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Introduction: What is StrikePlagiarism?
Introduction: What is StrikePlagiarism?
StrikePlagiarism.com offers a text-matching software which detects similarities between texts.
The system allows for the upload of text documents (doc.; docx.; rtf.; txt.; odt.; ppt.; pptx.; pdf, HTML, etc.) and verification of the text. The system analyzes the uploaded text based on millions of existing texts in the virtual space and in the end generates a Similarity Report, which indicates detected similarities between texts and their sources.
In order to use the system you must register by creating an account. You can choose to have an individual account or an account connected to an educational institution.
In this section, all user roles, possibilities and functionalities of the system will be explained.
Terms and definitions
Terms and definitions
Service - An online word processing tool with a user interface on a website
Token - The system uses tokens as an internal payment currency for the verification of documents. Tokens can be bought through the system and they have a respective value for number of pages. The tokens can be purchased by Individual users only.
Similarity report - Represents detailed information about an uploaded text and outlines alerts, similarity coefficients, and an active list of similarities
Alerts - A section in the similarity report with information regarding text modifications that may aim to temper with the analysis results. Invisible to the person evaluating the content of the document on a printout or in a file, they influence the phrases compared during text analysis (by causing intended misspellings) to conceal borrowings as well as to falsify values in the Similarity Report. It should be assessed whether the modifications are intentional or not.
Types of alerts include:
Characters from another alphabet - detects whether a letter from the text has been replaced with an identical letter from another alphabet. For example, from Latin to Cyrillic
Spreads - detects whether a letter from the uploaded text has been expanded in order to create a visual illusion for a spacebar
Micro spaces - detects whether a minimized character has been added to the uploaded text in order to separate a word and make it seem like it has not been copied
Hidden characters - indicates if there have been characters and letters in the uploaded text that have been colored in white in order to merge with the background and not be detected
Paraphrases (SmartMarks) - detects if there has been a change in a sentence (change of word order, use of a synonym, change an orthography, etc). Indicates original text match and shows the paraphrase in order to help with detecting indirect copy of excerpts
Similarity coefficients - The similarity coefficients in the system's Similarity Report show in percentages how many text-matches were found in a document. The percentage values are measured based on the total quantity of the text from the
Citation coefficient - Fragments of the text being checked, which are not author's, but which the system classified as correctly formatted. Citations also include template phrases; bibliography; fragments of text found by the search module "SPS Garant: legal documentation"
Active list of similarities - A section in the Similarity Report which lists all the matching sources found in the uploaded text. The section is divided into different source sections and gives percentage value as well as word count value of the matching excerpts
List of accepted fragments - List becomes active once a highlighted part of the text has been accepted
Purpose and conditions of use
Purpose and conditions of use
The service is designed to check text documents for text borrowings from different sources. The user uploads a document to the system which is then sent for verification. As a result from the verification, users receive a Similarity Report. The report contains information about sources and match rates by source, as well as detailed information indicating those fragments of the document being checked that were identified as matches. Identification is accompanied by the presentation of a matching fragment of the text of the source of the match and / or a link to the original (URL). As a result of checking the document, the user is provided with information that helps to determine which part of the document is written independently and which part is borrowed.
Technical conditions for using the service:
the presence of an internet connection;
work through one of the most common browsers: Chrome version 68 and higher, Mozilla Firefox version 61 and higher, Opera version 55 and higher, MS Edge version 97 and higher, the Internet Explorer browser built into the Windows operating system is not supported;
ensuring the operation of all functions of the service in full may require the use of a third-party software
The results of working with StrikePlagiarism.com are not the basis for claims of copyright infringement. The service is intended to be used for informational purposes only. In other words, we do not declare that this or that text is plagiarism, but only inform you about the presence of the same or similar piece of text. It is possible that when working with the service you will find text with a copied fragment from other sources, including the possibility that the document you uploaded is the original source. In any case, when working with the service, be careful, try to be objective and do not rush to conclusions. Remember that the service is only a tool for work, and only the user of the system can give a real assessment of the document.
