Turnitin Policy
York St John University has bought the licence to use TurnitinUK
with the following purposes,
- To provide students with support for identifying and avoiding
possible plagiarism
- To provide an additional tool to support tutors in teaching
appropriate referencing
- To provide tutors with a tool to assist in detecting
plagiarised material
The University will provide a freely and privately accessible
method for students to test their own written material through
Turntitin. This will be accessed through a course within Moodle.
Any material to this self-checking mechanism will not be
accessed by tutors unless with the individual student’s
permission.
The University will provide support for students who are
concerned about the referencing as a result of using Turnitin. The
website support for Turnitin will direct students to Writing
Development and Support and the IT Support Coordinator.
Tutors using Turnitin in the context of a module section on
Moodle will advise students that this process is being undertaken.
Turntin will normally be used formatively in the context of a
module and there should, therefore, normally be opportunities for
final submission of a revised piece of work.
Tutors will not routinely and secretly submit all of a group’s
work for checking and/or run all final submissions through Turnitin
for checking.
Students will be told (normally at entry to the university
through the regulations) that individual pieces of work suspected
of plagiarism may be submitted to Turnitin as part of the
investigation process.
Tutors may use Turnitin to check a student’s work for potential
plagiarism where this is suspected. If this is done, he or she will
present the originality report to the students for comment
alongside the original work when they invoke the university’s
disciplinary procedures.
Students will be advised to use only their student identifier in
submitting work though Turnitin and to avoid any details which will
compromise their privacy. They will be advised that the work may be
retained under the university’s name in the Turnitin database and
may be used for disciplinary investigations concerning other
students after they have left the University.
If a tutor is asked by another user (internal or external)
of Turnitin to supply a copy of a past or present student’s
work, he or she should consult the Registrar. If the user is
internal, the Registrar will normally grant permission for the
sharing of such data.
The Registrar will consider giving permission to an external
user if the work is necessary to establish academic misconduct
. If permission is given, the recipient will be asked to confirm in
writing the purpose for which the paper is required, commit him or
herself to preserving the confidentiality of the material and the
destruction of the material on completion of an investigation.