How reliable is a plagiarism check such as Ithenticate to determine the originality of a research paper?

To reduce your similarity index percentage in iThenticate, you can manually remove some sources, such as quoted text, bibliographic data, and minor matches, from the report's similarity calculation using the platforms ‘Filters and Exclusions’ function

Where there are common phrases and sentences in your content, iThenticate will most probably find similar content in its database and match it. If you have not been able to do a good job of paraphrasing, iThenticate may find some similarities. If some sources were used in your work, but not properly credited, iThenticate would possibly consider that portion of the work pure plagiarism.

In case you're experiencing any complications while attempting to upload a document on iThenticate, make sure that the document has been saved in the accepted file types (PDF, Word, RTF etc.). If the file is too big, consider making it smaller or breaking it down into smaller sections.

Many journals using iThenticate exclude small matches such as phrases of 6-10 words. However, the specific number of words excluded varies depending on the journal's settings and guidelines. Some may also exclude references, bibliographies, and direct quotations from being flagged for similarity.

Click the Submit a document option and upload your revised file. You can use iThenticate’s comparison feature to check changes between the original and revised submissions.