Similarity and plagiarism are related but not exactly the same. A similarity score reflects how much of a document matches existing sources. Similarity scores are widely used as an indicator of potential plagiarism. A high percentage suggests that a document may contain unoriginal content, whether appropriately cited or not. That’s why plagiarism detection tools report similarity—it helps identify areas that may need further review. Properly cited quotations and commonly used phrases can contribute to the similarity score without being considered plagiarism.
For a detailed explanation of how to interpret the similarity score, please refer to this article: How do I interpret the similarity score?
You can also check out a sample report to understand how the similarity score is arrived at.
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