- "Plagiarism detection" is a marketing theme - tools detect "text matching" - not the same as determining "plagiarism."
- A "plagiarism detection tool" matches text to its DATABASE and different tools have different databases - teachers sometimes are unaware of the databases students use vs. the databases of the tool.
- "Originality" is reshaped from "original thinking" to figuring out how much to rewrite something - IF this is what you want to achieve, this is an effective approach.
A parent reported “…her daughter is not sure how much she needs to rewrite research material before she can use it” (Carroll cited in Royce, 2006, p. 5)
- Ethical concerns such as disregard of copyright to which student work is entitled, coerced participation in which "voluntary" is meaningless when student must agree in a required course, and commercial gain without compensation to students for use of their works.
- Errors in "detection" producing false-positives and false-negatives (Royce, 2006, p. 2; Jaschik, 2009; Weber-Wulff, 2008).
- Students can trick the database (Adam Zakreski, Report at MikeSmit.com from The Daily News, Halifax, April 12, 2006, p. 4)
- Students hand in one document in the class and submit a different document, such as "my letters to my mom" to Turnitin.com, knowing "they won't find anything wrong with that!" (Spender, 2004, p. 14).
- Students post YouTube videos on how to trick Turnitin.com.
- Free Internet searches do as well (Howard, 2007).