Girish Mahajan (Editor)

PlagScan

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Developer(s)
  
PlagScan GmbH

Alexa rank
  
24,888

Platform
  
Internet

Website
  
plagscan.com

Available in
  
English, French, Spanish, German

PlagScan is a SaaS (available online and on-premises) plagiarism detection software, used by academic institutions and businesses. PlagScan serves teachers and professors to identify plagiarism and educate students on the appropriate usage of sources in academic works as well as protecting copyrights of texts.The software was launched in 2009 by Markus Goldbach and Johannes Knabe. PlagScan serves schools and universities worldwide, with a strong presence in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. By 2015, PlagScan served more than 1000 organizations worldwide- including the University of Jordan, the Fortis College Largo and the Free University of Berlin. In Austria PlagScan is used at more than 300 high schools to check the final thesis (Vorwissenschaftliche Arbeit) of pupils for plagiarism.

Contents

Features

PlagScan compares submitted texts with billions of documents on the web and internal archives. The accessible search index expands on a daily basis. Each year, PlagScan checks several million documents for plagiarism.

Users can either register as single user, or as an organization, which enables further setting options.

Upon first-time registration, single users receive a free test credit. After the completion of a satisfactory trial, single users can purchase more according to their needs.

In order to register as an organization, the representative needs to verify the organization’s address. An obligation-free quote can be requested immediately on the website. Organizations can either integrate PlagScan in an existing Learning Management System (e.g. Moodle, Canvas, etc.), specifically providing LTI compatibility, or use PlagScan’s browser interface. Organizations can choose from a variety of options in the settings. The administrator of the organization can create multiple administrators and groups to separate different departments within one institution.

After scanning a submitted text for plagiarism, the software provides the user with a detailed report, indicating potential plagiarism and listing the sources of similarities.

Technology

The core two-step algorithm was developed in 2008 and has been refined on a regular basis ever since. The software recognizes plagiarism as soon as three successive words attune to a different source. PlagScan's database constantly grows. Users can decide optionally if they want to include their submissions to an internal archive to compare future submissions with.

Academic Integrity

PlagScan helps these academic organizations to increase students’ awareness toward plagiarism and academic integrity. Universities announce to their students the usage of a plagiarism detection software, therefore students are pushed to use citing sources correctly.

Content Protection

PlagScan also offers its services to the commercial market. Business users employ the software to improve SEO rankings, or secure the proper usage of copyright material. They mostly aim to ensure unique content and its protection. The most common commercial customers are publishers, journalists, advertising agencies and law firms.

Privacy and Data Security

PlagScan maintains the European data security, privacy laws and copyright regulations, particularly following the BDSG. Each user has a variety of options regarding to their data and submission settings, for example whether to keep, delete or include submissions in an internal archive. Ultimately, organizations can also opt for an ‘on-premise’ solution, guaranteeing that data never leaves the organization’s computing center.

Other

TOPtenreviews ranked PlagScan as best plagiarism checker in 2012.

PlagScan participated in “Captivate,” a three-month acceleration program by the German Accelerator in 2014, promoting German technology startups to enter the U.S. market.

PlagScan was ranked as one of the best information and communication technologies at the European Venture Summit in 2014.

References

PlagScan Wikipedia