Use of the Service

This is a web service provided free of charge for members of the Austrian Students' Union (ÖH) at the USTP (§ 12 Austrian Students' Union Act 2014 [HSG]). This web application is provided by the ÖH at the USTP. There is no legal entitlement to the availability of the service. The classification provided by the software is intended as an assistance, but does not replace an expert opinion. Users accept that the audit report is provided in the form of an individual link to PlagAware.

The ÖH at the USTP applies a fair-use principle. This limits both the number of pages that can be checked within a certain period of time, as well as the time between two check processes. One scan per user is possible within 14 days; additionally, a cooldown applies between individual checks. The maximum permissible total number is 200 pages.

Users acknowledge that the classification provided by PlagAware may differ from that of the software (docol©c) used by the USTP. The classification is exclusively intended as an assistance and not as an expert opinion. In addition, the software used is subject to technical limitations, especially for content that cannot be recognized as text (e.g., images, graphics, or file paths).

The ÖH at the USTP is a public-law corporation under the Austrian Students' Union Act 2014. The bodies of the ÖH at the USTP carry out their activities on a voluntary basis. Due to this voluntary structure, no guarantee can be given for the permanent availability of the web service.

The service is exclusively available to members of the ÖH at the USTP, since according to § 17 HSG the ÖH at the USTP represents the interests of its members (ordinary and extraordinary students of the USTP).

For the verification of membership, the register according to § 13 Para. 4 HSG is used. This register only contains students who have paid the ÖH fee in accordance with § 38 Para. 2. In addition, the register is not updated daily, as it is only provided electronically upon request.

Interested parties are welcome to review the source code. Requests for code review, bug reports, or similar concerns should be directed to techref.oeh@ustp.at. See also security.txt.

Plagiarism Assessment by PlagAware

This web application uses PlagAware for the plagiarism check, while the USTP currently uses Docol©c for plagiarism checks. Therefore, at the present time, it is excluded that the checking process is considered a publication.

In this regard, we refer to the question Are the uploaded test texts and library texts made available to third parties? from the PlagAware FAQ, which is answered by the manufacturer as follows:

No, all texts are accessible exclusively from your personal PlagAware user account. Note: Reports that you share via a static link can also be opened without logging into PlagAware. In addition, library texts are available to all users of the same license key. Further details can be found under Privacy.

Audit reports are provided on the PlagAware web interface and can be accessed by all persons who have access to the respective link. Students are therefore strongly advised not to pass on these links.

The transmission to PlagAware is necessary to fulfill the purpose of this web service. PlagAware was selected based on its suitability for analyzing German-language texts (see Table 2, DOI:10.1186/s41239-020-00192-4).

Data Processing

Email Addresses of Students

Since the USTP provides for automated plagiarism checks for certain submissions, the ÖH at the USTP considers the provision of a plagiarism check as part of the representation of study-related interests of the students.

The ÖH at the USTP represents according to § 17 HSG the interests of its members as well as study applicants. According to § 12 Para. 1 HSG, the students of the USTP belong to the ÖH as members.

The register of students is to be provided to the ÖH in accordance with § 13 Para. 4 HSG and may be processed for this purpose.

In the interest of data minimization, the web application exclusively processes technically necessary information (email addresses). Non-administrative users are automatically deleted after 3 years at the latest.

Processing of Documents by PlagAware

This web application allows students to check documents using PlagAware (PlagAware GmbH, 89233 Neu-Ulm, Germany).

No personal data of the students is forwarded to PlagAware. The transmission is limited exclusively to the uploaded document for analysis. The audit report is subsequently provided via the PlagAware web interface.

Processing by Hosting Technologies

All resources required for display (e.g., Bootstrap CSS, JavaScript, and Icons) are provided locally by us. Therefore, no external hosting services are integrated.

Uploaded documents are only temporarily stored for processing and, in the interest of data minimization, are deleted immediately after transmission to PlagAware.

To provide the functionality, session cookies are used, which exclusively contain technically necessary information. We point out that such session cookies do not require consent (see GDPR Cookies).

Since there is a legitimate interest in detecting attacks and usage patterns of this web application, the accesses are logged by our web servers. In the course of data minimization, the IP address is anonymized. Further information in the web server logs includes the access time, the requested resource, as well as the identifier transmitted by the browser (user-agent). The user-agent contains general data about the operating systems and browsers used, which, however, are usually insufficient for identification. However, the user-agent is very helpful in detecting attacks, which is why there is a legitimate interest in its processing.

The website and the associated database are operated within the USTP by the operators of the laboratories for the Department of Computer Science and Security (NetLabs), who also provide this hosting service for the research centers of the USTP. The associated server hardware is located on the premises of the USTP.

Password Security

We enforce minimum standards to ensure the security of passwords. Passwords are stored according to current security standards (Argon2id hashing). After the intended period of use expires (currently 1 year from activation), passwords are automatically replaced by newly generated ones to minimize risks in the event of a compromise.

Disclosure

Disclosure of the rights owners are only included within the German version of this terms of service.