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Turnitin Policy for Postgrad Dissertations at Bristol Uni, Lecture notes of Medicine

The University of Bristol's policy for the use of Turnitin by its postgraduate research students and the staff supporting them. It covers the requirements for electronic submission of dissertations, guidelines for practice use of Turnitin, and report interpretation. Students are encouraged to submit examples of their work to Turnitin prior to final submission to learn good academic practice and avoid plagiarism.

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Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry
Electronic submission of Postgraduate Research Dissertations
through Turnitin
The University of Bristol requires that all postgraduate research dissertations submitted for
examination from January 2015 are checked for plagiarism. The University’s Library provides
information and advice to students on plagiarism and all students are strongly advised to
review this material prior to submission
(http://www.bristol.ac.uk/library/support/findinginfo/plagiarism/). This requirement means
that in addition to the two temporary bound copies submitted to the examinations office
students will also be required to submit an identical electronic version. This electronic version
will be submitted to a text comparison software package called Turnitin. The TEL Team
provides information on Turnitin and at the end of this document are links to guidance
intended for both staff and students. The guidance contains links to short videos, which you
are strongly encouraged to review prior to looking at any Turnitin similarity reports.
The report that Turnitin generates includes a number referred to as a ‘similarity index’. It is
important to be aware of the fact that there is no absolute figure for the ‘similarity index’ that
is acceptable nor is there a figure that will trigger further investigations. Each report linked to
a final dissertation submission will be reviewed by an academic and a judgement made on the
likelihood of whether plagiarism may have occurred based on the report and the piece of work
in question.
During the term of a research degree the Faculty hopes students will publish the results of
their research. If this occurs prior to submission of their dissertation, Turnitin may show
similarities between the dissertation and any papers the student has written and had
published as a result of the research. We do not wish to discourage research students from
publishing their work for fear of being accused of plagiarism to their own papers. To cover this
all students should include a statement near the start of their dissertation which clearly lists
any publications arising from their research and explicitly stating their involvement in
generating the publication. This statement should be signed by at least the first and final
authors of each publication to show their agreement of the student’s contribution.
Alternatively if an authors contribution statement has been published in the journal then the
student may choose to include a copy of this instead. This information will be viewed by the
academic reviewing the Turnitin report of the submitted dissertation.
It is the responsibility of the postgraduate research student (PGR) to ensure that both the
electronic and bound versions of their dissertation are identical, submitted correctly and
within the maximum period of study. Please note that final submission will not be considered
complete until the electronic and bound versions have been submitted correctly.
It is important to note that Turnitin is a text matching piece of software. This means that a
‘clear’ report from Turnitin does not exonerate the student in the event that other academic
problems, such as other forms of plagiarism or scientific misconduct (eg falsification of data,
copying of figures or equations without attribution, etc) are subsequently detected within the
dissertation.
This document outlines the Faculty’s policy for the use of Turnitin by its postgraduate research
students and the staff supporting these students.
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Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry

Electronic submission of Postgraduate Research Dissertations

through Turnitin

The University of Bristol requires that all postgraduate research dissertations submitted for examination from January 2015 are checked for plagiarism. The University’s Library provides information and advice to students on plagiarism and all students are strongly advised to review this material prior to submission (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/library/support/findinginfo/plagiarism/). This requirement means that in addition to the two temporary bound copies submitted to the examinations office students will also be required to submit an identical electronic version. This electronic version will be submitted to a text comparison software package called Turnitin. The TEL Team provides information on Turnitin and at the end of this document are links to guidance intended for both staff and students. The guidance contains links to short videos, which you are strongly encouraged to review prior to looking at any Turnitin similarity reports.

The report that Turnitin generates includes a number referred to as a ‘similarity index’. It is important to be aware of the fact that there is no absolute figure for the ‘similarity index’ that is acceptable nor is there a figure that will trigger further investigations. Each report linked to a final dissertation submission will be reviewed by an academic and a judgement made on the likelihood of whether plagiarism may have occurred based on the report and the piece of work in question.

During the term of a research degree the Faculty hopes students will publish the results of their research. If this occurs prior to submission of their dissertation, Turnitin may show similarities between the dissertation and any papers the student has written and had published as a result of the research. We do not wish to discourage research students from publishing their work for fear of being accused of plagiarism to their own papers. To cover this all students should include a statement near the start of their dissertation which clearly lists any publications arising from their research and explicitly stating their involvement in generating the publication. This statement should be signed by at least the first and final authors of each publication to show their agreement of the student’s contribution. Alternatively if an authors contribution statement has been published in the journal then the student may choose to include a copy of this instead. This information will be viewed by the academic reviewing the Turnitin report of the submitted dissertation.

