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SafeAssign: Interpreting SafeAssign Scores - For Instructors

The originality report provides an overall percentage of matching text, indicating how much of the paper matches material found in SafeAssign’s databases. A score of 25%, for instance, means that 25% of the submitted paper matches material in the SafeAssign databases and 75% of the text is either original or not included in the available databases. However, because SafeAssign does not examine how or in what context outside source material is used, the matching score does not necessarily indicate plagiarism. As a standard rule, though, matching percentages above 50% indicate that the student has misused or relied too heavily on outside sources.

 

Instructors should be careful to interpret the SafeAssign score in the context of their assignment. What may be an inappropriate score for one paper might be fine for another. Because of this, instructors should interpret their students’ scores in light of the type of assignment, degree of research involved, and preferred writing and research style of the discipline.

• Type of Assignment: Does the assignment include a research component? If so, expect a score that is significantly higher than an assignment that does not require outside sources.
  • Research Required: Depending on the degree of research required and the preferred researched writing and documentation style for the course, an acceptable SafeAssign score could be as high as 35%.  Scores in excess of 35% indicate an overreliance on outside source material.
  • No Research Required: If the assignment does not call for any research or reference to outside sources, the SafeAssign score should be less than 10%.  Ideally, of course, no matching text would be found, but the system does not filter out common phrases and coincidental matches due to similar word combinations. Higher percentages indicate higher degrees of text match.
• Degree of Research Involved: How much sourcework does the assignment call for? In addition to the type of assignment, the SafeAssign score should be weighed against the length of the paper and the number of outside sources required.  For example, a course term paper of 15+ pages and 10 or more sources will result in a higher matching score than a five page paper utilizing three sources.
• Preferred Writing and Research Style: In what discipline is the student writing? What citation style is being used? The significance of the SafeAssign is also impacted by the different preferences for the incorporation of research. For example, in the MLA documentation style privileged by the humanities, the emphasis on quoted material may result in a higher matching score than is appropriate in fields that use APA or CSE/CBE documentation styles.

Interpreting Scores for Writing Assignments with a Research Component

The easiest scores to interpret are those at either end of the spectrum. An extremely low score, for example, likely indicates that the student did not use enough research, while a high score often implies that the student relied too heavily on sources and may, in fact, be plagiarizing parts or all of the paper.

 

Bear in mind, however, that SafeAssign can only match material stored in its library of electronic databases. The paper may include other print sources (books, journals, and magazines) that do not yet exist in electronic form, so instructors should be wary of seeing the SafeAssign score as equivalent to the balance between source work and the student’s own writing and ideas. Further, because SafeAssign does not and cannot judge whether sources are used appropriately, instructors should also be cautious of relying exclusively on the score to alert them to possible plagiarism.

 

However, though what constitutes an appropriate or inappropriate score may vary according to the assignment and its context, the following score interpretations may be used as general guidelines for instructors new to SafeAssign:

 

Source Scores Above 50%

Scores above 50% indicate a high degree of text match and suggest excessive quoted or improperly paraphrased, or plagiarized material.  

 

Scores between 35 and 50%

Scores between 35 and 50% indicate considerable and perhaps problematic levels of quoting or improper paraphrasing. Instructors should consider the assignment’s context and where a score falls in this range in order to make a judgment about the paper.

 

Source Scores Between 20 and 35%

Scores between 20 and 35% indicate that the paper contains significant quoted or improperly paraphrased material. Depending on the assignment, scores in this range are likely appropriate, provided that the student has correctly documented the source work.

 

Source Scores Below 20%

Scores below 20% indicate that some quotes or blocks of text in the paper match other documents. This score may indicate a reasonable use of sources or may indicate that a paper needs more outside support, depending on the assignment and the amount of research required.

 

A video tutorial showing you how to use SafeAssign is available here.

 

Download instructions for creating and managing your SafeAssign assignment

 

« Back to SafeAssign Homepage

 

Also in this section:

• What is SafeAssign?
• Interpreting SafeAssign scores
  • For students
  • For instructors