○Outline

In July 2014, Kyushu University introduced iThenticate as part of the common infrastructure accessible to all faculty members. This plagiarism prevention software makes it possible to check academic writing against existing online information for originality and citation omissions, etc.

○Background to its introduction

Widespread use of the internet means that it is now possible to obtain a variety of information from across the globe. This increases the risk of deliberate misappropriation or plagiarism of other people’s research results, without following the proper rules, in the course of writing academic papers and the like.

Dissertations are now published in the academic information repository, making their content more accessible to a wider audience. As such, to maintain the credibility of the university’s function in awarding degrees, we must be more mindful than ever before concerning the originality of dissertations. However, while Kyushu University routinely provides education concerning the rules of academic writing, particularly as part of research supervision, a more rigorous approach will be required going forward, so the university took the decision to introduce software to check for plagiarism.