Where can you find the tool?

Checking articles or other textual work for plagiarism? Recently, it can be done with a new tool, StrikePlagiarism. The new tool is built into the Ufora learning environment.

Teachers are already familiar with it in the context of checking papers or assignments within a specific course. How to do this, you can find out on the intranet.

Staff have recently gained access via the right-hand column of the start menu in Ufora. 

Start menu Ufora.ugent.be :

Are you an employee and the option is still not listed in the right-hand column? Contact Ufora@UGent.be. You always need a Ghent University account.

How does the tool work?

Check the instruction manual on the intranet to learn how to check a paper (outside the context of a course) for plagiarism.

For each document submitted, the tool generates a score (in percentage) reflecting the similarity coefficient, based on the number of similarities in relation to the size of the document. In addition, you get a comprehensive report in which you can view the similarities in detail. 

The manual is also available on the Ufora support course and is constantly updated and supplemented.

Please note that each outcome requires careful review by someone familiar with the field and additional online searches. After all, a low percentage does not mean that plagiarism is definitely not present, albeit to a limited extent. A high score does not necessarily mean plagiarised work, e.g. in case of frequent use of quotations, numerous references included, ... .  

Avoiding plagiarism

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to apply the principles of research integrity.

The European Code of Conduct for Scientific Integrity, also known as the ALLEA Code, defines plagiarism as serious misconduct: " is using other people’s work or ideas without giving proper credit to the original source" (p. 10). 

"Citing selectively or inaccurately" is also a violation of research integrity (p. 10).

These rules also apply to your own work. "Re-publishing substantive parts of one’s own earlier publications, including translations, without duly acknowledging or citing the original (‘self-plagiarism)" is also considered a violation (p. 11).

How to correctly acknowledge, reference and quote are important academic skills and require not only basic knowledge of some rules, but also a lot of practice.

You can find more information in the related tips below.