Before you begin
Before you begin
Workplace
Workplace
To work with StrikePlagiarism, you need to open the system's website and register or log in. The system is available to use via browser and there is no need for it to be downloaded to a personal device.
Since the system is used via browser, internet connection is needed.
User roles
User roles
The following user roles are provided in our anti-plagiarism system:
An Administrator is a user of the system responsible for managing and creating user accounts and the organizational structure (optionally) of the institution in the system.
A Unit Administrator is a user of the system who can create users and check text documents within their assigned organizational unit.
A Lecturer is a user of the system who conducts teaching activities (assignments) and checks student works in the system.
A Student is a user of the system who uploads their work for evaluation by the lecturer.
Individual users can use the system outside of an organization. They can check documents by purchasing tokens in the system and can check documents only against internet open sources and the RefBooks.
Administrator functionalities
Administrator functionalities
The administrators in StrikePlagiarism can add users to the system. When an administrator is assigned by a university or another organization, their main responsibility is to create user accounts for the rest of the system users. This includes the creation of organizational units (optional), unit administrators, and lecturer accounts.
To add users to the system, the Administrator must enter the Users menu on the left-hand side and click on the green button Add User.
From here the Administrator has two options - to add a user manually or to import an excel sheet with information for multiple user creation.
Adding a user manually
Add a user by filling in all the related fields including name, e-mail address, telephone number (optional), organizational unit (optional) and user role.
Adding users using an excel sheet import
Add a large group of users to the system by using our handy excel template and filling in all the related fields.
*Unit administrators are users who are responsible for the creation of user accounts within their organizational unit. For example, if the user administrator is assigned to the organizational unit of a certain faculty, then, the administrator could add users who belong to that specific faculty.
Administrator
has access to all client's documents
Unit administrator
has access only to clients' documents from their organizational unit
Lecturer functionalities
Lecturer functionalities
Users with a Lecturer account can upload documents, review and interact with the Similarity Report, and create assignments in the system.
UPLOADING A DOCUMENT
There are three ways to upload a document to the system:
uploading from your personal device
using drag and drop to upload your file from your personal device directory
pasting the document text only
Evaluation and Similarity Report
Evaluation and Similarity Report
StrikePlagiarism offers a unique Similarity Report that outlines in-depth information about an uploaded document.
ALERTS
Our Similarity Report shows alerts such as:
Detected characters from another alphabet
Spreads
Micro spaces
Hidden characters
Paraphrases (SmartMarks)
*Please note: the numbers in this image are only for exemplary purposes
Characters from another alphabet – indicates characters from alphabets similar to characters shall be used by the author. For example the letters „c”, „e” or „r” from the latin alphabet can be replaced with „с”, „е” and „г” from the cyrillic alphabet. Even though they look similar and the differences are imperceptible when we read the text, the system can see that they are different characters due to different Unicodes.
Spreads – Extended spaces introduced to letters, which can be used to give the impression that two words are separate, but in fact they are not.
White characters – characters within the text that were inserted and coloured white. They are usually used to fill spaces between words but sometimes added to the word and then resized.
Paraphrases (SmartMarks) – Marking similar fragments which are not identical but most probably were intentionally changed by the author.
SmartMarks has the role of underlining fragments at the analysed text that are similar, but not identical. The goal of this feature is to detect the cases where text changes were made, such as: changing the order of the words, adding or removing words and replacing words, changing content of the words. Fragments marked by SmartMarks are underlined in the text and have a lighter shade of colour than the rest.
When placing your cursor over the underlined fragment, a small black line with a text will appear that shows how that fragment is written at the source.
RECORD OF SIMILARITIES
The Similarity Report generated by StrikePlagiarism includes two Similarity Coefficients which indicate information related to the evaluation of the text from the document.
