Uploading Master Theses and Dissertations

What is plagiarism?

When using information from different sources in studies and scientific works, it must be paraphrased in your own words or quoted exactly in quotation marks, and an in-text citation must be provided next to the quoted or paraphrased text. References of the sources used must be provided in the list of references as well.

Plagiarism is identified when sources of information are used improperly in academic and scientific works, as well as when another author’s ideas are presented as your own, verbatim translations of texts from other languages are provided, illustrative material (images, tables, figures), data, or content generated by generative artificial intelligence (e.g. ChatGPT, GPT-4, Microsoft Copilot, etc.) are used without citing the source. For information on how to properly cite and reference information sources in your studies and academic papers, see reference examples and in-text citation examples provided by the American Psychological Association.

Plagiarism can be identified by the author of the work himself noticing the improper use of the source or parts thereof, by comparing the work with other works, or by checking the work with plagiarism detection software that provides results in the form of a similarity report.

Plagiarism prevention and similarity check at the University

Lithuanian Sports University applies the principles of Academic Ethics, seeks to foster responsibility and academic literacy among the University’s community, and uses plagiarism prevention measures in its study and research activities.

Important: The University checks for similarities between written work and final theses using the Electronic Similarity Detection System (ESAS) tool in the Online Learning System.

In accordance with the approved Procedure for Using the Turnitin Plagiarism Detection Tool (in Lithuanian), this tool (Turnitin) will also be TESTED in the autumn semester of 2025/2026 to check written work for similarities (for more information, see the section on Similarity check for written work). Information about testing the Turnitin tool for checking final theses for similarities will be announced later.

Similarity check for written work

The University checks for text similarity in written work using the Electronic Similarity Detection System (ESAS) tool in the Online Learning System.

Important: the lecturer may choose to additionally check the work using the Turnitin tool, which is being TESTED in the autumn semester of 2025/2026.

The Turnitin Plagiarism Detection Tool automatically checks for similarity in all written works uploaded to the University’s Online Learning System. To activate the checking function, the lecturer and student must perform the following steps:

Lecturer:

• in the Online Learning System, create a task with the Turnitin Plagiarism Detection Tool function activated in your module;
• assign students whose written work shall be checked to the created task;
• determine by selecting the appropriate option whether or not the students shall be able to see the results of the similarity check;
• inform the students about the assignment, its deadlines, and the rights regarding the similarity check granted;
• when reviewing the similarity report, the lecturer shall provide their comments for the students using the ‘Comment’ function.

Turnitin instructions for lecturers are available in Lithuanian.

Student:

• upload your work to the task created for text similarity check in the relevant module in the Online Learning System;
• review the lecturer’s comments and notes;
• if permitted, edit, correct, and re-upload the work.

Turnitin instructions for students (information is being prepared).

In the text similarity report, Turnitin provides the percentage of text similarity and highlights (colours) the parts of the text that match other sources, i.e. previously published works by the same author or other authors. Additionally, it provides links to the matched sources, as well as information about paraphrasing and inappropriate citation.

Important: The Plagiarism Detection Tool only identifies parts of the text that match other sources, but does not analyse the content of the work. The quality of students’ work is assessed and possible plagiarism is determined by lecturers who are familiar with the results of the similarity report.

Important: There may be similarities detected in the works that are not considered a case of plagiarism, but there must be no instances of plagiarism in the works. A high percentage of similarities may indicate that the work was not done independently.

Text similarity checkers only check for similarity in text, but cannot detect matches in non-text information (e.g. images, photos, drawings, etc.).

As mentioned above, some text similarities are not considered plagiarism, e.g.: individual words or sentences of general nature; general knowledge (facts) that does not need to be cited; reference lists, source descriptions, in-text citations; terms and names; quotations (exact excerpts provided in quotation marks, with source indicated, no longer than a paragraph, or a block quotation if consisting of 40 words or more) etc.

About Turnitin

If you have any questions regarding Turnitin procedures, please contact us at dziuljeta.griskute@lsu.lt.

Similarity check for final theses

The text similarity check of final theses at the University is performed using the ESAS tool:

First-cycle studies – in Online Learning System; when submitting the final thesis after approbation, see this document for more information.

Second- and third-cycle studies – Lithuanian Electronic Theses and Dissertations (eLABa ETD) Repository, see instructions for Uploading Master Theses and Dissertations.

Important: Information about testing the Turnitin tool for checking final theses for plagiarism will be announced later.

Similarity check for scientific articles and manuscripts

Researchers who wish to check the manuscripts of their publications (articles, books) using the text similarity checker are kindly requested to contact the Head of the Library, Tel. +370 690 09930, e-mail asta.zarauskiene@lsu.lt.

In accordance with the LSU publishing process, the Library and the Editorial Boards (Editorial Committees) of scientific publications strive to check all manuscripts submitted for publication using available text similarity detection tools.