What Is the Importance of Using a
Plagiarism Checker to Check Your Thesis?
See also: Study Skills
Is a Plagiarism Checker Necessary?
Most students rely on plagiarism test tools to check their theses before printing and binding them. There is always a concern whether using plagiarism checkers is really necessary for students. However, whether you have used a plagiarism detector or not, it is a prerequisite for any university’s evaluation process to check your academic paper for plagiarism.
The use of a plagiarism checker for your master’s dissertation or thesis is a perfect way to ensure that your work is unreservedly your intellectual property. Typically, students are required to consult existing research findings when writing their academic work, including dissertations and theses. In fact, this is a precondition for students working on scientific papers. However, you must cite every text you quote.
NOTE: Even if a source has been accidentally miss-cited, it is still considered plagiarism (even if you only forget a detail like the year of publication). Such careless mistakes can lead to drastic consequences and you might even fail your thesis or dissertation.
Citing sources does not come without making some errors. Notably, with a plagiarism checker, you can verify whether the citations you made are appropriately identified. Therefore, if you are unsure of the sources you cited, you might want to check your work against plagiarism software.
Compare Plagiarism Checkers: Fee-based or Free?
When you scour the internet for plagiarism software, you will come across two options: fee-based professional detectors and free plagiarism checkers. Each option presents unique pros and cons, and this is the main reason why you should scrutinise the two options carefully.
The Pros and Cons of Free Plagiarism Detectors
Today, the internet is flooded with service providers offering free plagiarism test tools. You cannot blame anyone opting for a free checker, but it is important to remain mindful of the cons of the free options.
| Free plagiarism checker pros | Free plagiarism checker cons |
| No cost | Ambiguous data protection policies |
| Suspicious service providers | |
| Hidden costs for the full software version | |
| Word and character limitations |
The apparent advantage of a free plagiarism detector is that you will save money. However, it exposes you to the risk of not having reliable verification of your document. Most of the free plagiarism detectors are developed with poor algorithms that only verify a few sentences of your work. You might end up having a plagiarised dissertation or thesis without your knowledge.
Most of the free plagiarism software have their servers located outside Europe. Consequently, you risk having your data shared since the plagiarism test tools are not regulated by the German or European data protection policies. This explains why it is possible to have the thesis or dissertation for your master’s degree published without your consent! Even worse, this might even happen before the submission of your work.
Additionally, free plagiarism checkers have some very suspicious data regulations. Most of these free checkers will save your data upon uploading it, after which they will have it shared. This is the primary reason why using free plagiarism software might not be ideal for your research paper.
Warning
If you check your Master’s thesis, research paper, or dissertation against a plagiarism checker similar to the one used by your academic institution, your paper might be rendered 100% plagiarised. This is because some plagiarism test tools add your uploaded document as a source text in their databanks.
Pros of a Professional Plagiarism Software
A fee-based professional checker or a free plagiarism software? The choice is basically yours. You can use a free plagiarism test tool for short papers, such as research projects and term papers, especially if the lack of data protection is of no concern to you. However, for major academic papers, such as a master’s thesis or dissertation, it is crucial that you use a fee-based, professional plagiarism checker. Keep in mind that it is a worthwhile investment to pay for the verification of your research paper.
Factors to Consider When Identifying a Plagiarism Checker
There are several components to look into when identifying a trustworthy plagiarism test tool:
- Professionalism: Look at the presence of the organisation online. Also, evaluate their terms and conditions. If you are doubtful of the service provider, do not hesitate to opt-out.
- Ratings: You can rely on independent rating platforms to decide on a plagiarism check service provider.
- Speed of Running a Check: If it takes a checker less than two minutes to verify your document, the chances are that your entire paper was never checked.
- Data Storage: Go through the general terms and conditions to ensure that the removal of your research paper from the organisation’s server is guaranteed once you have run your document through the checker.
- Cost: Typically, plagiarism check providers will charge you on the basis of your paper’s word count. Remember that high cost does not always reflect high quality, which is why you should compare various checkers for pricing.
- Registration: Registration is a time-consuming process. Besides, it is unnecessary to register with a plagiarism check service provider unless they are collecting data from you.
Top Tips
- A complete plagiarism check should take about 10 minutes
- Afterwards, you should receive a detailed plagiarism report pointing out each source that needs work
- Every single sentence needs to be checked
- The company needs to have a database consisting of billions of sources to scan
An Online, Low-Cost Plagiarism Checker
To enable you to identify the best options, we scrutinised multiple providers using this checklist and decided that online, paid plagiarism checkers are the way to go. One example is BachelorPrint which offers a safe and user-friendly plagiarism checker that scans billions of sources.
It’s important that the company you choose offers a safe, thorough, reliable, and user-friendly plagiarism test tool.
In terms of data protection, it’s best if the company removes all data from their server 24 hours after you’ve completed the check.
Overall, the check shouldn’t take anymore than a few hours, but if it’s done within seconds, then be cautious, as every line of your research paper or master’s thesis may not have been scanned.
Look for a company with a simple registration process and plenty of top reviews from other students and tertiary institutions.
How to Use a Plagiarism Checker in 3 Easy Steps
With the click of a few buttons, you can have your research work verified via plagiarism software.
Step 1: Upload Your Paper
The first step is to transfer your paper to the company’s server by clicking on the ‘Upload’ button. Some plagiarism detectors may require a specific file format, so be wary of this. The BachelorPrint plagiarism detector for example will accept your research paper, dissertation, or master’s thesis in any format, so to use their plagiarism test tool you simply need to upload your paper as it is.
Step 2: Check for Plagiarism
You want plagiarism software that uses a unique algorithm to divide your research paper into multiple sections for plagiarism checking. These sections will then be compared to billions of sources featured in the checker’s databank. All the plagiarised texts are assembled for your analysis.
Step 3: Improve Your Content
In the final step, a report containing possible plagiarism is made available to you either through email, or sometimes through the company’s plagiarism checking portal. The plagiarism checker will cite sources for all the plagiarised text. You can then visit the source (the plagiarism report should provide links) and improve all the plagiarised parts.
Use a Reliable Plagiarism Checker
The topic of plagiarism is not every student’s cup of tea, yet plagiarism is avoidable. Being accused of plagiarism can be frustrating, especially when it is a case of imprudence. Proper citation of sources when writing a technical or scientific paper is something that requires mastery.
To be on the safe side, it is always advisable to use a plagiarism checker. The internet provides a wide array of options as far as plagiarism checking is concerned, some that are absolutely free. However, if you are dealing with a major paper like a master’s thesis or dissertation, you might want to use professional plagiarism software. The best way to identify a reliable plagiarism checker is by using your instincts. If you are doubtful of a plagiarism software provider, you can never be wrong with such instincts.
There are many plagiarism software providers out there. If you do your research and consider the factors mentioned in this article, there’s nothing that can go wrong.
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About the Author
Maxime Werner is Business Development Manager at BachelorPrint.