Turnitin setup and submission rules | Staff guide

Get Turnitin right from the start: Avoiding issues you can't fix later

This guide explains the rules everyone must follow when using Turnitin.

• Set up Turnitin correctly from the start - The way staff set up assignments controls whether work stays in Turnitin forever. Get it right at the beginning to avoid problems later.
• Only submit your own work - Never upload work for another person (student, staff member, or anyone else). This breaks the rules and causes serious problems.
• Submissions cannot be removed - Once work is uploaded to Turnitin, we cannot delete it except in very rare cases. This is why the first two points matter so much.

Set up Turnitin correctly from the start

When staff set up Turnitin in Canvas, they choose whether student work gets saved forever in Turnitin's system. Set it up right from the start to avoid problems later.

When you set up an assignment and don't want the work saved forever, look for the setting called "Store submissions in:" and choose "Do not store the submitted papers".

Only submit your own work

• Never upload someone else's work for them - This breaks the rules and gets people in serious trouble.
• Check your file before you upload - Make sure it's the right one.
• Read the LJMU Turnitin rules - Know what you're supposed to do.
• Think before you click submit - Once it's uploaded, we can't take it back.

Submissions cannot be removed

If there's a match that shouldn't be there - don't worry, you can fix it.

Mistakes happen. Sometimes Turnitin finds matches that aren't really a problem (like when it matches your own earlier practice work).

Here's what to do

Anyone looking at a Turnitin report can remove matches they don't think matter. They can just open the report, click on the match you want to remove, and choose to exclude it. Excluding sources via Match Overview

• If you're a student: Tell the person checking your report about the problem match and ask them to remove it from their view.
• If you're staff: You can remove unhelpful matches yourself when you review the report.
• If it is another organisation: just send them an email explaining the mistake and ask them to remove the match.

We cannot remove your work from Turnitin

University rules do not allow us to remove work once it has been submitted. After a file is uploaded, it is not always possible to find or track it again.

Submitting coursework is an important part of studying at university, so students must check carefully that they are uploading the correct work before they submit it.

We also cannot remove work that has already been marked or graded, because the University must keep these records.