What is CrossCheck?

CrossCheck powered by iThenticate is an initiative started by CrossRef to help its members actively engage in efforts to prevent scholarly and professional plagiarism. Although there are several plagiarism screening tools already available, they are not well-suited to filtering academic content simply because they haven't had access to the relevant full-text literature to screen against. CrossCheck changes this by creating and continuously growing a database of current and archival scholarly literature.

This database is one of two parts that make up the CrossCheck service. The second part is the iThenticate tool, which compares authored work against the content in the database and highlight matching or similar text for further editorial review.

Log In

Existing CrossCheck members may log into CrossCheck/iThenticate.

CrossCheck in the News

Read articles about CrossCheck and its implementation at member organisations.

CrossCheck User Group Meeting and Breakfast

The next CrossCheck User Group Meeting will be held on Sunday, May 5, 2013 at 7:30 am EDT at the CSE Annual Meeting in Montreal.
Registration

CrossCheck/iThenticate Webinars

Introduction to CrossCheck Webinar
The webinar is an informal 20 minute presentation about our innovative plagiarism screening service and how it can add value to your publishing program. Listen to a pre-recorded Introduction to CrossCheck webinar with slides (ARF) 25 MB (may require a webex player which you can download here).

Introduction to CrossCheck
Date: Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Time: 8:00 am (San Francisco), 11:00 am (New York), 4:00 pm (London)
Moderator: Rachael Lammey
Registration

Introduction to CrossCheck - Rescheduled to Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Date: Thursday, July 11, 2013
Time: 8:00 am (San Francisco), 11:00 am (New York), 4:00 pm (London)
Moderator: Rachael Lammey

Introduction to CrossCheck
Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Time: 8:00 am (San Francisco), 11:00 am (New York), 4:00 pm (London)
Moderator: Rachael Lammey
Registration

CrossCheck iThenticate Demo
For a more detailed tour of the iThenticate document checking software that is central to CrossCheck, please join one of our upcoming demos. This hour long session will guide you through the iThenticate interface and is ideal if you are considering the service, or if you have already signed up and want to know more about the features available to you.

CrossCheck Introduction to iThenticate
Date: Monday, August 12, 2013
Time: 8:00 am (San Francisco), 11:00 am (New York), 4:00 pm (London)
Registration

CrossCheck Introduction to iThenticate - Rescheduled
Date: Thursday, July 25, 2013
Time: 8:00 am (San Francisco), 11:00 am (New York), 4:00 pm (London)

CrossCheck Introduction to iThenticate
Date: Monday, July 8, 2013
Time: 8:00 am (San Francisco), 11:00 am (New York), 4:00 pm (London)
Registration

CrossCheck Introduction to iThenticate
Date: Monday, June 10, 2013
Time: 8:00 am (San Francisco), 11:00 am (New York), 4:00 pm (London)
Registration

CrossCheck Introduction to iThenticate - Rescheduled to May 10
Date: Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Time: 8:00 am (San Francisco), 11:00 am (New York), 4:00 pm (London)
Moderator: Laurie Macarthur

CrossCheck Introduction to iThenticate
Date: Monday, May 13, 2013
Time: 8:00 am (San Francisco), 11:00 am (New York), 4:00 pm (London)
Registration

CrossCheck Members

View our current CrossCheck Members or download a list of titles included in the CrossCheck database.

How does it work?

To participate in CrossCheck publishers must first allow their content to be indexed and included in the CrossCheck database. All CrossRef members are encouraged to contribute to the database regardless of whether they decide to check submissions, as participation will benefit the CrossCheck community and will help prevent other publishers from unknowingly re-publishing your content.

Step two is to begin checking authored works against the database. This is done through the web-based iThenticate system by uploading a document and running a similarity check against the CrossCheck database, and optionally the wider internet. iThenticate returns a set of results listing documents that share a significant degree of textual overlap with the target document.

Finally, we would encourage all participating publishers to display the CrossCheck logo on their websites and in their published documents to show their participation and to help deter would-be plagiarists from copying your content.

CrossCheck Logos

All participating publishers are encouraged to use the CrossCheck logos on their submitted and screened content to show that they are actively checking for plagiarism and to deter would-be plagiarists.  Logos and suggested accompanying text are now available.

How do publishers join CrossCheck?

To join CrossCheck you must first be a CrossRef member, and have reviewed the Terms & Conditions of the CrossCheck agreement to ensure you can meet them.   If you are already a CrossRef member you can join by filling in an application form and signing a license agreement, and emailing both documents to crosscheck@iparadigms.com.  Please keep in mind when reviewing these agreements that they have been carefully vetted by CrossRef staff and several member publishers.  Although you have the option of negotiating the terms of the agreement with our technology partner iParadigms, we believe you will find the terms favourable and hope that further negotiations are not necessary.

If you are interested in finding out more about CrossCheck before applying please email crosscheck_info@crossref.org and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.  You may also find the Frequently Asked Questions further down this page useful.

What does it cost?

CrossCheck fees are in two parts: a per-document checking fee and an annual administrative fee.  Per-document checking fees are paid directly to iParadigms; these fees are significantly less than those charged by iParadigms outside of the CrossCheck initiative, and volume discounts also apply.  The annual administrative fee is paid to CrossRef and is set at 20% of your CrossRef annual membership fee.

Important: CrossCheck administration fees are currently billed in arrears in December. To bring this in line with CrossRef membership fees we will be changing this schedule so that the CrossCheck admin fee will be invoiced in January for the year ahead. To allow for sufficient notice the change will not be made until 2012. In 2010 and 2011 you will continue to be invoiced retrospectively in December.

Document checking fees are currently billed annually in arrears by iParadigms, on the anniversary of the date on which the organisation joined CrossCheck. Following feedback from members, iParadigms are also considering a move to billing on a calendar year basis. Confirmation of this will follow.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

Please browse through our Frequently Asked Questions section. For a print-friendly summary please see our CrossCheck handout (PDF).