You are at the right place if you want to know how long Turnitin keeps papers. This post will cover the details of what to expect, providing options based on your Turnitin account settings and enforcement method.
When you submit an academic essay to a teacher or professor, it can be helpful to know the length of time your writing is available online. What happens after your paper has been submitted? When will it expire? Read on to find answers to these questions.
How Long does Turnitin Keep Papers?
Turnitin keeps papers for an indefinite time after a student submits them. However, students can only view papers for 60 days after the instructor has set a grade or given feedback.
After 60 days, students can no longer see their paper on Turnitin, but they stay in their repository forever, unless stated otherwise by university policies.
Turnitin does not store student papers in the same way a backup utility stores files. Turnitin stores a copy of each paper submitted by all students, but it is impossible to retrieve a copy of any student’s paper.
The document is stored only as an image file, and it is not possible to convert this image back into a text file. As long as the instructor or administrator maintains their account at Turnitin, the papers will remain available to that user. If a user cancels their account with Turnitin, all papers associated with that user will also face deletion.
Can you Request the Removal of a Paper from Turnitin?
If you are the author of a paper you submitted to Turnitin, you can request removal from the Turnitin applications. The removal request must meet one of the following conditions:
- The paper is entirely your work, and you can prove it.
- Another person or persons entirely created the paper, and those other persons have given their permission for removal.
- You are an instructor for a course in which the paper got submitted, and you have gathered permission from all students whose work is contained in the paper (for example, if the submitted paper was a class anthology).
To request the removal of a paper from Turnitin, please follow these steps:
- Click on the paper that you want to request removal from Turnitin.
- Click Request Paper Removal from Turnitin in the top menu bar
- In the dialog window that appears, click the Request Paper Removal button.
- If you want to send a message with the request, type it in the text box that appears below your name and contact information, then click Submit.
Your request will be displayed under Pending Removal Requests in the grade center for that paper’s submission folder until your instructor approves or denies it.
The Legality of Turnitin Keeping Papers
Turnitin’s database is fully compliant with copyright laws and industry best practices. The database contains only partial copies of the submitted papers, and any paper submitted to the Turnitin database can get removed upon request.
The database includes student papers from schools, colleges, and universities worldwide.
Many of these institutions choose to make submissions anonymous to protect student privacy or other reasons.
Papers that are not anonymous are stored in our database for 18 months after the last submission date.
Anonymous papers are stored indefinitely unless otherwise requested by the institution or until the school or university cancels its Turnitin account.
Turnitin stores the submitted papers in its database and checks them against its submissions database. Therefore, when students use Turnitin, their papers are stored in its repository.
As a result, if a student uses a paper already submitted to the Turnitin database, it will show up as plagiarism and flag it for review by the university.
Turnitin claims that it does not share the papers with other users unless they have consented to share their work. Most importantly, this means that a student’s work is likely not to be shared with anyone else unless they have agreed to it.
As far as storing information, this is why students need to read through the terms and conditions of the site. Many people agree to these terms without reading what they agree to.
More importantly, this can cause many problems in the future if you do not know exactly what you agree with.
Turnitin does state that it shares information with third parties for technical support and marketing purposes, but again, this is only if you agree to it when signing up for their service.
Who Owns the papers Stored by Turnitin?
Your university owns the papers stored by Turnitin because it is an academic assessment document that can be used later by the school or the student if need be. However, as per its terms of use, Turnitin retains possession of the papers stored in its repository. Also, the report generated by Turnitin is owned by Turnitin.
Again, this means that while you may download and save a copy of the originality report, you do not have permission to re-post or otherwise distribute that report without Turnitin’s written consent.
Another scenario; if you submit my paper to Turnitin, does your professor now own it? No.
The terms of use for Turnitin state that “you retain all ownership rights in and to any User Content you submit, post or display on or through the Service”.
The instructor will view your submission and generate an Originality Report from it, but that does not mean they are claiming ownership.
After submitting and grading an assignment, the class instructor can choose to store students’ work in Turnitin’s repository, a massive database of student papers.
Turnitin stores more than 40 million student papers in its repositories. Therefore, be careful when using Turnitin to check your papers as they could be stored before you submit them.
In most university contracts with Turnitin, the company retains ownership of the database and all of the content stored within it, even papers based on copyrighted works or written by students.
Joseph is a freelance journalist and a part-time writer with a particular interest in the gig economy. He writes about schooling, college life, and changing trends in education. When not writing, Joseph is hiking or playing chess.