The value of Similarity Coefficient 1 (SC1) determines which part of the documents contains phrase of 5 words or longer, found in the database of the university, database of Database Exchange Program, RefBooks database or Internet resources (excluding borrowings from legal acts found in the Database of Legal Acts). The Similarity Coefficient 1 is primarily used to examine the linguistic independence of the author of the documents.
The value of Similarity Coefficient 2 (SC2) determines which part of the documents contains phrase of 25 words or longer found in the databases mentioned above (excluding Database of Legal Acts). Due to the length of the detected phrases, the Similarity Score 2 is a better tool for detecting unauthorized borrowings.
ACTIVE LISTS OF SIMILARITIES
This list presents the main sources of borrowings in the text (in the form of percentage and number of words) and easy navigation on found marked fragments. The percentage value for a specific record in the list indicates what part of the analyzed documents is identical to the indicated source.
*Please note: the numbers in this image are only for exemplary purposes
EDITING THE SIMILARITY REPORT AND ADDING COMMENTS
From the Lecturer account, the user can review the Similarity Report and make edits by accepting marked paragraphs. There is an option to accept only the selected fragment or the entire source.
Furthermore, Lecturers can add comments to selected parts of the text by using the menu tab on the right side of the report.
FURTHER INFORMATION AND DETAILS ABOUT OUR SIMILARITY REPORT
For further questions related to our similarity report, we have a detailed instruction manual for the interpretation of the report you can find and read here.
Assignments functionality
Assignments functionality
The user menu of lecturers offers a feature for creating Assignments. In this section, the lecturer can create an Assignment by clicking on the green "Add" button.
After selecting the button, a new window opens with fields that need to be filled relating to the new assignment. These are the short title, the long title, and the document type. The rest of the fields, which are not mandatory, but recommended are: the description, the due date, and the e-mail address field where the e-mails of active student accounts from the system are added. By adding the e-mail address of the student, they will receive an e-mail invitation to the assignment and can easily access the assignment through their profile.
The button "Generate short name" allows the lecturer to ask the system to generate a short name for the assignment. This is usually a unique code made up of numbers and letters, which students can use when they want to join an assignment.
Once the assignment is created, it is recommended that all documents are added simultaneously. Whether they are submitted by the student users from the system or manually from the lecturer, the documents are then analyzed at the same time. At the end of the verification, the Similarity Reports are available to view and this time there is an added section to the Similarity Report, which shows for cross check similarities. This means that the system has checked if there have been any borrowings of text between the student works.
Click on Show Comparison to get a report with texts of two authors from the Assignment with their similar fragments. The two texts are highlighted in blue for an easier comparison:
Cross-Check is a function that allows the comparison of a set of documents among themselves and that shows the similarity of the displayed document and every other document in the set without influencing the similarity coefficients.
The Cross-Check function can be used in the Assignments module described above or it can be used for other sets of documents that have a common parameter. For example, Cross-Check can also be used for comparing papers that were defended in the same year.
access to the assignments by the students
access to the assignments by the students
Students can upload documents to the system and join assignments. The student does not have access to the interactive Similarity Report. The student cannot accept fragments or add comments to their documents. Furthermore, the student cannot add documents to the data base.
The student can join and assignment by using the red "Join Assignment" button at the top right corner of the webpage.
From there, the student can enter the short title of the assignment created by the lecturer and join it. The student cannot join the peer-review assignment via a short code.
Alternatively, if the student has already been added to an assignment, it will be visible in the profile and the student can upload their document there.
If the Short Name has no errors in its content, then the system will generate a draft(s) for all the students enrolled in their student accounts for uploading the document into it.
If short name has been already used by the student, system will display the following notification:
If the short name is incorrect the system will display the following notification:
Peer-review assignment
A peer-review assignment is a type of educational or professional task where participants are required to review and provide feedback on the work of their peers. The assignment typically involves evaluating essays, research papers, projects, or presentations created by fellow students or colleagues. The purpose of peer-review assignments is to foster critical thinking, improve the quality of work, and promote collaborative learning.
