Verdict: In short, it’s pretty useless, not worth downloading and most definitely not worth paying for!
Service: Plagiarism Checker X – www.plagiarism-checker-x.en.softonic.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? | Free downloadable software. Free to use on a trial basis of 14 days after which there is a one-off charge of $19.99 (£16.48). |
| Maximum word count? (if any) | Online checker will only search the first 400 characters of each submission. |
| Resubmissions allowed? If so, is this limited? | Unlimited checks. |
| Type of scanner E.g. software download, copy and paste, upload document online. Say if multiple options are offered. | Software download into which text is pasted. |
| 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 application. |
| Extra features? E.g. grammar checker, spelling checker | None. |
| Support offered? E.g. phone, email etc | There is a contact form in which users can email a query. |
| Report / results | |
| Type of report Downloadable? Shareable? | Reports are generated within the website’s browser but these can’t be downloaded or 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 software application correctly identified the webpage which contained material that had been plagiarised. |
| Basic plagiarism – copied and pasted from an online pdf | Not detected. The software application 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 software application did not identify the website which contained material that had been plagiarised. |
| Some words changed – copied and pasted from a website source | Not detected. The software application did not identify the webpage which contained material that had been plagiarised. |
| Full paraphrasing – copied and pasted from a website source | Not detected. The software application did not identify the website which contained material that had been plagiarised. |
| Basic plagiarism – copied and pasted from an electronic book | Not detected. The software application did not correctly identified 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? | |
| The first mental alarm bell goes off when you go to download this application and have a quick read through of the author’s description – even through it’s only a short summary it’s packed with grammatical mistakes. The line, “plagiarism checking was not so easy ever” (plagiarism checking has never been so easy?) sounds like it’s been translated from another language – and it probably has.The download itself might lure any unsuspecting user into a false sense of security. Its professional looking design inspires faith, but any faith granted would be misplaced. The application appears much like the free plagiarism scanners available online – text is pasted directly into it and it carries out a comparison search across the internet. There is a toggle-option to select whether Google or Bing search engines are used but both can’t be selected together meaning searches have to be repeated. There is no file upload facility.Each search is limited to just 400 characters which means that its users will have to calve up their essay and feed it into the application piece by piece. However, they might just as well save their time and not bother because the software is pretty poor at detecting plagiarism. During testing, It detected plagiarism in just one out of the six test documents, failing to detect a plagiarised pdf, website content where words had been removed, website content where words had been changed, paraphrased content and blanket plagiarism from an electronic book. In short, it’s pretty useless, not worth downloading and most definitely not worth paying for!The most likely explanation for this software is what might be dubbed international entrepreneurship – somebody in a foreign land has taken something you can get for free on the internet, packaged it in a piece of software, and tried to flog it to unsuspecting and non-internet savvy users. No attempts have been made to improve the scanner, indeed, little thought has been placed in choosing which scanner to copy because there are much better free online scanners out there. | |