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How Ouriginal works

Ouriginal is a tool intended for plagiarism checking. You should use it as a teacher and examiner when you receive text files from students who have submitted them via Canvas. The review result is compiled in an analysis report that you need to review. KTH recommends using Ouriginal as an integrated tool in Canvas "Assignments", but it can also be used independently in exceptional cases.

Ouriginal seeks matching sources from three archives 

Ouriginal compares the students' texts against a database of previously published texts and materials online. Ouriginal pulls out potential matching sources from three archives:

  1. Sources from the internet.
  2. Academically published material.
  3. Previously submitted student documents.

When Ouriginal searches for and records the degree of matching, it considers all uses of reformulation, synonyms and other forms of exchange. Ouriginal will not be fooled by, for example, rewriting 'I bought milk' to 'lactose drink was bought by me'.

The review provides a report

After Ouriginal has analyzed the texts, you will get a report showing how much of the text is original and copied. You can also see the sources of any plagiarized material.

The teacher's assessment is the most important

Ouriginal reviews, but as a teacher, you must actively take a stand on the reports that Ouriginal gives you. Ouriginal is not a substitute for the teacher's assessment but a tool to facilitate and support the assessment of students' work. A high or low match in Ouriginal's audit report does not have to mean anything. The teacher is responsible for reviewing the information from Ouriginal and assess whether it is plagiarism.

​Report if you suspect plagiarism

If you judge that a student has plagiarised their work, you must report a disciplinary offence. On the page Report of disciplinary offence  you can read more about what you need to include in the report. There you will also find who you can contact at your school if you are unsure about the process.

Always look through the entire report

Always look through the entire report and review what has been found. Also, look through changes in document layout, linguistic differences within the text, and the design history of the document. In cases where the student tried to deceive Ouriginal with documents that look good to people but are unreadable to computers, Ouriginal will mark it as misspelled.

More information about what can be reviewed manually can be found in KTH's handbook: Help students avoid plagiarism (pdf) . (Please note that the English version of the handbook starts on page 86.)

As a teacher, you can also work proactively by talking to the students about plagiarism. Read more on the page Guide your students away from plagiarism .

Requirements for the texts submitted

The following applies to documents submitted for review.

Only documents from 2017 onwards may be reviewed

Only documents produced since KTH has had Ouriginal (2017 onwards) may be reviewed. Note that the documents must be relevant to the course or education.

Documents must contain more than 430 characters and 20 words

Ouriginal only processes documents containing more than 430 characters and 20 words. If a document that is too small is submitted via Canvas, Ouriginal will email the student to inform them that the document has not been forwarded to the recipient. However, teachers see the student's submission as usual in Canvas but with information that Ouriginal is still working on the assignment. Since Ouriginal will not review those submissions, the review work will never be announced as finished in Canvas.

If a student submits an unsupported file format, an exclamation mark will appear for the submission in Canvas.

Using Ouriginal independently via account and analysis address

You can also use Ouriginal outside of Canvas. It can be good for you who supervise or graduate degree projects. Log in to Ouriginal, www.ouriginal.com, with your KTH account. Once logged in, you can upload files for analysis. Read more on the page Using Ouriginal standalone.

Approach to Ouriginal for different roles at KTH

This applies to the use of Ouriginal depending on the role/title and purpose:

Lecturing teachers

Ouriginal supports the teacher's assessment work within the teaching framework, or in similar situations as supervision. Teachers in courses available in Canvas may use Ouriginal to check students' texts.

PhD student

Doctoral students who teach may use Ouriginal to plagiarism check their students' texts but should not usually use it to review their own documents. If a doctoral student wants to plagiarism check, for example, their thesis, it should be done in consultation with the supervisor. Plagiarism checks are then carried out by the supervisor submitting the material to Ouriginal or by the doctoral student emailing the material directly to the supervisor's analysis address. In both cases, the report from Ouriginal is sent to the supervisor.

If you supervise degree projects, doctoral students or licentiates

You can use Ouriginal independently if you do not have a Canvas room connected to your teaching. For example, it may be relevant if you supervise degree projects, doctoral students or licentiates. Learn more about using Ouriginal standalone.

If you do not have an account and analysis address in Ouriginal

You, who are a teacher on a course in the current period, automatically have an account and analysis address in Ouriginal. If you need an account and analysis address but are not listed as a teacher in UG, please contact it-support@kth.se .