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Academic Integrity: An Overview: Turnitin®

The objective of this guide is to provide JMU students clear definitions and resources related to academic integrity with a focus on plagiarism.

JMU Resources

Citation Resources

Understanding Turnitin®

Exactly what is Turnitin?  

Turnitin is an originality checking and plagiarism prevention tool that checks your writing for citation mistakes and inappropriate copying.  Upon submission of your work, Turnitin compares your writing to a massive database comprised of student work, websites, books, articles, and more.  

How does Turnitin work?

At James Madison University, instructors may opt to have you submit your work through Turnitin.  Once submitted, Turnitin will check your work for originality against its vast data base (roughly 45 billion pages--and growing) of digital content that includes archived material and content that is no longer available as well as student submissions, professional and academic journals and publications.      

Visit the Frequently Asked Questions page of the Turnitin website for answers to common inquiries.