iThenticate: Originality Checking Tool for Graduate Students, Faculty, and Staff
Overview
The Graduate School at Virginia Tech provides access to iThenticate, a similarity-checking and originality verification tool available at no charge for graduate students, faculty, and staff. This tool is intended to help writers ensure that their documents are appropriately cited and free from unintentional plagiarism.
iThenticate can be used to review a variety of written materials, including:
Theses and dissertations (ETDs) and their drafts
Major term papers and research manuscripts
Article drafts and responses to exam prompts
Faculty research documents, grant proposals, and other written work
Who Can Use iThenticate
- Graduate Students: Use iThenticate to check your written materials for similarity and potential citation concerns before submission.
- Faculty & Staff: Faculty members and staff who use resources are encouraged to use iThenticate to verify the originality of written work, such as research manuscripts, grant proposals, and student advising.
How to Access iThenticate
Although iThenticate is straightforward to use, all users are strongly encouraged to review the instructional videos, particularly those focused on interpreting the similarity report, which is essential for responsible and effective use of the tool.
Create an iThenticate Account
This video explains how to open an iThenticate account using the Graduate School–provided access.
Submit a Document for Review
This video walks through the process of uploading and submitting a paper or draft to iThenticate for similarity checking.
Review and Interpret the Similarity Report
This video explains how to read the similarity report, understand similarity percentages, and identify areas that may require citation or revision.
Access the iThenticate Portal
As demonstrated in the videos, the iThenticate portal can be accessed directly via the iThenticate portal link.
If you encounter an access error, contact the Graduate School at grads@vt.edu for assistance.
ETD (Electronic Thesis & Dissertation) Requirements
Graduate students preparing an Electronic Thesis or Dissertation (ETD) are required to use iThenticate as part of the final examination and ETD submission process. For approval of the final examination and the ETD, students must complete the following steps:
Students must run their ETD through iThenticate and the similarity report must be reviewed by the student and advisor prior to scheduling the final examination.
The similarity report must be reviewed by both the student and the advisor to identify and address any potential citation or originality concerns.
The final similarity report must be included in the submission of the ETD to the Graduate School. This report will be archived separately from the ETD.
Report Review Benchmarks (ETD submissions):
The Graduate School’s ETD staff generally look for an overall similarity score of less than 25% and no more than 5% from a single source in the similarity report.
Scores above these thresholds may require additional review by an Associate Dean. However, lower or higher percentages may still be acceptable following detailed review.
Training and Instructional Resources
The Graduate School and the TLOS Professional Development Network offer training sessions throughout the semester on using iThenticate for staff, students, and faculty. Visit the Professional Development Network course page and search for iThenticate.
Helpful Tips for Using iThenticate
To ensure an accurate and meaningful similarity report, students should prepare both the ETD document and the iThenticate settings as outlined below:
Document Preparation
Exclude the title page and bibliography/works cited/references from the document uploaded to iThenticate.
Suggested iThenticate Folder Filter Settings
- Exclude:
- Quoted material
- Small matches (less than 9 words)
- Small sources (less than 9 words)
- Include:
- Content from the academic abstract through the end of the main body of the document
- Appendices
- All available repositories for similarity comparison
- Exclude:
Support & Contact Information
If you need help accessing iThenticate or interpreting a similarity report, reach out to the Graduate School team:
Email: grads@vt.edu
Graduate School Office: Graduate Life Center, Virginia Tech
Phone: (540) 231-8636