New Unicheck Report: Design and Functionality

We present the new design and functionality that will enhance your experience even further.

 

General Layout

Interpreting Similarity Results

Side Panel

Matches Tab

Quotes Tab

Exclusions Tab

Side-by-Side Comparison

Suspicious Formatting

Options Menu

Tools

 

General Layout

Side Panel displays the Similarity Score, the list of matched sources, and the list of identified citations/references. You can filter sources by category (Internet or Library) and examine any particular source in more detail (e.g., find where exactly in the submitted text it is cited or check the source online).

Document Viewer displays the submitted document. You can easily find the highlighted parts of the text that have been matched to their corresponding sources or identified as citations/references. Text segments are highlighted in different colors depending on the type of match.

Unicheck Report has two main display sections: Document Viewer and Side Panel. 

Other main elements of the Unicheck Report are:

• Minimap (helps to quickly find matches, quotes, and references in a large document)
• File name
• User name (e.g., student's name)
• Date and time the assignment was checked
• Paper Details: full information on submitted document 
• Comments: add and edit comments, view comments history
• Options: set exclusion filters, export report to PDF, change language, and more
• Text only: click to see the similarity report without images and any other non-text elements 

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Interpreting Similarity Results

Complete Unicheck Report is generated within few minutes. The document or text is compared with Internet sources and students’ papers from the same institution.

Unicheck Report uses different colors to display the Similarity Score indicator
(each color is attributed to one particular Similarity Score range):

0%	1-24%	25-49%	50-74%	75-100%

 

Unicheck Report uses the following colors to highlight matched segments in the text:

	Matches
	Selected match
	Quotes
	Selected quote
	References
	Selected reference
	Character replacement (possible attempt to conceal plagiarism)

The highlighted parts of the text in the Document Viewer show matches with sources from the Internet or sources from the Unicheck Institutional Library (other stored assignments). Matches identified as citations and references are also highlighted (APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard).

You can click on the highlighted segments to see the corresponding matched sources (alternatively, when you click on sources from the list, the corresponding text segments are highlighted).

 

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Side Panel

Side Panel provides a detailed breakdown of the search results:

• You can switch between tabs to see the results separately for each category: Matches, Quotes, and Exclusions.
• When you click on the listed sources or citations/references, the corresponding text segments are highlighted.
• Related sources are organized into groups according to the following principle:

1. The source with the highest Similarity Score is identified — Source A.
2. All “smaller” sources with matches which are fully contained within Source A go to Group A.
3. Then the second “largest” source (not from Group A) is identified — Source B.
4. All “smaller” sources with matches which are fully contained within Source B go to Group B, and so on until all sources are grouped according to the described principle and there are no spare sources left.

Unicheck never counts the same unoriginal text more than once, no matter how many sources were found to contain such text.
Often, the total Similarity Score is less than the algebraic sum of “Group A + Group B + Source A + Source B, etc.,” as different sources (e.g., websites) may contain some "shared" (overlapping) parts of text.

 

MATCHES tab

This view displays the total Similarity Score and the list of matched sources organized into groups.

Total Similarity Score (TSS) is calculated by the following formula:

References word count will equal zero if references exclusion setting is off.

Within the MATCHES tab, you can switch between three views (lists) of matched sources: All Sources, Internet Sources, and Library Sources (i.e., stored assignments submitted by other students and/or assignments that were directly uploaded to the Unicheck account by administrator or instructor).

When you click on a source or a group of sources, the following buttons are displayed:

• Compare: generate a side-by-side view of the submitted document and the source document or website with matches highlighted. Please see Side-by-Side Comparison for more details.
  
  
• Download (Library sources only): download the matched document.
  
  Note: If you do not see the Download button, please contact your institution's LMS administrator.
  This feature can be enabled by administrator at corp.unicheck.com (see Privacy Settings Admin Guide).
  Not available in Google Classroom.
  
  
• Details (Library sources only): view paper details for the matched source. 
  
  
• View Source (Internet sources only): view an Internet source.
  
  
• Exclude: exclude an individual source or a group of sources from the list (the corresponding sources will appear under the EXCLUSIONS tab, and their Similarity Scores will not add to the total Similarity Score).
  
  

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QUOTES tab

 

 

This view displays the percentage of quotes (in-text citations) in the document as well as the list of detected quotes and references.

Quotes Percentage (QP) is calculated by the following formula:

References word count will equal zero if references exclusion setting is off.

Quotes List: This view displays the list and the total number of detected quotes.

When you click on quotes from this list, the Omit Quote button allows you to exclude them from the list (the corresponding quotes will appear under Omitted Quotes subheading, and their Similarity Scores will add to the total Similarity Score). You can always include them back in the list of matched quotes by clicking an omitted quote and then clicking Add Quote (Similarity Scores of such quotes will not add to the total Similarity Score). 

References List: This view displays the list and the total number of detected references.

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EXCLUSIONS tab

This view displays the Similarity Score for excluded matched sources and the list of such sources organized into groups.

Exclusions Similarity Score (ESS) is calculated by the following formula:

References word count will equal zero if references exclusion setting is off.

Within the EXCLUSIONS tab, you can switch between three views (lists) of excluded matched sources: All Sources, Internet Sources, and Library Sources (i.e., stored assignments submitted by other students and/or assignments that were directly uploaded to the Unicheck account by administrator or instructor).

When you click on a source or a group of sources, the following buttons are displayed:

• View Source: view an Internet or Library source.
  
  
• Include: add an individual source or a group of sources to the list of matched sources (the corresponding sources will appear under the MATCHES tab, and their Similarity Scores will add to the total Similarity Score).
  
  
• Details (Library sources only): view paper details for the matched source.

