Automatic paraphrasing tools

An unexpected consequence of addressing student plagiarism and the impact of Covid in distance education settings

Bibliographic Data

ID3949039
AuthorsRubén Lluc Comas Forgas (0000-0002-8885-753X, Stockholm University), Tony Lancaster (0000-0002-1534-7547, Imperial College London), Elvira Curiel Marín (0000-0002-0014-3971, Universidad de Granada), Carmen Touza-Garma (0000-0001-9471-8221, Universitat de les Illes Balears)
Year2023
Volume18
Pages1-19
Publication date2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePraxis Educativa (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1809-4031 • E-ISSN: 1809-4309
PublisherUniversidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa (UEPG) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5212/praxeduc.v.18.21679.020
OpenAlexW4352977788
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited10

Text matching tools employed to detect plagiarism are widely used in universities, but their availability may have pushed students to find ways to evade detection. One such method is the use of automatic paraphrasing software, where assignments can be rewritten with little effort required by students. This paper uses the search engine analytics methodology with data from SEMrush and Google Trends to estimate the level of interest in online automatic paraphrasing tools, focusing on the period 2016 to 2020 and the four countries: the USA, UK, Canada and Australia. The results show a concerning trend, with the number of searches for such tools growing during the period, especially during COVID-19, and notable increases observed during the months where assessment periods take place in universities. The method employed in this study opens up a new avenue of analysis to enrich and supplement the existing knowledge in the field of academic integrity research. The data obtained demonstrates that faculty should be alert for student use of automatic paraphrasing tools and that academic integrity interventions need to be in place across the sector to address this problem

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Academic integrity · Analytics · Data science · Information retrieval · Library science · Medical education · Plagiarism detection · Psychological intervention · World Wide Web · Academic integrity and plagiarism · Computer Science · Psychology

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