To create a peer-review assignment a teacher has to enable peer-review in the assignment by moving the slider to the right.
After enabling a Peer-Review for the Assignment, the system will open the settings:
Maximum number of points - maximum grade the student can receive by each peer.
Number of distributed papers means how many papers the system will distribute among the peers for the evaluation.
Students can self-select papers to review, which means allowing students to select papers for a review by themselves from a list of peers.
Disabling “Student can see the names of the peers” makes peer-review anonymous.
Review without submission allows students to start reviewing papers even if the paper was not yet submitted by that student.
Review of own paper makes the student review own papers.
Review available for students FROM means a date when the student will be able to start peer-review.
Review available for students UNTIL means a due date for a peer-review.
Feedback available FROM is a post date of a feedback.
After creating your library you can start manually pairing the peers (optional).
Click on “Details” to start pairing peers. Select students from the list to review the author's work specified in the title.
After being invited to the assignment, the student receives a notification sent to the email address. The student submits the document for verification entering the Document tab at the Menu.
The student may start peer-review without submission of the document if this was enabled by the instructor, then the student selects the Assignment Peer-Review tab in the Menu and selects the peer-review assignment.
The student will see the list of assignments and the buttons:
- Write a Review,
- Read/Hide a Review left by the peers,
- Self-select of the work to review (if this option was enabled by the instructor).
If the “Read Reviews” button is gray, this means that there are no reviews yet.
If the “Self-Select” button is gray, this means the instructor did not enable this option during creation of the assignment and students will not select papers to review.
If the button Add Review is gray, it means that students have not yet uploaded any paper to start the review or the review due date has expired.
The student has to make sure that all reviews have the status “Completed”.
Pending number of reviews indicates how many reviews/papers remained to be analyzed by the student. If the author’s field doesn’t display the author's name it means the instructor disabled it to keep a peer-review anonymous.
After starting the review, the student must decide whether the review will be sent or saved for further editing without sending. If a student doesn’t want to submit a review but save the entered data, “Save without submission” has to be selected.
Grading of reviews by the instructor
Click on “Grading” in Assignment “Actions” to start the Grading process.
The instructor will see the table with students' names and review progress. The Final Average Score is estimated based on the formula: sum of all grades received by the student (look below) (4+6)/24*6∼3, as well as 10/24=0.417 (or 42%). The instructor can apply on any of those scores
Click on “Read Review” to start analyzing and grading reviews. The instructor can grade both inside the review after clicking on “Read Review” or at the table by clicking on “Edit Grades”.
Once all reviews are graded the peer-review can be considered as completed
By clicking on Actions the user can:
Edit Assignment,
Duplicate Assignment,
Close Assignment,
Grading (Peer-review).
Search for translation similarities
Search for matches in the translated version of the document can be carried out in more than 100 language combinations. This feature is enabled by the user when adding a file to the upload window. The system translates the text of the work according to a given combination of languages, and then analyzes for matches against the database and open Internet sources.
Move the slider to the right to activate this feature. Choose the desired language the text shall be translated to. The system will detect the language of your text automatically.
Once verification is over the Interactive Similarity Report will be generated by the system. The report header will indicate the language used for translation purposes. To check the original version of the document you need to upload the document again.
At the list of the document the translation is indicated with a sign.
AI content search mode
If the document is checked for AI content, the system will generate an AI content report, which will be available within the Interactive Similarity Report in a special section called "AI Content Detection".
To view the content of the AI report, as well as to analyze the document for the presence of AI, you need to open the report by clicking on the Details button in the "AI Content Detection" section.
AI content probability (probability coefficient)
The first section presents the probability of using AI for given text fragments as a percentage, from 0 to 100%. The overall indicator shows the average probability of using AI for the entire text analyzed. The results for individual fragments are indicated at the Details below.
