Professors use technology to fight plagiarism

It has become technology versus technology as teachers wage a new type of war against plagiarism. Instructors looking for new ways to fight the problem are turning to plagiarism-detection software, which in turn is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Teachers are utilizing the software to determine when students have used "paper mill" Web sites containing fully written essays, hired someone to write a paper for them, or used cut-and-paste functionality to copy material from digital documents. Demand for the software is also increasing outside academia. For example, publishers use the technology to determine whether submitted articles or books are original material. In addition, institutions are using the software to determine whether research by employees is original.