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Plagiarism

8 Popular Citation Checkers to Prevent Plagiarism

The best citation checkers and plagiarism scanners ranked, plus review the pros and cons of popular citation and plagiarism tools.

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Trusted By Industry Leaders

Introduction

Our text compare tool is a fantastic, lightweight tool that provides plagiarism checks between two documents. Whether you are a student, blogger or publisher, this tool offers a great solution to detect and compare similarities between any two pieces of text. In this article, I will discuss the different ways to use the tool, the primary features of the tool and who this tool is for. There is an FAQ at the bottom if you run into any issues when trying to use the tool.

What makes Originality.ai’s text comparison tool stand out?

Keyword density helper – This tool comes with a built-in keyword density helper in some ways similar to the likes of SurferSEO or MarketMuse the difference being, ours is free! This feature shows the user the frequency of single or two word keywords in a document, meaning you can easily compare an article you have written against a competitor to see the major differences in keyword densities. This is especially useful for SEO’s who are looking to optimize their blog content for search engines and improve the blog’s visibility.

Ways to compare

File compare – Text comparison between files is a breeze with our tool. Simply select the files you would like to compare, hit “Upload” and our tool will automatically insert the content into the text area, then simply hit “Compare” and let our tool show you where the differences in the text are. By uploading a file, you can still check the keyword density in your content.

URL compare

Comparing text between URLs is effortless with our tool. Simply paste the URL you would like to get the content from (in our example we use a fantastic blog post by Sherice Jacob found here) hit “Submit URL” and our tool will automatically retrieve the contents of the page and paste it into the text area, then simply click “Compare” and let our tool highlight the difference between the URLs. This feature is especially useful for checking keyword density between pages!

Simple text compare

You can also easily compare text by copying and pasting it into each field, as demonstrated below.

Features of Originality.ai’s Text Compare Tool

Ease of use

Our text compare tool is created with the user in mind, it is designed to be accessible to everyone. Our tool allows users to upload files or enter a URL to extract text, this along with the lightweight design ensures a seamless experience. The interface is simple and straightforward, making it easy for users to compare text and detect the diff.

Multiple text file format support

Our tool provides support for a variety of different text files and microsoft word formats including pdf file, .docx, .odt, .doc, and .txt, giving users the ability to compare text from different sources with ease. This makes it a great solution for students, bloggers, and publishers who are looking for file comparison in different formats.

Protects intellectual property

Our text comparison tool helps you protect your intellectual property and helps prevent plagiarism. This tool provides an accurate comparison of texts, making it easy to ensure that your work is original and not copied from other sources. Our tool is a valuable resource for anyone looking to maintain the originality of their content.

User Data Privacy

Our text compare tool is secure and protects user data privacy. No data is ever saved to the tool, the users’ text is only scanned and pasted into the tool’s text area. This makes certain that users can use our tool with confidence, knowing their data is safe and secure.

Compatibility

Our text comparison tool is designed to work seamlessly across all size devices, ensuring maximum compatibility no matter your screen size. Whether you are using a large desktop monitor, a small laptop, a tablet or a smartphone, this tool adjusts to your screen size. This means that users can compare texts and detect the diff anywhere without the need for specialized hardware or software. This level of accessibility makes it an ideal solution for students or bloggers who value the originality of their work and need to compare text online anywhere at any time.

Whether you’re a content creator, marketer, or web publisher, you know how important it is to have your work properly cited

Not only does checking citations help prevent plagiarism, but it also helps safeguard reputation and credibility. You don’t want to inadvertently borrow from another expert in your field and forget to cite their work. 

Enter citation checkers and plagiarism scanners. These tools can help review that work is not only properly cited but also free from plagiarism (or duplicate content) and authentically your own. 

The question then becomes, which one is the best? Read on for our detailed citation checker reviews, plus the pros and cons of many popular plagiarism detectors

1. Originality.ai 

Originality.ai offers an industry-leading plagiarism checker designed for content creators and web publishers.

When it comes to citations, the Originality.ai plagiarism checker is a fantastic choice for reviewing quotes in a piece of content. 

If the content is quoting an article that’s published online in Google search results, the plagiarism checker will highlight similar text. Then, you can review highlights to make sure quotes are appropriately cited.

Additionally, part of what makes Originality.ai’s platform stand out is that it also checks for AI-generated text.

The Originality.ai AI checker highlights areas that are likely AI-generated, so you can carefully review potential instances of AI content to avoid AI hallucinations or duplicate content.

