Plagiarism-Checking Software

Leuphana employees can log in via https://my.plagaware.com/ using their Leuphana account. Do not use the login fields; instead, click “Log in with organization” in the lower-left corner.

In accordance with the provisions of the Framework Examination Regulations (§7, para. 10), students’ work may only be stored in the plagiarism detection software for a limited time. For you as a faculty member, this means that everything you upload will be deleted after 90 days. This retention period is preconfigured for all Leuphana users and cannot be changed by you. Download any examination reports you wish to use beyond this period and save them locally.

Before a paper can be uploaded to PlagAware, it must be completely anonymized (see RPO §7(10)). This means that all personal data—in particular, name, address information, and student ID number—must be removed from all pages of the paper. Often, it is sufficient to remove the title page and the declaration of originality. To remove individual pages from PDF documents, you can use programs such as Adobe Acrobat or PDF24.
However, please also check whether, for example, the student’s name is listed in the header of the paper or whether personal data is contained in the text. If you are unable to remove the personal data by deleting entire pages, please copy the text of the paper to be checked—without any personal information—directly into the text input field in PlagAware (see Section 3.2). To ensure that the papers can be clearly identified later, we recommend using pseudonyms for the papers.

Before you upload your work, make sure it is properly searchable. All text to be checked must be selectable, and when you copy text passages, they must match the printed text. (If you upload a non-searchable document, the match percentage will automatically be 0% because no text can be compared.)

Then go to https://my.plagaware.com/login and log in with your credentials. After logging in, you’ll be taken to the dashboard.

On the dashboard, click the New Check menu item (1) on the left to access the overview and start a new plagiarism check. Here, you can upload files in .docx or PDF format (2), copy the text to be checked directly into the text input field (3), or upload texts from websites or your personal library. You can have one or more documents analyzed. Image files cannot be analyzed.

The uploaded documents are then displayed in the middle section of the overview. On the right, you’ll find several settings options for the check:

1. Specify sources to search: Choose between online sources and/or sources from your library
2. Plagiarism check settings: Specify the title, author, and associated project
3. Automated evaluation: PlagAware automatically assesses whether certain sources should be excluded or accepted

You start the analysis by clicking on Start Plagiarism Check (1). Each analysis uses so-called ScanCredits (2). You can see the number of available credits at the top of the navigation bar next to the coin icon (3).

You can find the documents you have analyzed under the Plagiarism Checks section in the menu on the left (1). Next to the document title, you will now see a percentage indicating the degree of similarity to other sources (2). You can delete the respective plagiarism check using the trash can icon, and you can download the results report using the cloud icon. If you click the checkbox on the left for a plagiarism check, an overview of the document’s properties and the number of “copied” words will appear on the right. A bar with colored markers roughly indicates where in the text these words can be found.

Immediately after the analysis, an initial evaluation in percentages is displayed in the Document Manager. The percentage value that PlagAware displays here is referred to as the match level. It simply indicates what percentage of the checked text can be found, in the same or a similar form, in sources available online. However, this is not the same as indicating how many text passages are plagiarized; it simply means that matches with other sources were found. It is crucial that you review the potentially problematic text passages yourself.

When using PlagAware, it is important to verify the displayed results yourself. Since this software only performs a simple comparison for text matches, errors can easily occur. Here are just a few examples of false positives or false negatives. Therefore, always check your work manually. PlagAware cannot perform the plagiarism check for you—it can only make the process easier!

0% Match:
If a text is analyzed with a 0% match, this can either be a good sign or an indication that the text was not searchable. Since most papers contain at least a few matches due to references or generic phrasing, you should always review papers with a 0% match as well. It’s best to check that the text is properly searchable before uploading it.

Quotations are not recognized as such:
Since PlagAware checks for text matches, it’s possible that correctly formatted direct quotations may be flagged.

Generic phrasing is highlighted:
Since PlagAware searches for similar phrasing, even very generic phrases that appear in many academic texts are highlighted. Typical sentences such as “This paper addresses the question…” are therefore classified as potentially problematic because they can be found in other sources.

Bibliographic references are highlighted:
Since bibliographic references can almost always be found online somewhere, PlagAware identifies them as matches.

The detector’s sensitivity (i.e., the minimum number of matching characters required for a text passage to be highlighted) is preconfigured system-wide and cannot be changed by you.

Über das Schieberegler-Symbol, das sich neben Ihrer E-Mail-Adresse in der Kopfzeile befindet, können Sie einige Einstellungen vornehmen. Mit einem Klick darauf öffnet sich das Menü Einstellungen und Konfiguration.

Unter dem Punkt Benutzer-Oberfläche (1) können Sie konfigurieren, wie Ihnen der Prüfbericht angezeigt werden soll. Unter Standard-Einstellungen (2) können Sie einige Einstellungen zur Durchführung der Plagiatsprüfung ändern. Nicht verändern können Sie die Bereiche Empfindlichkeit (3) und Datenschutz (4), da diese systemweit für alle Leuphana-Nutzenden vorkonfiguriert sind.