What is the similarity index?
William Brown
Published May 17, 2026
What is the similarity index?
1. The percentage of overlap between text submitted to plagiarism detection and that in original source material. This should not be considered the percentage of a paper that is plagiarized.
Can I use iThenticate for free?
The service is free and confidential. Requesters must be the first, last, or corresponding author of the NIH work-related, unpublished manuscript. Reports are usually delivered within three business days.
Is there a free version of Turnitin?
Unfortunately, as a student, you cannot use Turnitin for free. Turnitin only makes its plagiarism prevention software available to universities and other institutions. For students, a good alternative to Turnitin is the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker. Prices depend on the size of your document and start at $18.95.
How do you find the similarity index?
Check your document for similarity to online sources
- On the Home tab, choose Editor.
- In the Editor pane, find Similarity, and click or tap Check for similarity to online sources.
- To review the passages, click or tap Similarities reviewed.
What does yellow mean on Turnitin?
Yellow means 25% – 49% of the paper matched an outside source. If there is no plagiarism, this paper would likely benefit from more paraphrasing and analysis. Orange means 50% – 74% of the paper matched an outside source. This is not good and needs significant revision whether or not plagiarism has taken place.
Is Turnitin 14 similarity bad?
The Acceptable Percentage for Turnitin. The widely acceptable Turnitin percentage is 15% and below. However, there is no universally specified similarity score, because plagiarism policies vary with institutions. No matter the accepted score, anything above 20% is just too much plagiarism and shows a lot of copying.
What is the difference between Turnitin and iThenticate?
Turnitin and iThenticate check against the same databases, but these services are designed for different categories of users. While Turnitin is designed to meet the needs of instructors and their courses, iThenticate is a plagiarism detection service for researchers. iThenticate cannot be used for coursework.
What is the meaning of iThenticate?
iThenticate is a plagiarism detection service for the corporate market, from Turnitin, LLC, which also runs Plagiarism.org. The service was launched in 2004 and is headquartered in Oakland, California. It is marketed to “publishers, news agencies, corporations, law firms, and government agencies”.
Is Unicheck as good as Turnitin?
Reviewers felt that Turnitin meets the needs of their business better than Unicheck. When comparing quality of ongoing product support, reviewers felt that Turnitin is the preferred option. For feature updates and roadmaps, our reviewers preferred the direction of Turnitin over Unicheck.
What is the best free alternative to Turnitin?
Top 10 Turnitin Alternatives & Competitors
- Unicheck.
- Grammarly Business.
- PlagScan.
- PlagiarismCheck.org.
- ProWritingAid.
- Plagiarism Checker X.
- Noplag.
- URKUND.
What Turnitin score is too high?
As a guide a returned percentage of below 15% would probably indicate that plagiarism has not occurred. However, if the 15% of matching text is one continuous block this could still be considered plagiarism. A high percentage would probably be anything over 25% (Yellow, orange or red).
How can I check my paper similarity?
From the main homepage, select the name of the class to view the class portfolio. Find the assignment inbox for the assignment you submitted to. Under the Similarity column, you’ll find your similarity score. This is a numerical and visual indicator of the amount of similarity we found in your work.