Detecting Plagiarism Indicators of possible plagiarism include: A student's paper exceeds his or her research or writing capabilities, sounds professional or journalistic, or is too scholarly. The student's paper contains complex or specialized vocabulary, jargon, technical terms, or other words and expressions beyond what would be expected from a student at that level. The quality of writing is inconsistent. For example, the introduction or conclusion may be poorly written compared to the body of the paper. The title page, font, references, format, or layout of the paper is inconsistent. There are imbedded links, page breaks, or incorrect page numbers in the paper. The topic of the paper isn't consistent with the assignment, class lectures, or class handouts. The bibliography is odd in some way. For example, it may be long, the style guide used for the bibliography is different from the one used in class, the citations are all from older sources, or few or none of the materials referenced can be accessed in the library. There are links or URLs at the top or bottom of the paper or greyed out letters or areas. As a general rule, follow your instincts. Most professors can gauge what level their students are at. How to track down a suspect paper The same searching techniques that students use for locating papers on the Internet can also be used to retrieve plagiarized papers. Try typing in an unusual phrase or sentence from a suspect paper into a search engine like Google or Lycos. Because no search engine can index the entire Web, it is advisable to use more than one search engine. Try searching the free detection service PlagiServe: Global Academic Integrity Service. This comprehensive site requires registration but it takes less than two minutes to fill out the form. The site searches paper mills and Internet publications for plagiarized papers and sends a report to a given email address within twelve hours. In addition, try searching some of the paper mills for a suspect paper. If the quality of writing appears to exceed the level of the student, faculty may initially check both print and electronic reference sources like encyclopedias and dictionaries. Online reference sources like AskJeeves.com and eLibrary offer links to other web sites, newspaper and magazine articles, pictures, and books on selected topics. The eLibrary service has a subscription fee but offers a 7 day free trial. Faculty may be able to locate plagiarized sources searching some of these sites. In addition to checking print sources faculty may also want to search a few online databases. The suspect paper may have been taken directly from an article found in an online database like Academic Search Premier, accessed via the library, rather than the Internet. The database may also retrieve articles that were omitted in the bibliography but have obviously been used by the student. Another source students can plagiarize from for both ideas and text, is usenet groups and list servs. Some search engines will automatically search these Internet sources, but usually they will only search the Web unless the researcher chooses usenet groups and list servs as the format to be searched (Stebelman 49). Ask a librarian for help if there is difficulty searching for a suspect paper. Faculty can email library staff or go directly to a reference desk for assistance. Detection Services The following link is to a free online plagiarism detection service. PlagiServe: Global Academic Integrity Service The following online services search the Internet and company databases for plagiarized material. These services are provided for a subscription fee but many offer a free trial. Eve2 Glatt Plagiarism Services turnitin WordCHECK KeyWORD Software Plagiarism.org