In English

URKUND is a plagiarism detection software that compares uploaded texts to sources available on the internet and in databases. 

URKUND (https://www.urkund.com) is a plagiarism detection software that compares uploaded texts to three types of sources: 

• materials publicly available on the internet 
• publications and student papers in the UT digital archive in DSpace 
• texts in the URKUND database 

According to the Study Regulations, the university is entitled to check students’ written papers with a plagiarism detection system and for that purpose, add them to the database of URKUND. [effective as of 2 May 2017] Checking student papers with a plagiarism detection system is part of the evaluation process. The teaching staff do not have to ask the students’ consent for checking their work with a plagiarism detection system, but it is advisable to inform the students of that. 

Students cannot use URKUND independently – cooperation between the lecturer/supervisor and student is important.  

With URKUND, teaching staff can check students’ theses as well as written papers submitted for courses (e.g. reports, studies). URKUND detects textual matches between the submitted paper and the texts on the internet and in databases connected to URKUND. After the analysis, the lecturer can check whether the student has cited properly, and if plagiarism is found, explain the breach to the student.  

For all student papers, the personal (to change and supplement) and proprietary rights (to make copies and disseminate) of the paper belong to the student. For theses, students give the university the right to publish the theses by non-exclusive licence. 

Works uploaded to URKUND remain in the database of URKUND and will be used as sources in the future. URKUND is not an environment for publishing works. Works uploaded to URKUND cannot be retrieved from the database by the search. The materials you can access in URKUND due to matches are not suitable for citing and referencing, except if the same work is publicly accessible on the internet and/or in public databases. In that case, the public source must be referred to. 

The plagiarism detection software URKUND does not apply for the copyright of the documents uploaded by the user. URKUND does not have the right to disseminate the uploaded material or forward it to third parties without the author’s written consent.  

Using URKUND 

There are three ways to use URKUND: 

• You submit a written paper in a Moodle course via an assignment, a forum or a workshop to which the lecturer has added the URKUND check. This means that submitted papers are uploaded to URKUND for checking and later the match percentage is shown next to the submission. The lecturer can see the report and may also make the report accessible to the learner. If the report is made accessible to the learner, you will receive an email notification about that. 
• The lecturer gives you his or her URKUND analysis address to which you will send an ordinary email with the file(s) to be checked in the attachment. In that case, the file will be automatically sent to URKUND for checking and you will receive an email notification once the report is available. 
• You send the file to the lecturer by email and the lecturer uploads it to URKUND using his or her account. You will not receive the report automatically, but the lecturer can share the report with you. 

The checking of students’ files is always done via the lecturer’s or supervisor’s URKUND analysis address. For theses, using your supervisor’s analysis address is highly recommended, as then the supervisor can help you interpret the report and give advice on making changes.  

If you want to check the draft of your thesis already, but your supervisor has not offered you this opportunity, ask your supervisor for that. URKUND helps you write your thesis. We do not recommend using the analysis address of an employee of the university who is not your lecturer or supervisor. 

The URKUND report and its interpretation 

As a result of text comparison, URKUND prepares a report showing to what extent the analysed text coincides with other texts (incl. properly cited quotes). The report shows which parts of the text coincide with other sources. 

URKUND checks the matches of the uploaded text with the materials on the internet and in the URKUND database. Based on the matches detected by URKUND, the lecturer can analyse whether the quotes in the submitted text have been presented properly and whether the sources have been properly referred to. It is up to the lecturer to assess whether a match constitutes plagiarism or not. 

Even if the report shows a high match percentage, there might be no reason for concern, as it can be due to allowed matches (e.g. previous version or parts of the same work, properly cited quotes, compulsory parts of a thesis, the list of sources, etc.). 

See the following figure for the possibilities of using and interpreting the URKUND report. 

 

Ways of archiving texts uploaded to URKUND 

Works uploaded to URKUND remain in the database of URKUND and will be used as sources for comparison in the future.  

When the learners upload a file to URKUND, they receive an email through which they are recommended to add metadata to the uploaded paper (especially if the email address does not refer to the name), as it protects the copyright of the author. 

The URKUND reports contain links to archived indexed documents containing matches, except if the author of the document has exempted the document from that. 

If you as the author do not want to have the paper indexed in URKUND, you can exempt the document from the indexed database. For that, follow the guidelines in the email received from URKUND after uploading the file. However, the paper will remain in the URKUND database and papers uploaded in the future will be also compared to yours, but only the matching parts will be displayed and the entire paper will not be visible nor available for download. Also, the name of the document, the name of the educational institution and the analysis address used for uploading the paper will be displayed by the match. 

Support 

If you have problems with using URKUND or need help with interpreting the report, contact the lecturer whose analysis address was used to check your paper in URKUND.