Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Wikipedia Edits Now Get Student Paper-Style Plagiarism Check

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 11/17/15

The most cited source in secondary and higher education student papers is now getting the same kind of plagiarism check those student papers also often get. The non-profit Wikipedia has struck an informal, non-exclusive agreement with Turnitin to run the technology company's plagiarism checking software on the English version of the digital encyclopedia to identify potential copyright violations.

Turnitin's software is intended to help students learn how to use, cite and paraphrase source material properly as part of the process of improving their writing and critical thinking skills.

The Turnitin technology works alongside a copy-and-paste detection program developed by the Wikipedia community named EranBot. The addition of Turnitin to EranBot allows the latter to examine individual edits instead of just whole articles. Each day new edits are checked for potential copyright abuse. Those that require additional research by Wikipedia's army of volunteer editors are flagged and reported for follow-up.

"As an openly licensed free encyclopedia, Wikipedia respects copyright the same way traditional publishers do. In fact, each contributor in our community is a copyright owner who chooses to freely license his or her own work," said Jake Orlowitz, in a press release. Orlowitz is head of the Wikipedia Library, a program that helps its volunteer editors access reliable sources to improve the resource. "Turnitin now gives us access to a more sophisticated system for flagging potential copyright violations."

WikiEdu, the Wiki Education Foundation, which encourages college faculty to have their students contribute to the Wikipedia knowledge base as part of classroom assignments, is also working with Turnitin to check student edits through Wiki Ed's Classroom Program.

A 2011 research project by Turnitin's former owner, iParadigms, found that Wikipedia was the most popular plagiarized source for both secondary and higher education.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Image of digital screen with data and math formulas on black background

    AI Giants Report Advances in Mathematical Research

    OpenAI has published what it says is an AI-generated solution to the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of mathematics' seven Millennium Prize Problems, while Anthropic has reported separate advances in research mathematics and formal proof generation.

  • Businessman using laptop to analyze and control information security data

    Survey Reveals Data Governance Enforcement Gap for Agentic AI Tools

    According to a new report, 99.7% of IT and security leaders surveyed by identity security company Delinea said their organization has a formal policy governing what data AI tools and agents are permitted to access. Yet only about 51% said AI access is checked against those policies in real time.

  • Blurred silhouettes of business people in a modern office with a glowing blue network overlay

    Open Secure AI Alliance Moves to Linux Foundation

    The Open Secure AI Alliance has moved under the Linux Foundation, giving the initiative what the organizations describe as a neutral home for developing open source tools, shared standards and defensive practices. The Alliance was launched by NVIDIA in July to develop open security technologies for AI systems and agents.

  • Abstract streaks of colorful light bars over black background

    Microsoft Intros ROI Tracking for AI Agents, Expands Copilot in Forms

    Microsoft is introducing new capabilities aimed at showing organizations whether artificial intelligence agents deliver measurable value while expanding how Copilot can create and analyze surveys.