Even Better Over Time: The Evolution of the Crossref and Turnitin Partnership

Turnitin is proud of our longstanding partnership with Crossref, one of the world’s most prominent membership associations for scholarly publishers. For the past 11 years, the partnership between Turnitin and Crossref has grown and matured to make it easier for researchers, authors, and publishers to publish their best work with confidence.

There are two primary aspects of the Crossref partnership that helps authors and publishers feel confident throughout the publication process. First, Crossref members have the option to license iThenticate, offered as Similarity Check. More than 1500 members use Similarity Check to screen incoming manuscripts for plagiarism and other misconduct concerns. This means that when authors use iThenticate to review their manuscripts prior to submission, they are in fact using the same software as publishers. If their manuscript passes muster, they can be comfortable knowing that publishers will not uncover any potential plagiarism concerns that the author was not made aware of.

Crossref members can also contribute their published content to the Turnitin database for similarity checking. Contributing content to Turnitin’s expansive database helps to ensure that the best and broadest set of content is available for similarity checking - a vital part of safeguarding the quality and reputation of your published articles. Both authors and publishers benefit from searching and comparing against the entire set of content contributions. For publishers that want to protect the work of their authors and journals, there’s no better way than having it be part of the content database.

Since our partnership began in 2008, we’ve been delighted to continue to grow publisher participation and improve the richness in the scope of the service we provide our users today.

In 2008, we began with just 20 publishers participating. As more and more Crossref publishers recognized the value that Similarity Check brings to their process, we’ve seen the number of participants skyrocket. From 20 in 2008 to 283 in 2011, over 800 in 2013, 1270 in 2017, and just over 1500 today. Annually, millions of submissions are automatically checked by these publishers, making the overall publishing process faster for them and more transparent to authors.

Just as publishers and authors have found value in using iThenticate and Similarity Check to review manuscript submissions, having an expansive database of content to compare against has been vital. Our relationship with Crossref has been instrumental in growing this body of content to compliment Turnitin’s archive of student papers and webpages. Today we have the largest and fastest-growing database of content, including 93% of the top-cited journals.

In June, the terms of our partnership agreement with Crossref changed to provide even better terms and product enhancements to better support publishers and their workflow. Learn more about the changes to our partnership agreement.

We are thrilled with the value and benefit that our partnership with Crossref has brought to the education and publishing world over the past 11 years, and we’re looking forward to our continued future working together.

Want to protect your reputation and publish with confidence?