Papers submitted to the same Turnitin assignment do not match against each other immediately upon submission. To prevent students from matching against their own drafts, peer-to-peer comparison (known as collusion checking) typically happens automatically only after the assignment due date has passed.
Whether papers match automatically—and how you can check for collusion sooner—depends on which version of the Standard assignment you are using. Please select your assignment type below:
How collusion checking works
If your Classic Standard Assignment is set to allow resubmissions, all Similarity Reports are automatically regenerated within one hour after the assignment due date and time. This delay ensures all students have submitted their work before the system runs a comprehensive cross-check of the papers against one another. If matches are found during this post-due-date check, you will see a change in the Similarity Report percentages.
Similarity Reports generated before the due date only check submissions against external sources (such as the internet, periodicals, and the global repository), meaning student papers will not match against one another until the deadline passes.
How to handle missing matches
While the system automatically triggers this check on the due date, occasionally an individual paper may miss the automated cycle. If a specific paper did not run through the two-way collusion check, you can force it to update by manually regenerating its report. Follow the step-by-step guidance here to manually refresh a single report.
Note on the "First submission is final" setting: If your assignment is configured to generate reports immediately but treats the first submission as final, Turnitin will not automatically regenerate reports on the due date. To check for collusion under this setting, instructors must manually regenerate the Similarity Reports for the papers they wish to cross-compare.
For a complete breakdown of Similarity Report settings for Classic Standard Assignments, please see our optional settings guide.
How collusion checking works
In the New Standard Assignment, reports automatically regenerate to check for collusion on the assignment due date, provided that your assignment is configured to generate reports at the time of submission.
How to check for collusion early
The New Standard Assignment allows you to force a collusion check across the entire assignment at any time—even before the due date. Instructors can instantly refresh and cross-compare all submitted papers simultaneously by clicking the Refresh Reports button.
For visual instructions on utilizing this feature, see our assignment management guide. For details on setting up these options initially, refer to our assignment settings guide.