Verdict: Clonewolf is a firm favourite. The accuracy of the scanner is hard to beat and it is super easy-to-use.
Update: Clonewolf is no longer operational.
Service: Clonewolf Plagiarism Checkerhttps://www.clonewolf.com/ | |
| What are the subscription options? e.g. free, paid only, paid and free. If paid options, what length of subscription/price structure is offered? | A free sample scan is provided up to 500 words. Normal service is “Pay As You Go” with 1 scan credit costing £2 for up to 5000 words. No subscription is required and registration is free. |
| Maximum word count? (if any) | Each scan credit is for up to 5000 words, so a search for text of 9000 words would cost 2 scans credits. |
| Resubmissions allowed? If so, is this limited? | Each scan is “Pay As You Go” with no resubmissions. |
| Type of scanner E.g. software download, copy and paste, upload document online. Say if multiple options are offered. | “Copy and paste” online scanner. |
| Sources checked E.g. internet, any specific journal databases mentioned, any electronic book databases such as Google docs mentioned, past submissions from other students etc | Websites with exact wording and also with pattern matching for substituted words and grammar. Online pdfs. |
| File types supported E.g. doc, docx, rtf, open office, pdfs, ppts | The user can cut and paste text into the online scanner. |
| Extra features? E.g. grammar checker, spelling checker | Ability to examine text found by individual sources. |
| Support offered? E.g. phone, email etc | There’s a friendly contact page where support is offered during office hours UK time. |
| Report / results | |
| Type of report Downloadable? Shareable? | Full interactive results are displayed in the browser. PDF reports may be downloaded or emailed to specified email addresses. |
| Side by side comparison to plagiarism? | No, but it does highlight plagiarised text from individual sources. |
| Accuracy of results – Which sections were detected and which were not (make sure the correct source is identified) | |
| Basic plagiarism – copied and pasted from a website source | Detected. The online scanner correctly identified the webpage which contained material that had been plagiarised. |
| Basic plagiarism – copied and pasted from an online pdf | Detected. The online scanner correctly identified the online pdf which contained material that had been plagiarised. |
| Some words removed – copied and pasted from a website source | Detected. The online scanner correctly identified the website which contained material that had been plagiarised. |
| Some words changed – copied and pasted from a website source | Detected. The online scanner correctly identified the website which contained material that had been plagiarised. |
| Full paraphrasing – copied and pasted from a website source | Not detected. The online scanner did not identify the website where content had been paraphrased from. |
| Basic plagiarism – copied and pasted from an electronic book | Not detected. The online scanner did not identify the electronic book which contained material that had been plagiarised. |
| General observations Ease of use, overall experience. If other features were included (e.g. spelling, grammar check), how easy were they to use and how useful were they? | |
| Clonewolf is a professional, modern and easy to use website which is clear on pricing. There are no tricks to make you sign up for extra money or to provide a better or different service to what they offer on the front page. The “Pay As You Go” system is really easy to use and you can buy one credit at a time as you need. The accuracy of the scanner is hard to beat and you get a full report of matched text and all the relevant sources. It took less than 1 minute to find my text of 3000 words and the report offers more detail than most other scanners on the market. The email feature provided means I can send PDF reports directly to my tutor without needing to print or download anything to prove my work.I love the detail I get with the results, however the main drawback for me is needing to copy and paste my text into the search box. I contacted Clonewolf support about this; they were friendly, replied the same day, and ensured me their development team would make file uploads available soon. https://www.clonewolf.com/ | |