Sources excluded based on the exclusion filter settings are tagged as Auto Excluded.

Note: When Unicheck detects malicious or explicit content, you will receive additional warning messages before being redirected to such Internet sources.

 

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Side-by-Side Comparison

In this mode, the screen is split into two parts: submitted document is displayed on the left and the source document (Internet or Library match) is displayed on the right. Matched text segments are highlighted in both submitted and source documents.

To enter the Side-by-Side Comparison mode for any matched source, click a source on the Side Panel and then click Compare.

Note: If Compare button is not active, it could be due to privacy restrictions. Please contact your institution’s Unicheck administrator to enable this feature. This button cannot be enabled for Library sources displayed in student versions of the Unicheck Report.

While in Side-by-Side Comparison mode, you can use all the functionality described in the Side Panel section, such as viewing a source, excluding a source, and displaying matched paper details (for Library sources only).

A matched source (Internet or Library document) is always displayed in plain text, while submitted document can be displayed either in normal view mode or in plain text. Click Text Only to switch between view modes.

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Suspicious Formatting

Unicheck uses sophisticated algorithms to detect suspicious formatting in student submissions. There are websites that offer various techniques to help students conceal plagiarism, such as character replacement, insertion of hidden symbols, replacement of text with images, and other advanced techniques.

When Unicheck detects suspicious formatting, MODIFIND tab appears at the top right of the Side Panel.

Click the MODIFIND tab to see the list of pages with suspicious formatting. Click on specific page to view it in the left window.

Note: The indicator will be displayed in red color as long as the list of pages with text modifications contains at least one page that might affect the similarity score. You may exclude pages from the list by clicking Omit (see description below). 

If submitted document contains text modifications that might affect the similarity score, the percentage indicator is displayed in red color regardless of the similarity score range.

When Unicheck is able to calculate the Similarity Score correctly despite possible attempts to amend formatting, pages containing such amendments are marked as “Does not affect Similarity Score.”

When you click on a page from the list, the following buttons are displayed:

• Inspect (only for pages that might affect Similarity Score)
  
  Click to open a side-by-side view to visually compare author’s original formatting of a page (left) with a non-formatted version of the same page (right).
  
  

Visual difference between the left and the right window may mean that special formatting was applied to conceal plagiarism (for example, some part of the text was inserted as an image over the real text).

When you hover the cursor over any text line in the right window, it is highlighted with a blue mask in both windows to show corresponding text segments.

• Omit
  Click to exclude a page from the list of pages with text modifications. The page will appear under Omitted Pages subheading. This action is recommended if you do not want a particular page to be considered containing suspicious formatting.
  

You can always include it back in the list of pages with potential cheating by clicking an omitted page and then clicking Return for Review.

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Options Menu

From the drop-down Options menu you can configure exclusion options, download a report or original document, change view options and language. 

 

• Exclusion Options

Exclude Quotes / Exclude References: If this option is active, Unicheck will search and highlight in-text citations and/or references (APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard). 

Excluding quotes means highlighting them in the submitted document. Detected quotes will not be checked for plagiarism.

Excluding references means highlighting them in the submitted document. Detected references will not be checked for plagiarism.

Exclude Sources Less Than: This option allows to automatically exclude matched sources based on the set parameters. For large texts like theses or dissertations, it is recommended to set the “%” value to “0” in order not to omit relevant matches. The minimum value for “Words” is “8”. Sources with combined matched word count less than the set value will be excluded.

• Download Original File

Download the originally submitted document.

• Export Report

Download the Unicheck Report as a PDF file.

Note: Please allow pop-ups for corp.unicheck.com in your browser's settings.

 

• View

Text Only: In this view mode, the text is displayed without pictures and formatting while matches and citations/references remain highlighted.

Zoom Paper: Click to change the scale of your document in the Document Viewer.

Hide Minimap: Click to hide Minimap, which helps to quickly find matches, quotes, and references in a large document.

Hide Side Panel: Click to hide Side Panel.

Enter Full Screen: Click to see the report in full screen.

• Language

Choose your preferred interface language.

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Tools

Unicheck offers a number of handy tools to analyze the report and provide feedback to students.

• Comments

Сlick Add Comment and select an area in the document where you want to leave your comment. You can make your comment public or private.

Click Comments to review comments history or edit any comment.

 

• Ignore Text

The Ignore Text feature allows instructors to ignore irrelevant text in the Unicheck Report.

One of the most common use cases is when students receive a template from their instructor to fill in (e.g., a case study or a test with multiple questions). In such a case, only the text written by the students should be checked for similarity, while the template text should be ignored.   

Find out more about this feature here.

• Minimap

This panel helps to quickly find matches, quotes, and references in a large document. Click on a bar to display the corresponding page or point at it to see similarity data for the page.

 

• Paper Details

Click Paper Details at the top of the report to see full paper info.

Note: Paper Details button displays information about the document which has been checked and is currently displayed in the Document Viewer. When you click on a matched source from the Library list and then click Details, you will see the paper details for the matched source.

 

Paper Details include the following information:

• Paper title (i.e., file name)
• Similarity score
• Number of ignored words (find out about this feature here)
• Page count
• Word count
• Character count
• File size
• File format
• File ID
• User name
• User ID
• User email
• Course
• Assignment name
• Assignment ID
• Submission ID
• Submission date
• Check type
• Check ID
• Check date

Items displayed in the Paper Details section may vary depending on your LMS.

Note: User name, User email and User ID fields display information associated with the account that was used to upload the document to Unicheck (administrator, instructor or student).   

• Text Only View

This option allows you to see the text without pictures and formatting while matches and citations/references remain highlighted.

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