PhD Researchers are required to submit work through plagiarism detection software are various stages throughout their programme of study. At Ulster, Turnitin Originality Software is used for this purpose and PhD Researchers are assigned an area within Blackboard through which they can upload work for submission through the software.
You are required to submit your Turnitin report alongside any assessment submissions at three key stages: Initial Assessment, Confirmation of Registration and Final Thesis Submission. You can submit the output report from Turnitin via PhD Manager.
How to Access the Turnitin Area
The process for obtaining your Turnitin report is straightforward – simply access Blackboard (learning.ulster.ac.uk), enter your usual password and select ‘Courses’. From here, you should see ‘PhD Researchers Turnitin’. You then just need to select the assessment for which you are uploading the document and follow the upload instructions.
To download your report
Once you have uploaded your assignment through the link you just need to login again after a period of time (usually 30 minutes or sometimes more) and navigate to the same area in which you uploaded your document. You will then see your matches displayed as a percentage. To view the report, simply click the percentage and a new page will open up with your full report.
On the right of the new page you will see a vertical icon menu. To download your report you should click on the download arrow and a new pop up will open giving you several download options, one of which will say ‘Current View’. Select this option and your report will start downloading. Depending on the size of the file it could take a few seconds or even several minutes to download.
If you have waited over 10 minutes and the report has not downloaded you can try to download the HTML version by clicking ‘Text-Only Report’ on the bottom right of the full report screen. Note - if your file is still downloading you may need to close the report and reopen it to be able to select this option.
You will have the option to resubmit your assignment. To do this simply click the upload option beside the percentage in the first menu.
It is important that you do not use this system to ‘test’ your submissions or work at any stage as this will affect the final Turnitin report, which will show a higher similarity index than expected.
If you have any difficulties please email pgr@ulster.ac.uk with a screenshot of the issue you are having.