2. Grammarly

One of the web’s most popular grammar and spelling checkers, Grammarly offers an additional plagiarism-checking service. Its plagiarism scanner works by comparing your work to billions of web pages. 

It also offers ‘Citation suggestions’ and suggests modifications for citations based on specific citation style guides like MLA or APA.

Read our insightful Grammarly plagiarism review and Grammarly AI detector review to learn more about Grammarly.

3. Copyscape

Copyscape was originally designed for website content creators to see if their content had been copied elsewhere on the web. 

These days, it’s still used for that purpose, although it has branched out a bit to include plagiarism detection and duplicate content checking to help prevent SEO ranking issues. 

It’s worth noting that Copyscape is designed to scan and report back on duplicate web page content, so to use the tool to review citations, you need to check for duplicate content.

Read our detailed Copyscape review for more information on how it works.

4. Turnitin

One of the most popular plagiarism checkers, Turnitin, checks for ‘similarity,’ which can help you identify areas that need proper citations. It uses a vast database of sources, including academic articles, web pages, and student-submitted essays.

Because of its integration with LMS (learning management systems) in schools and universities, using Turnitin is often a requirement for students before turning in their papers. 

Many who use Turnitin do so because it’s available through their school or university. Read our detailed Turnitin Review for more information.

Unicheck

Unicheck was a plagiarism detection platform offered by Turnitin. However, as of December 2023, it was discontinued.

5. PlagScan

True to its name, Plagscan analyzes documents to uncover any instances of plagiarism across academic papers (such as scientific journals) and online websites.

It highlights potential plagiarism as well as citations. However, its interface is somewhat overwhelming and not intuitive. 

Compared to other plagiarism scanners and citation checkers in this roundup, PlagScan is unnecessarily complex and includes quite a learning curve if you’re planning to use it as a citation checker or plagiarism scanner.

Additionally, it is also worth noting that it is powered by Turnitin as noted on the site’s homepage.

6. Scribbr

Scribbr offers a plagiarism checker in partnership with Turnitin, as well as, a citation checker, and citation generator. So, it provides a number of tools for reviewing citations.

However, its AI citation checker is limited to APA-style citations unless you upgrade to their ‘Hire a Citation Expert’ feature at a cost of $2.75 per source.

So, if you need to scan for plagiarism or citations with different style guides on a large amount of documents, Scribbr may not be the best option.

7. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is less of a dedicated plagiarism scanner and more of an all-in-one platform designed for writers. 

It suggests corrections on writing style, grammar, and more. It also includes a plagiarism scanner, but this service is provided for an extra fee. For reviewing citations, it advises it can help users identify potential plagiarism where they need to add citations.

8. Quetext

Quetex can highlight text that’s potentially plagiarized. It also helps students and researchers properly format their citations through its citation generator. 

However, although it has a free version (for scans of up to 500 words), its features are limited. To access more features, it offers a premium version.

Learn more about what Quetext can and cannot do and how it stacks up to the competition with our detailed Quetext plagiarism checker review.

Additionally, Quetext also offers AI detection. Read our review of Quetext’s AI detector.

Final Thoughts

Incorporating a plagiarism checker or citation checker into your editing workflow is a helpful way to review your work and ensure it’s uniquely your own. It’s also an excellent way to review quotes in your text and make sure that you’re accurately citing works, so that you can continue to publish with integrity.

Interested in learning more about plagiarism detection? Check out our top guides:

Sherice Jacob

Sherice Jacob is a seasoned copywriter and content professional fluent in English, Spanish, and Catalan, with over 25 years of experience crafting high-converting copy. Passionate about AI, she enjoys exploring the new innovations and possibilities it brings to the world of content creation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to fill out the entire form?

No, that’s one of the benefits, only fill out the areas which you think will be relevant to the prompts you require.

Why is the English so poor for some prompts?

When making the tool we had to make each prompt as general as possible to be able to include every kind of input. Not to worry though ChatGPT is smart and will still understand the prompt.

In The Press

Originality.ai has been featured for its accurate ability to detect GPT-3, Chat GPT and GPT-4 generated content. See some of the coverage below…

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Featured by Leading Publications

Originality.ai did a fantastic job on all three prompts, precisely detecting them as AI-written. Additionally, after I checked with actual human-written textual content, it did determine it as 100% human-generated, which is important.

