In an effort to curb academic dishonesty, professors will begin utilizing an online plagiarism-detection service on a trial basis next semester, an LTS official said.Turnitin.com, a commercial Web service professors used to determine if a student's paper bears any similarity to other sources, will be available to Brandeis professors in response to growing concerns of student plagiarism.

Four reports of academic-integrity violations were filed at the University this semester and about 30 were filed in the 2005 to 2006 academic year, according to Erika Lamarre, the director of student development and conduct. National statistics on college plagiarism are not encouraging, Lamarre said, indicating that the issue is widespread on many college campuses nationwide.

Brandeis faculty regularly express concerns about student plagiarism, Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

Lamarre said she served on a committee organized by Jaffe this spring, along with representatives from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a representative from the writing center. The committee concluded that the service would be useful to professors.

LTS was asked by the committee to use the detection services on a trial basis this spring, Dave Wedaman, associate director for research and instruction services for LTS and committee member, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

During the trial basis, Jaffe said professors will judge the effectiveness of the service.

"We wish to determine if the software is a useful tool for faculty to use in evaluating written work they receive," he said.

To test a paper, an instructor first submits an electronic version of it to Turnitin.com, which then searches the Internet and a large number of commercial databases. The program then presents a report of any documents found that bear similarities to the paper.

The University defines academic dishonesty as plagiarizing books or Web pages, tampering with the work of another student in a laboratory, engaging in unauthorized collaboration with another student on a project or conversing with another student during an exam.

The Office of Student Development and Conduct is currently developing a Web site on academic integrity, which will include related links and resources on the issue.

Lamarre said whether or not Brandeis ultimately purchases the service, it's good to see the campus discussing academic integrity.