Important! This section does not reflect the amount of text written by AI, but the probability of its use.
To facilitate a quick assessment of individual fragments of the work, a legend has been introduced for marking fragments according to 5 percentage ranges, each of which is marked with a different color. The content of the analyzed document is displayed on the right side of the screen and is marked with the color assigned to the appropriate range. After hovering the mouse cursor over a specific fragment, information about the exact probability for a given fragment will be displayed.
AI content Indicator
To see in the report only the fragments with high probability of AI we designed an additional tool. The user can now easily display only those fragments which are mostly interesting for analyzing, for example, those where the AI probability coefficient exceeds 60% or even 80%.
The second section shows AI content Indicator (option 1). This coefficient indicates AI text within the AI Probability Threshold Coefficient predefined by the user (option 2). By default, the threshold value is set at 0.8 which means 80% of AIPC (scale from 0 to 1).
Using the slider (option 2) located in this section, the user can change the threshold value, and the system will automatically recalculate the result.
The new section also includes a function (option 3) that allows you to reflect in the report only the text (remove the rest of the text from the report) that "AI content Indicator" contains.
By clicking on the checkbox, the system will leave only the fragments that are included in the "AI content Indicator" colored.
Details
The third section provides a list of text pieces sorted from fragments with the highest probability coefficient to fragments with the lowest. The magnifying glass option ("Show in text") allows the supervisor to quickly move to a specific fragment for detailed analysis. For visual highlighting, the font of the found fragment is bolded.
Important! To download the AI content detection report, use the save to PDF option available in the toolbox on the right side of the screen.
We recommend that you pay attention to texts that exceed a 50% AIPC. However, if a text fragment has similarities found in any source but the AIPC exceeds 50%, it means that the system does not respond correctly to this text fragment.
In case the text is not recognised by the AI content search module or the AIPC is zero, the system informs the user as follows:
To use the AI-generated content search module, please contact support
Excluding fragments
The role of the Interactive Report is to help with the evaluation process. Meantime, the supervisor can exclude some fragments from the similarity coefficients that are considered acceptable by him. In the interactive report, the supervisor can accept each fragment by using the option that appears when clicking on a fragment:
Or they can accept an entire source using the option next to it:
Entire sources can also be accepted by clicking on the checkbox next to them, in the lists of similarities:
When fragments or sources are accepted, the accepted text turns bold black and the percentages of the coefficients are changed. The new values will be shown in red, while the original values will stay grey.
Accepted fragments and sources will be numbered under the Lists of Similarities, in a new list in the left part of the report.
If fragments were accepted accidently, you can click on search to jump to that part of the text.
and then click on the restore option in order to revert the fragment back and remove it from the list of accepted fragments:
Some educational institutions are setting threshold values for different types of documents. If you see the blinking icon on the right top side of SC then the system detected the fact of exceeding the SC threshold value.
Saving and final decision
The Interactive Report allows the supervisor to save the changes made in the report and to take a final decision regarding the evaluated document. The options are available by clicking on the SAVE/SUBMIT button at the header of the report:
The options are:
Save changes (continue editing) – if you want to save what changes you have made and return to the evaluation at a later time;
Disqualify/Reject – if the document receives a negative evaluation;
Send for correction – if the author needs to make corrections;
Accept (add to the database) – if the document is accepted for publication or defence, it will be automatically added to the database.
Sharing the report
If you want to send the Similarity Report to people who do not have access to the system, but need to share their opinion, for example, reviewer or expert, you can use the Share option at the right-sidebar of the report.
View mode only, which is meant to only be viewed and does not allow accepting fragments/sources or adding comments.
Editable mode, which is meant to edit and add comments if necessary. This mode is not available at the Assignments.
The Report can be sent either through copying and sending the shown link or through entering the e-mail addresses you want the report to be sent to. Please, take note that reports shared with other people are only available for a limited time.
