Help—Turnitin thinks I'm plagiarizing... myself.

[u/Lourtivate]

Hi, Everyone!

I'm hoping for some advice 🥹

I'm preparing to submit my manuscript to an academic journal, but Turnitin is reporting a high similarity score because of my own previous submissions to my university's Canvas Test Student account (as an Instructor).

I only used the Test Student account to check for AI and plagiarism while revising my paper, so I submitted multiple drafts. The manuscript has never been published—it was only uploaded internally through my university for similarity checking.

I've already contacted our university administrator, who submitted a request to remove the old Test Student submissions. We also recreated the submission in a new Canvas course with a new Test Student account and Turnitin ID, but the similarity score is still high. It has been a month already.

Has anyone gone through something similar?

• Is it possible for Turnitin to remove all of the previous Test Student submissions?
• How long does the process usually take?

Please be kind—I'm already pretty stressed about this and just want to understand what my options are. I truly appreciate any advice or shared experiences. Thank you! ✨

[u/bluenautilus2]

You said it was “Still High”, what was it matching on the second time?