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How it works

From upload to evidence in minutes.

PlagTrace finds text a submission shares with other sources and shows you the evidence. It never decides whether something is plagiarism. That judgement stays with your staff.
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Animation: a student essay is uploaded, its text is read, it is compared with the open web, PlagTrace's source memory, your institution's library and the other submissions in the assignment, and a similarity report is produced.

Four steps

  1. 1

    Upload

    Staff upload Word, PDF, ODT or text files, one essay or a whole assignment at once. Campus systems can send them through the API.

  2. 2

    Read and prepare

    We extract the text, and set aside quotations, bibliographies and template text so they don't inflate the score.

  3. 3

    Compare

    Distinctive passages are searched on the web and every source is aligned with the submission word by word. The library and batch are compared at the same time.

  4. 4

    Review

    Staff open a report with numbered highlights, the matching source passage alongside, and a coverage summary. Print or save it for moderation.

What every check is compared with

The open web

Billions of public pages, searched live

PlagTrace source memory

Every page matched in earlier scans

Your institution's library

Past submissions and course material

This assignment

Every other submission in the batch

What's in a report

  • Numbered highlights, each linked to its source
  • Side-by-side passage comparison
  • Labels for exact overlap, small edits and possible rewording
  • Quotes, bibliographies and template text excluded
  • A coverage note showing what was checked
  • Printable report for moderation and appeals

Honest about coverage

No checker sees everything. Paywalled journals, private repositories and pages that are blocked or have changed may not be found. Results also depend on your search allowance and the size of your library.
"No match found" means nothing matched in the sources checked. It does not prove a piece of work is original.

Integrating with your systems

Campus software sends documents to POST /v1/checks with a secret API key, then collects the result by polling or through a signed webhook. API keys are only used from your server, never in a browser.

See it on your own assignments

Every campus trial is set up by a person, not a sales funnel. Try real checks free for 14 days.

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