Excluding quotes
To remove quotes or quoted text found in all sources available to the system from the value of similarity coefficients, click on the icon (exclude the quote) on the right side of the Interactive Similarity Report. After clicking on the icon, the values of the Similarity Coefficients will be recalculated. If you click on the icon again, the similarity coefficients will return to their original value.
Changes made are saved after the document is accepted or added to the database.
Comment Tags
Comment tags are created to add ready-made comment templates and explanations to them into the text of the similarity report.
By creating a comment tag, the teacher will be able to use comments from the list of pre-created comments.
Such templates are convenient when you don't want to add the same comment again and again, for example, in the form of “delete fragment” or “paraphrase text”.
To create a new comment tag the user has to contact the Administrator. The lecturer, deanery and unit administrator will soon have a possibility to create their own library of comment tags.
All comment tags entered will appear in the Interactive Similarity Report. Students will see comments added by the lecturer to the similarity report. Moreover, explanations for Comment Tags will be available to the lecturer and student in the list of comments of the similarity report. Once the similarity report is open, click on the List of Comment Tags, and then on the Group Name. The system will light up the Group Name and a chosen Comment Tag in blue.
This will mean that the Comment Tag has been activated and can be added to the text of the Similarity Report.
Click on the piece of text you are interested in paying attention to. The Comment Tag will stick to this text fragment. The Comment tag is semi-transparent and allows you to see the text behind it. Add clarification to the comment so that the student better understands the reason for the action and your intentions.
After you enter a comment and explain it, it will appear in the list of comments on the left side of the Interactive Similarity Report.
You can edit the Tag Comments just like the regular comments available at the Similarity Report by Saving, Deleting and keep Editing:
Grammar check
If your organization uses the grammar check functionality, you will see an additional section in the report called "Grammar and Spelling checker".
The system will open a report where on the left side you will see the results of the check, and on the right side - the text and errors, highlighted in different colors. Each color represents a group of errors. For example, grammar errors are indicated in dark yellow, and spelling errors are indicated in purple.
By clicking on a group of errors, the system will show a list of all errors related to this group. Next, by clicking on a line with a phrase indicating the error, the system will display a suggestion and the word (phrase) that was written incorrectly
Click "Show in text" to display the location of the error in the analyzed text.
Internet Preview
For fragments found on the internet, clicking the link of the source will open a preview page of the internet page on the left side of the report. Similar fragments will be highlighted in a yellow background in order to distinguish text similar to the analysed one. This tool was created to ease the process of evaluation, the system displays all similar fragments in the source.
Home Database Preview
If your educational institution uses the functionality of viewing similarity in a source from a home database, you will see the title of the work - the source as a hyperlink.
By clicking on the name of the work, you will open the source (document from the home database) on the right side. All similar fragments will be colored yellow.
By clicking on a yellow fragment, the system will color the similar fragment in the analyzed work in blue and bring this fragment to the height of the fragment in the source so that they can be compared.
If you see the phrase "Data removed" instead of the title of the work, this means that at the moment between the completion of the document check and the opening of the report, the document to which the system refers was irrevocably deleted from the system database by the administrator or some other authorized user. Thus, you will not be able to view the content of the source from the database of your organization if the source was deleted.
Similarity Report Content
Description of colours that appear throughout the Similarity Report:
1. Green – fragments detected among the global Internet resources;
2. Red – fragments detected in the databases available for the system: both the client’s one and the other clients that made their database available for the cross-checkings means;
3. Blue – fragments from the same source, every fragments highlights from green, red, orange to blue when user clicks on the source;
4. Orange – fragments detected in the RefBooks database
5. Blue background – fragments detected in the Legal Database;
6. Yellow background – characters identified by the system as being from other alphabets than the one in which the document is written.
7. Purple background– texts within quotation marks.
In the report you may notice 2 shades of red and green. The different shades represent the fact that two or more fragments were taken from the same source, but in the analysed text their order was changed.
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