How to Check Your Paper Before Submitting: A Practical Checklist

1. Choose the report you actually need

Choose Standard when you want both sides of the review: one Similarity Report PDF for matching text and sources, plus one separate AI Detection Report PDF for eligible prose.

Choose Academic only when you specifically need the iThenticate AI report offered by our service. It does not include a separate Similarity Report. Neither plan gives you an institutional account or submits work to your school.

• Compare Standard and Academic report contents
• View current plans and prices

2. Prepare a document the service can process

TurnitChecker currently accepts PDF, DOC, and DOCX files from 400 to 28,000 words, up to 10 MB. These are TurnitChecker service limits, not a statement of every limit in official Turnitin products.

Use a text-readable essay, paper, or thesis chapter. Image-only scans, slides, and documents whose meaningful text is mostly inside complex tables may produce limited results. AI analysis applies to qualifying long-form prose, so an unavailable AI result must not be interpreted as 0%.

• Open the file once and confirm that the full body text is selectable and readable.
• Check that the paper is within the word and file-size limits shown on the upload form.
• For our AI report service, use eligible content in English, Spanish, or Japanese; similarity review supports more languages.
• Keep your original draft and version history before uploading.

• Read current document and language requirements
• Official source: qualifying prose in the AI Writing Report

3. Run the check and keep the task connected to your account

1. Select Standard if you need both similarity and AI information.
2. Paste supported text or upload your file, then select Detect.
3. If prompted, sign in so the document, purchase step, and finished reports remain connected to the same task.
4. When processing is complete, open My Tasks, select the original task, and download each available PDF separately.

• View a fixed AI Writing Report sample PDF
• Start a Standard Check

4. Read the Similarity Report passage by passage

The overall similarity percentage represents matching text, not a plagiarism verdict. Quotations, references, templates, and common wording can all contribute to matches.

Open the source behind each important match. Ask whether the passage is quoted, cited, paraphrased accurately, or copied without clear attribution. There is no universal score that guarantees acceptance.

• Start with the largest or most concentrated matches, not only the total percentage.
• Check whether quotation marks and citations are present and formatted correctly.
• Review the linked source and the surrounding sentence before changing anything.
• Follow your institution's rules for references, exclusions, and acceptable overlap.

• Official source: Turnitin and plagiarism
• Official source: Similarity Report matches and sources

5. Read the AI result separately

The AI indicator and the Similarity score answer different questions. Do not add, subtract, or combine them into an “originality” score.

An AI result is an estimate for qualifying prose and can be wrong. It does not prove who wrote the paper or whether misconduct occurred. A *% result means the estimate is below 20% and the exact value is withheld; an unavailable result is not the same as 0%.

• Read the detailed AI Detection Report guide
• Official source: using the AI Writing Report

6. Revise the reason behind the flag

• For a source match, quote, cite, or genuinely rewrite the idea in your own structure while preserving the source attribution.
• For an AI-highlighted passage, compare it with your notes and drafts. Rewrite only where the wording does not reflect your own reasoning or voice.
• Do not chase a lower percentage by swapping words mechanically or removing valid references.
• Run another paid check only after meaningful changes and only if your deadline and institution's rules make it useful.

7. Final checklist before institutional submission

• You selected the report type your instructor or publisher actually requested.
• Both expected PDFs are available for a Standard Check, or you contacted support about a missing report.
• You reviewed important source matches instead of relying only on the total score.
• You treated the AI result as an estimate, not proof or a guarantee.
• You kept your final draft, earlier drafts, citations, and downloaded reports.
• You will submit through the official route required by your institution.

• Start the pre-submission check
• Get help with a missing or unexpected report