What is iThenticate?
iThenticate is a web-based platform that compares text in uploaded documents with millions of items of existing scholarship and webpages to identify matching text. All La Trobe researchers can get access to iThenticate as part of the University’s suite of support for research integrity. Journal editors, publishers, and thesis examiners often use iThenticate or similar software to detect and deter plagiarism and self-plagiarism. Researchers can identify and address potential areas of concern from early in the writing process by using iThenticate themselves.
Using iThenticate can help you:
- avoid inadvertent plagiarism and self-plagiarism
- prevent copyright issues
- comply with the Australian Code for Responsible Conduct of Research (2007)
- develop personal judgment about acceptable practices of academic integrity.
iThenticate does not:
- compare text in different languages
- match diagrams and tables
- match images.
iThenticate does not save a copy of any file which is scanned to a database of sources (unlike Turnitin, similar software used in undergraduate teaching). It protects intellectual property while allowing researchers to identify errors in citation and attribution.