Case Study: NSS improves plagiarism detection for contest essays with Copyleaks API

NSS Gerard K. O’Neill Space Settlement Contest

The National Space Society (NSS) faced a significant challenge in manually checking thousands of lengthy student essay submissions for its annual space contest for plagiarism, a grueling process that took judges weeks or even months to complete. They needed an automated, high-volume solution that could integrate with their awards management platform, which led them to partner with Copyleaks and implement its Plagiarism Detection API.

By integrating the Copyleaks API, NSS established an automated system that instantly flagged submissions with a "Suspect Score" for judge review. This solution drastically reduced processing time from months to days. In 2023 alone, Copyleaks scanned 4,567 entries, leading to the disqualification of 1,894 plagiarized submissions—a level of oversight impossible to achieve manually. The secure private repository also ensures the ongoing integrity of the contest by preventing the reuse of past winning work.

NSS

Matthew J. Levine

Director