Vahan Petrosyan

searchenginejournal.com

I use this tool most frequently to check for AI content personally. My most frequent use-case is checking content submitted by freelance writers we work with for AI and plagiarism.

Tom Demers

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After extensive research and testing, we determined Originality.ai to be the most accurate technology.

Rock Content Team

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Jon Gillham, Founder of Originality.ai came up with a tool to detect whether the content is written by humans or AI tools. It’s built on such technology that can specifically detect content by ChatGPT-3 — by giving you a spam score of 0-100, with an accuracy of 94%.

Felix Rose-Collins

ranktracker.com

ChatGPT lacks empathy and originality. It’s also recognized as AI-generated content most of the time by plagiarism and AI detectors like Originality.ai

Ashley Stahl

forbes.com

Originality.ai Do give them a shot! 

Sri Krishna

venturebeat.com

For web publishers, Originality.ai will enable you to scan your content seamlessly, see who has checked it previously, and detect if an AI-powered tool was implored.

Industry Trends

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it important to check for plagiarism?

Tools for conducting a plagiarism check between two documents online are important as it helps to ensure the originality and authenticity of written work. Plagiarism undermines the value of professional and educational institutions, as well as the integrity of the authors who write articles. By checking for plagiarism, you can ensure the work that you produce is original or properly attributed to the original author. This helps prevent the distribution of copied and misrepresented information.

What is Text Comparison?

Text comparison is the process of taking two or more pieces of text and comparing them to see if there are any similarities, differences and/or plagiarism. The objective of a text comparison is to see if one of the texts has been copied or paraphrased from another text. This text compare tool for plagiarism check between two documents has been built to help you streamline that process by finding the discrepancies with ease.

How do Text Comparison Tools Work?

Text comparison tools work by analyzing and comparing the contents of two or more text documents to find similarities and differences between them. This is typically done by breaking the texts down into smaller units such as sentences or phrases, and then calculating a similarity score based on the number of identical or nearly identical units. The comparison may be based on the exact wording of the text, or it may take into account synonyms and other variations in language. The results of the comparison are usually presented in the form of a report or visual representation, highlighting the similarities and differences between the texts.

String comparison is a fundamental operation in text comparison tools that involves comparing two sequences of characters to determine if they are identical or not. This comparison can be done at the character level or at a higher level, such as the word or sentence level.

The most basic form of string comparison is the equality test, where the two strings are compared character by character and a Boolean result indicating whether they are equal or not is returned. More sophisticated string comparison algorithms use heuristics and statistical models to determine the similarity between two strings, even if they are not exactly the same. These algorithms often use techniques such as edit distance, which measures the minimum number of operations (such as insertions, deletions, and substitutions) required to transform one string into another.

Another common technique for string comparison is n-gram analysis, where the strings are divided into overlapping sequences of characters (n-grams) and the frequency of each n-gram is compared between the two strings. This allows for a more nuanced comparison that takes into account partial similarities, rather than just exact matches.

String comparison is a crucial component of text comparison tools, as it forms the basis for determining the similarities and differences between texts. The results of the string comparison can then be used to generate a report or visual representation of the similarities and differences between the texts.

What is Syntax Highlighting?

Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors and integrated development environments (IDEs) that helps to visually distinguish different elements of a code or markup language. It does this by coloring different elements of the code, such as keywords, variables, functions, and operators, based on a predefined set of rules.

The purpose of syntax highlighting is to make the code easier to read and understand, by drawing attention to the different elements and their structure. For example, keywords may be colored in a different hue to emphasize their importance, while comments or strings may be colored differently to distinguish them from the code itself. This helps to make the code more readable, reducing the cognitive load of the reader and making it easier to identify potential syntax errors.

How Can I Conduct a Plagiarism Check between Two Documents Online?

With our tool it’s easy, just enter or upload some text, click on the button “Compare text” and the tool will automatically display the diff between the two texts.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Text Compare Tool?

Using text comparison tools is much easier, more efficient, and more reliable than proofreading a piece of text by hand. Eliminate the risk of human error by using a tool to detect and display the text difference within seconds.

What Files Can You Inspect with This Text Compare Tool?

We have support for the file extensions .pdf, .docx, .odt, .doc and .txt. You can also enter your text or copy and paste text to compare.

Will My Data Be Shared?

There is never any data saved by the tool, when you hit “Upload” we are just scanning the text and pasting it into our text area so with our text compare tool, no data ever enters our servers.

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This table below shows a heat map of features on other sites compared to ours as you can see we almost have greens across the board!

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