[WEB4LIB] RE: Question about Turnitin.com

[Daniel Messer]

    I've got to agree here. This does seem to be more the job for a support office
or even (horror of horrors) the faculty member themselves. I breezed on over to
Turnitin's website and checked out what I could of their system (we don't subscribe)
and, advertising jibba jabba aside, it looked semi-friendly. At the very least it
looked intuitive enough to use effectively without several hours of training.
    That's not the problem though. The problem comes when a prof reads a term paper,
and notices that something is fishy, and it isn't salmon. Okay, so why can't the
prof or a prof's assistant hand that over to the Turnitin database? I went to a
relatively small university and, in all academic departments, there were either
professor's assistants or some kind of student departmental assistant who could
handle this. In my experience, the University library was overworked as is just
providing references for students and then they're expected to help track down every
little citation that seems a bit off?
    Like Dan says, this method seems to invite trouble; ethical, legal, and
professional. It starts with a few questions that can snowball into an avalanche of
debate. Is there a legal issue involved with submitting a student's intellectual
property to an online database? If so, should the student be asked first? If not
then where do the professor's right to check citations end and the students right to
intellectual property begin? Foregoing all that, what if the database returns an
ambiguous answer, like there's a 54% similarity with other papers? 54% doesn't prove
plagiarism, it merely suggests it.
    I don't know about you, but if I turned in a paper that I worked very hard on,
and then find out that it was submitted to an online database without my permission
and the professor thinks I *might* have plagiarized portions of the paper... Let's
just say those are serious allegations that could wreck an academic standing and
thus deny future benefits. What's that add up to? It adds up to me being able to sue
a school and/or a professor for slander and defamation of character. Especially if I
can prove I didn't plagiarize. Stopping plagiarism has never been easy. Turnitin may
provide a tool, but I think this tool might have its own inherent problems.

Have a good weekend all!
Dan


Dan Lester wrote:

> Friday, November 30, 2001, 2:58:19 PM, you wrote:
>
> ST> Also, our library has some concerns about violating student's intellectual
> ST> property rights by submitting papers to Turnitin.com, since these papers are
> ST> stored in a public database.  I was wondering if anyone has tackled this
> ST> issue.
>
> This is just one of many reasons I'd try to keep the library out of
> this business.  Why is this a library business?  Why isn't it the job
> of some academic support office, a learning lab, whoever runs your
> Blackboard or similar service, the IT shop, or almost anyone else?
>
> If you get into this you'll be dealing with all sorts of issues on
> logins, passwords, teaching people how to submit their papers, dealing
> with the complaints when they don't submit right, hearing someone
> whine when the system suggests they plagiarized, and so forth.
> Doesn't sound like our job in the library.
>
> Yes, we've always been involved with helping a prof track down
> citations that are suspect, dealing with the student who not only
> plagiarized, but also cut the articles out of the volume, and so
> forth. But this seems very far afield to me, and like a field that is
> full of all sorts of booby traps and land mines.
>
> Happy holidays
>
> dan
>
> --
> Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com 208-283-7711
> 3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
> www.riverofdata.com  www.gailndan.com  Stop Global Whining!

--
Mondai wa
The subject in question...
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Daniel Messer, Technology Instructor
Yakima Valley Regional Library
102 N 3rd St Yakima, WA 98901
(509) 452-8541 x712
dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
                     -Hunter S. Thompson