Verdict: During tests, the plagiarism scanner didn’t perform well. It only detected plagiarism in two out of six sample documents, in an entirely plagiarised article and one where some of the words had been changed.
Service: www.plagiarismdetection.org/ | |
| What are the subscription options? e.g. free, paid only, paid and free. If paid options, what length of subscription/price structure is offered? | Online checker may be used on a trial basis (with a limited amount of words) without a subscription package. Personal – 10,000 words, $14.95;Personal – 20,000 words, $24.95;Personal – 50,000 words, $44.95;Instructor – 100,000 words, $69.95;Instructor – 200,000 words, $129.95; Instructor – 500,000 words, $199.95; Corporate – 100,000 words, $69.95; Corporate – 200,000 words, $129.95; Corporate – 500,000 words, $199.95. |
| Maximum word count? (if any) | No maximum/ unspecified. |
| Resubmissions allowed? If so, is this limited? | Each resubmission or scan will deduct credits, depending on how many words are scanned. |
| 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 | Website – no words altered; Website – some words removed; Website – some words changed; Website – fully paraphrased; Online pdf; Electronic book. |
| File types supported E.g. doc, docx, rtf, open office, pdfs, ppts | None – the user can only cut and paste text into the online scanner. |
| Extra features? E.g. grammar checker, spelling checker | None. |
| Support offered? E.g. phone, email etc | There is a “contact us” link where users can complete a query online in addition to a “live chat” option (during office hours). |
| Report / results | |
| Type of report Downloadable? Shareable? | Reports are generated within the browser and these may be downloaded and shared. |
| Side by side comparison to plagiarism? | No. |
| 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 | Not detected. The online scanner did not identify the online pdf which contained material that had been plagiarised. |
| Some words removed – copied and pasted from a website source | Not detected. The online scanner did not identify 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 webpage 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 which contained material that had been plagiarised. |
| Basic plagiarism – copied and pasted from an electronic book | Not detected. The online 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? | |
| Plagiarismdetection.org’s website’s design is simple and straightforward. It doesn’t contain as much information as other similar plagiarism detector websites but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing – sometimes lots of information can be distracting. All users are required to register, for free, and may also use the scanner on a limited trial basis. The amount of subscription packages is silly – there is simply no need to have nine different packages. At the cheapest end of the scale, $14.95 will let you scan up to 10,000 words and for $199.95 you can scan up to half a million words. The scanner itself is fairly easy to use. Text is pasted directly into the browser and scans can either be run immediately or scheduled to run. The scanning process is fairly quick, like most checkers it takes less than a minute for a small scan (less than 1,000 words) to complete. Once complete, the results line up within the browser and these can be clicked on to view the accompanying reports. Again, these are easy to use and simple to understand. During tests, however, the plagiarism scanner didn’t perform well. It only detected plagiarism in two out of six sample documents, in an entirely plagiarised article and one where some of the words had been changed. It did not detect the plagiarism of a document where some of the words had been omitted, nor did it pick up the plagiarism of a pdf or an ebook, or a work which had been entirely paraphrased. Plagiarismdetection.org’s plagiarism scanner isn’t as effective as many of the free online checkers available and so probably isn’t worth your money. | |
