Answered By: Keely Wilczek
Last Updated: Aug 12, 2024     Views: 6107

HKS faculty and students have access to Copyleaks, a plagiarism detection service that can automatically review your writing and provide a report detailing possible plagiarism.

  • All HKS students can review their own work before submitting their final draft by uploading their draft to the Plagiarism Checker "course" on their Canvas dashboard. Work uploaded in this manner will not be retained in a database; therefore, it will only be checked for plagiarism against material available in the broader Copyleaks database and the Internet, but not against work done by other HKS students. 
  • Some faculty may also use Copyleaks to review submitted assignments. In this case, submissions will become part of a database so that work of HKS students can be checked against both work done by other HKS students and work done outside of HKS. This database is strictly local, however; work uploaded in this manner will not become part of a Copyleaks database used elsewhere.  

If you have any questions about using Copyleaks in Canvas, please contact Claudia Stumpf, Senior Instructional Technologist at HKS.

Be aware that no one software or online tool is going to be 100% accurate for catching inadvertent plagiarism. Your best defense is to take careful notes and document all your sources. Using a citation management tool like Zotero as part of your note-taking process can help you organize your research to remember where attributions are needed in your papers. See the HKS Academic Code for more information.

Other anti-plagiarism software options:

It's always a good idea to check the company's website for its privacy policy as your paper may be added to that tool's searchable database of papers without your permission. HKS Library, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard University do not endorse and cannot vouch for any of these free products.