It is the responsibility of the postgraduate research student (PGR) to ensure that both the electronic and bound versions of their dissertation are identical, submitted correctly and within the maximum period of study. Please note that final submission will not be considered complete until the electronic and bound versions have been submitted correctly. It is important to note that Turnitin is a text matching piece of software. This means that a ‘clear’ report from Turnitin does not exonerate the student in the event that other academic problems, such as other forms of plagiarism or scientific misconduct (eg falsification of data, copying of figures or equations without attribution, etc) are subsequently detected within the dissertation.

This document outlines the Faculty’s policy for the use of Turnitin by its postgraduate research students and the staff supporting these students.

Guidelines for Practice Use of Turnitin

General Points:

 In order to provide students with opportunity to discuss any concerns relating to plagiarism, to raise awareness of the Turnitin software and process and the importance of correct referencing protocols, the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry requires all research students to submit examples of their work to Turnitin prior to final dissertation submission.  It is anticipated that these practice submission opportunities will enable students to learn what is and isn’t acceptable practice in academic writing and hence ensure they are able to avoid any accidental plagiarism in their final dissertation submission.  From the start of the 2014/15 academic year students in the Faculty completing a first or second year annual progress report will be required to submit this to Turnitin. Any research student is also able to submit draft chapters or other examples of their work to Turnitin. This will be done via a Blackboard submission point. You can access Blackboard via the MyBristol portal (see detailed procedure notes below).  Once you have submitted your work to Turnitin you will be able to review the text comparison/similarity report that the software generates. This report should be discussed with your supervisor and also at with your annual progression meeting. Any concerns regarding potential plagiarism issues that are raised by these reports will be highlighted to you and discussion around good academic practice can occur.  In addition to submitting their 1st^ and 2nd^ year annual progress reports students will also have the opportunity to submit up to three more pieces of work to Turnitin prior to their final dissertation submission.  It is for students, in discussion with their supervisors, to decide how to use these additional practice submission opportunities. They can be used to submit drafts of single chapters, drafts of multiple chapters or drafts of your whole dissertation.  Once you have submitted work to the practice Turnitin submission point you should review the similarity report generated (see detailed procedure below) and seek guidance and support from your supervisor in the first instance. Further advice and guidance can be sought from your School’s postgraduate team if necessary.  Each student will normally only have 5 opportunities to submit work to Turnitin prior to final dissertation submission.  The recommended file formats for Turnitin submission include Microsoft Word and PDF files – check with your School Graduate Director well in advance of your submission deadline if there is an essential reason for you to use a different format.  Files submitted to Turnitin should not exceed 20 Mb in size – this does not mean that the size of your dissertation should be restricted. If you suspect that the size of your report of draft chapter(s) will exceed 20 Mb, please contact the Graduate Director of your School for advice well in advance of when you plan to submit your work to Turnitin.  No practice submissions will be retained in the Turnitin database. This means that new submissions will not be highlighted as being similar to previous submissions and give a report with a high similarity index.

Detailed Procedure:

 Log in to Blackboard (https://www.ole.bris.ac.uk) or click on the “Go to Blackboard” button in MyBristol.  A list of organisations in which you are enrolled will appear in a box headed “My Organisations”. This should include one involving postgraduate e-submission and will

 Scroll down and you will see five Turnitin submission points.

 Select the relevant submission point, depending upon whether you’re submitting your 1 st^ or 2nd^ Year Annual Progress Report or drafts of your dissertation, and click the ‘View/Complete’ link under the relevant heading.  Clicking this link will take you into the Turnitin software and show you the ‘Assignment Inbox’ for the submission. Click on the ‘Submit’ button.

 This will present you with a web based form in which you give your details and select the file you want to submit from its current location. Once the file is selected, click on

the ‘Upload’ button.

 You will be asked to confirm these details by clicking the ‘Confirm’ button.

 On the next page select ‘Go to assignment inbox’ to view the report.  You will see a list of any papers you have previously submitted. When the report is ready to be viewed you will see a percentage appear in the column entitled ‘Similarity’. Click on this number to view a copy of the report.  You should discuss any concerns about the report with your supervisor. If you submitted either your first or second year annual progress report you should print out a copy of the similarity report and take it to your progress interview for discussion.

Guidelines for Final Dissertation Submission

General Points:

its current location. Once the file is selected click on the ‘Upload’ button.  You will be asked to confirm these details by clicking the ‘Confirm’ button.  As this is your final thesis submission you will not see the similarity report. Instead you must email your School’s e-submission email box notifying them of your submission. This email address is present in the final submission area under ‘Instructions’.  The School’s PGR team will assess your submission and notify you of the outcome according to the University’s procedures detailed in the Code of Practice for Research Degrees (Annex 8).

Turnitin Report Guidance.

Below are links to documents stored in Blackboard’s Content System.

For students – https://www.ole.bris.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/xid-4518383_

For staff – https://www.ole.bris.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/xid-4518382_