What Your Plagiarism Similarity Score Actually Means (and How to Fix It)

By BioDockify Computational Research Team · October 11, 2026 · Academic Writing

Similarity scores decoded: what counts toward the percentage, the 10-15% institutional norms, methods-section overlap, quote and reference exclusions, how to fix flagged passages honestly, and why AI-assisted drafts need re-checking after every revision.

Read the complete article with tables, code and references on BioDockify.

Key References

• Turnitin. Similarity Report: what the similarity index does and does not indicate. Turnitin documentation (2025).
• iThenticate 2.0. Similarity checking for research. Clarivate (2025).
• COPE. Text recycling guidelines, Committee on Publication Ethics (2019).
• Roig, M. Recycling text in scientific documents: when is it plagiarism? In: The Ethics of Plagiarism (2014).

Scope & Limitations

Institutional thresholds vary - the numbers here describe common policy, not your university's rule; always check your own handbook Similarity software matches text, not ideas - paraphrased plagiarism without citation can score 0% and still be misconduct