool used to check the similarity between a submitted document and other sources. It is widely used by educators and institutions to ensure academic integrity and prevent plagiarism.

When a document is submitted to Turnitin, it is compared against a vast database of sources, including academic journals, websites, and other student papers. The tool then generates a similarity report that highlights any matching text and provides a similarity score.

The similarity score indicates the percentage of the submitted document that matches other sources. This score is often used as a guide to determine whether the paper contains excessive plagiarism or not. However, it’s essential to note that the score is not always an accurate representation of whether a document is plagiarized or not, and a human reviewer should always review the report to make a final decision.

Viewing Similarity Reports

When a Similarity Report is available for viewing, a similarity score percentage will be made available. Similarity Reports that have not yet finished generating are represented by a grayed out icon in the Similarity column. Reports that are not available may not have generated yet, or assignment settings may be delaying the generation of the report.

Overwritten or resubmitted papers may not generate a new Similarity Report for a full 24 hours. This delay is automatic and allows resubmissions to correctly generate without matching to the previous draft.

Interpreting the Similarity Report

The color of the report icon indicates the similarity score of the paper, based on the amount of matching or similar text that was uncovered. The percentage range is 0% to 100%. The possible similarity ranges are:

• Blue: No matching text
• Green: One word to 24% matching text
• Yellow: 25-49% matching text
• Orange: 50-74% matching text
• Red: 75-100% matching text

Would you like to understand better how to interpret the Turnitin Similarity Report? In the video below, Turnitin VidBits cover the elements that differentiate text similarity from plagiarism, how to address intentional and unintentional plagiarism.

References

Turnitin. (2021, March 8). Similarity report: Turnitin originality. YouTube. https://youtu.be/-udZDlAiDpg

Turnitin. (2021, January 26). Understanding text similarity for instructors. YouTube. https://youtu.be/RAPdj20Nw1Y