Turnitin Guidance for Students

Guidance for Students on the use of Turnitin for the Early Stage Assessment

The College requires all Doctoral (MPhil, PhD, MD[Res] and EngD) students who started on or after the 24 September 2019, to submit their written report for the Early Stage Assessment (ESA) through Turnitin.  

Your department will provide you with further information on how to submit your ESA through Turnitin.

Importantly, the Turnitin Similarity report does NOT detect plagiarism, it is a tool which identifies text matching for which there may be a very good reason.  Your ESA assessors will use the similarity report to inform their academic judgement about the integrity of the work you submitted.  It is strongly recommended that you do not interpret your Turnitin Similarity report without guidance from your supervisor.

These webpages are designed to provide you with an overview of the process and further guidance.

Submitting the ESA through Turnitin, via Blackboard

It is recommended that you submit your own ESA to Turnitin, through your department’s Blackboard ESA Submission Centre.   

The information provided below should be read in conjunction with guidance provided to you by your department.

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1. How to upload your ESA to your Department’s ESA Assignment Submission Area

The e-learning team have developed a step-by-step guide on how to submit your ESA to Turnitin, via Blackboard. 

2. Interpreting your ESA Turnitin Similarity Report

Interpreting your ESA Turnitin report is a matter of academic judgement and it is strongly advised that you do not interpret your own report without guidance from your main supervisor. 

The Turnitin Similarity Report does NOT detect plagiarism, it is a tool which identified text matching for which there may be a very good reason.  Your ESA assessors will use the similarity report to inform their academic judgement about the integrity of your work.

Your ESA assessors will review your Turnitin Similarity report and will be asked to confirm on your ESA form that your ESA has been passed as free from plagiarism after being tested through Turnitin

For Joint Imperial-Crick Students:

Your Imperial co-Primary supervisor will interpret your Turnitin similarity report and will confirm to your Crick Thesis Committee that your ESA is free from plagiarism and log this in the Crick Grad Log.    

For Core Imperial-Crick Students:

Your Imperial Secondary supervisor will interpret your Turnitin similarity report and will confirm to your Crick Thesis Committee that your ESA is free from plagiarism and log this in the Crick Grad Log. 

3. Suspected cases of plagiarism

Right from the start of your research programme, you should discuss with your supervisor matters relating to good scientific conduct, research integrity and how to avoid plagiarism.

You are reminded that the College requires you to complete the mandatory online training course on Plagiarism Awareness, prior to your ESA.

Download further details about this plagiarism awareness course and how students can self-enrol.

There is also further support and information provided by the Library

For the ESA, the expectation is that your ESA should not be passed until your work has been redone so that it can be assessed as compliant with the College’s regulations on avoiding plagiarism, after having been retested through Turnitin, and this would normally be regarded as a matter of learning.

4. Exemptions

Should your ESA contain material of national security classification, it will be exempt from submission to Turnitin.   This applies to research projects funded by one of the national intelligence agency funding bodies. 

In such cases, your main supervisor will need to submit an email declaration confirming that your ESA has not been submitted to Turnitin because it contains material of national security classification and that to the best of your supervisor’s knowledge, your ESA is free from plagiarism.    In such cases, your ESA assessors will also be required to confirm that to the best of their knowledge, your ESA is free from plagiarism, having not had access to your Turnitin similarity report.