Symptom

Student submits paper once, revises, then submits again. Originality Similarity Index of the revised paper is higher than the original paper.

Cause

Most likely, Turnitin is comparing the revised paper to the initial a previous submission.

This happens because:

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1. the instructor:

   1. did not change the Optional Settings to Generate Similarity Reports for student submissions... immediately (can overwrite until due date), and/or

   2. required the students to submit drafts to earlier Turnitin submission folder(s) and did not change the Optional Settings to Submissions to this assignment will be stored in...do not store the submitted papers.
      

2. students are required to submit reports at various stages as a group, but a different person submits each time, resulting in one submission being compared to the other.
   

3. student submits to the wrong course (class) and/or wrong assignment folder.
   

4. (in Quick Submit - staff only) the staff checked the Add file to Turnitin's repository option.

   1. Once a file is added to Turnitin's repository, the submission of a revised paper is checked against the earlier submission.

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Solution

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Staff can exclude the source(s) leading to the skewed

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1. Important notes on requesting paper removal.

Finally, please configure these settings if you have not done so:

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Similarity Index.

Also see Why is a student paper self matching? (retrieved 21 April 2023)