Delete a paper
Instructors can request that a submission to Turnitin made by one of their students is deleted. Once the deletion request is completed:
- The uploaded file will be deleted and will no longer be accessible
- Any associated grading will be removed
- The Similarity Report will be deleted, and the paper will no longer appear in future similarity matches
- After 30 days have passed, this process cannot be reversed.
Requesting a Permanent Deletion
To request a paper is deleted, complete the following steps:
1. Navigate to the Blackboard course and select Course Management > Control Panel > Course Tools > Turnitin Assignments. 
2. Select the title of the assignment to open the Assignment Inbox. In the Assignment Inbox, select the tick box next to the name of a student and their submission.
3. On selecting the submission, a yellow menu above the list of assignments with a Delete button will appear. Select Request permanent deletion. 
Once selected you will be presented with a confirmation prompt - select 'Continue'.
Copy and paste the information in the Permanent deletion request prompt box. Please select a 'Reason for Deletion' and select on 'Continue'.
Confirm the information and type “Delete” to confirm the deletion request.
Once the request has been made, contact the ICT Service Desk to confirm the deletion. Provide the information previously presented in the 'Permanent deletion request'.
Please note that the paper will not be deleted without a corresponding ASK ticket.
Further help and support for staff
Please contact your Faculty Ed Tech team for information on the use of this tool for teaching, learning and assessment.
For further help and support in using this feature, please visit the help materials provided by the product vendor.
FAQs
I have made a mistake. Can I get the paper back?
Yes - Papers enter an 'unreachable' state for a period of 30 days. During the 30-day window, your Turnitin Administrator can recover the paper. Once recovered, it will appear as if the request had never been made in the first place.
When is the paper permanently deleted from Turnitin?
We give a grace window of 30 days in which administrators can recover a paper that may have been accidentally deleted. After 30 days have passed, the paper cannot be recovered under any circumstances by you or by Turnitin.
Can instructors request more than one paper deletion at a time?
Paper deletions can only be requested on a paper-by-paper basis. The feature was intentionally designed this way to reduce user concerns about people misusing the system, to encourage extra care to be taken with each deletion request to prevent mistakes, and to promote reviewing your Turnitin settings.
Couldn’t instructors delete papers previously?
Deleting from the inbox simply removes it from view. Instructors would then have to contact their Turnitin Administrator, who would contact Turnitin Support to fully remove a paper. The option to remove the paper only from view still exists, but is now more descriptive of what it does — ‘Remove from Inbox’.
What happens if a student resubmits to the assignment?
The most recent submission will always be the primary paper. If you make a deletion request on a paper that is then overwritten by a resubmission, the deletion request will be cancelled. Matches will only ever appear against the latest submission when generating a new Similarity Report. You will receive a message in your Messages inbox when your request has been cancelled.