completely original content

[LindaHinkle]

Hello, I'm new here. My first article was reviewed and accepted quickly. My second article was rejected, reason was "we only accept completely original content." I ran the article through Copyscape before I submitted it, and it returned no hits at all. It is not an article that I have published elsewhere.

I am at a loss because I'd like to revise the article and submit again, but since Copyscape showed no duplications, I have no idea what needs revising. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions about what the problem might be.

Thanks.

[JAStewart]

I had an article rejected for the same reason - and which I also ran through Copyscape with no problems. I know it was original - I researched and wrote it from scratch.

[UKWriter101]

In my experience, Copyscape doesn't work. I actually tried copy and pasting article from elsewhere on the net into Copyscape just to test it, and nothing.

[Evelyn]

Sometimes something weird happens when you run an article through Copyscape yourself. I think it might actually save the text somewhere, so when a more powerful plagiarism checker takes a look, it finds the Copyscape version. I don't think C-C uses Copyscape... They have something better.

So it's better to not run your stuff through an online plagiarism checker if you know it's original. I think in this case you didn't check it first (thus leaving a trail behind) so I can't guess why it was rejected by C-C's checker.

It's a mystery. I'd love it if someone from C-C could give us an idea of how that process works in the editorial office... There seems to be a lot of confusion where writers think it's original but C-C marks it as plagiarized.

[aprilk10]

I usually run my articles through Copyscape before submitting them anywhere just to make sure there is no inadvertant plageurism. It does happen...after centuries of people writing down thoughts, two people are bound to write down somthing similar. I wrote an article the other day about planting fruit trees. When I ran it through Copyscape, it came back with one result that used the phrases "dig a hole" and "determining soil drainage." The site was not even one I had consulted in my research! I do wonder about how well Copyscape really works though. I think CC uses ithenticate. I have looked at their site, but not exactly sure how it works. It is $50 I think...not sure though how many articles you can run through or exactly what is involved. Anybody have any good suggestions about checkers? I know it is not really a good practice to get into running arrticles through checkers, as we should be able to know that our work is our own...but, as in the above example, it does happen sometimes! I would rather be safe than sorry!

[jadedragon]

I think Evelyn's on to something. I keep seeing people come in saying their original article was rejected and they ran the article through Copyscape. There is an active thread right now like that.

The example of "dig a hole" is not inadvertent copying. How else are you going to tell someone they need to dig a hole exactly? Maybe say "hand excavate a depression in the earth"? I feel no need to check my own work through Copyscape because I wrote it.

[aprilk10]

Typically I don't worry about it because I know my content is my own. I was just accepted at wiseGEEK though and I have read a couple of blog posts where writers were fired from there because of similarities in content such as my above example (though theirs may have been a little more than that!). I am just overly nervous about being "fired" from there! It sounds like a good opportunity. Not as good as CC, but consistent work at a decent price!

[UKWriter101]

I must say, I am a little bit anxious about all of this. Everything I write is absolutely original and aside from researching to confirm certain statements, everything I write is straight out of my own head. However, there is always the possibility of there being another similar article on the net just by sheer coincidence. I wrote an article some time ago for Internet Brands and they returned it saying that it was too similar to an article found on eHow. They gave me the link and to my amazement, I had never even seen the article before let alone used it for my research! I hope these kind of cases don't result in suspension, since, after all, they are completely beyond the control of the writer in some cases.

[Celeste Stewart]

I'm sure the CC editors use their brains when a plagiarism checker throws out a red flag. They now the difference between copy and paste jobs and common expressions.

One time I had a client upset because she ran an article I wrote for her about DNA tests through Copyscape and it came up a match. She wanted me to completely rewrite the article "for originality." Knowing that the article was completely original, I checked Copyscape myself to see what she was seeing. Turns out that one phrase, "adopting children from Asia" (or something like that), triggered a match. The webpage that used that same phrase and my article were completely different beasts. I told the client to read the webpage and compare it to my article. Once she did, her confidence was restored and she saw that there was absolutely nothing there that constituted plagiarism. I wish she would've taken the initiative to check the other page herself, but she jumped to the wrong conclusion based on a computer algorithm. I think CC's review team is smart enough to take a deeper look and use their brains.