To Kenyan Universities: TURNITIN is Not a Plagiarism Checker
Kenyan PhD and Masters students know Turnitin—that dreaded ‘assumably plagiarism’ software which highlights everything in your document as plagiarized including the common university narration on cover page, the chapter headings, all references, direct quotations, students name and registration numbers and the list is long.
Did you know that with as low as 1% similarity index from Turnitin, a document can be highly plagiarized? The American company Turnitin, a subsidiary of Advance Publications has put it clearly that Turnitin is not a plagiarism software, it is a similarity index checker—but Kenyan universities still insist that the software be used to check plagiarism.
Even when the plea against universities using Turnitin to check plagiarism is everywhere, many PhD and Masters’ students have failed to graduate and more will be locked this year courtesy of Turnitin.
That is why, most likely, our academic integrity is at hand. We refuse to change old ways and thoughts.
Kenyan PhD and Masters students know Turnitin —that dreaded ‘assumably plagiarism’ software which highlights everything in your document as plagiarized including the common university narration on cover page, the chapter headings, all references, direct quotations, students name and registration numbers and the list is long.
