Plagiarism Detection Software
In general, the current softwares that educators use to detect plagiarism come in many forms. Some of them don't even require downloading any program to your personal computer; they run on their own servers. Compared to the number of "cheat sites," the number of plagiarism detection software is minute. There are about ten that schools can rely on, while there are millions of websites for students to buy essays off of.
Detection software scan a variety of sources to detect the degree of copying, such as:
- Current public websites
- Online newspapers
- Blogs
- Online Encyclopedias
The better software checks for copying from:
- Cheat sites (sites that sell essays for free/money)
- Subscription journals
- Journals & Magazines search engines (usually password-protected)
- Students' works that were submitted to the detection software
How They Work: Upload, Submit, Scan
Each detection engine operates differently. In general, they require that students either e-mail their essays to their teachers or that students upload the essay, usually in a word-processor format, to the detection website. Then the software scans its sources to see if they match the student's work.
