Match sensitivity
The small-match threshold and the quotes filter — what each does exactly, when to use them, and how they change the score.
Match sensitivity lets you tune what the report counts as a match. Both filters live under Filters in the report header, and everything — score, source list, highlights — recomputes live as you change them. Filters never delete anything: switch back to Off and every match returns.
Ignore matches shorter than…
Ignores matched passages shorter than a word threshold: 5, 8, 10, or 15 words (or Off, the default — everything shown). As the filter itself puts it: short shared phrases stop counting as matches.
What it's for: short incidental overlaps — names, titles, set phrases, common constructions — that inflate the score without indicating copying.
How to choose:
| Setting | Use when | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Reviewing someone else's work; investigating a concern | Complete picture, including noise |
| 5–8 words | Everyday checking | Drops fragment noise, keeps sentence-length matches |
| 10–15 words | Legal writing, methods sections, technical boilerplate | Only long verbatim runs count — recall traded for precision |
Exclude quoted text
Ignores matched passages that sit inside quotation marks in your text. The rule is deliberately literal: only actual quotation marks count. Block quotes without quote characters, indented quotes, and paraphrased citations are not detected as quotes — a passage either is inside quotation marks or it isn't. Off by default.
What it's for: properly quoted material matches its source by design. Turning this on shows you what matches outside the quoted material — usually the question you actually care about.
What it deliberately doesn't do: it never judges whether a quote is attributed correctly. A quotation mark exempts the passage even with no citation nearby. Checking citation correctness is your call, not the filter's.
How filtering changes the report
- The similarity score recomputes over the remaining matches.
- Sources whose every passage is filtered out drop from the source list.
- Highlights for excluded passages disappear from the document view.
- The report states when filters are active, and a shared report shows the same filtered view, labeled — recipients never see a silently reduced score.
A note on honesty
Filters are a reading aid, not a verdict changer
If you're submitting a report as evidence of originality, disclose the filter settings it was read with — or share it with filters off.