Mississippi State University.

Detection status: Turnitin Similarity is documented as the university's academic-integrity product in Canvas, and Honorlock AI-monitored proctoring is contracted for online exams; no central Mississippi State page located in this review states whether Turnitin's AI writing detection is enabled, while Electrical and Computer Engineering syllabi state that all submitted work is filtered through Turnitin's AI writing detection tool
Office in these sources: Student Honor Code Office · 1st Floor YMCA Building, 195 Lee Blvd, Mail Stop 9515, Mississippi State, MS 39762 · (662) 325-9151 · studenthonorcode@saffairs.msstate.edu
Ombuds or advocacy office: The office Mississippi State titles Ombuds does not serve students. It describes itself as “an independent, neutral third party who assists faculty, staff and administrators in resolving problems, concerns and complaints confidentially through informal means” · ombuds.msstate.edu. The student-facing equivalent is the Student Advocate/Ombudsman, which the university publishes as a role within the Dean of Students' Office — the same office that administers the student conduct process — and for which no confidentiality statement was located in this review · dos@msstate.edu · (662) 325-3611 · students.msstate.edu — Student Advocate/Ombudsman
Sources last checked: Aug 31, 2026

Reproduced from the institution’s own pages quoted below — potentially relevant official sources, not a determination of which one governs any case.

Mississippi State's published sources on AI detection and academic integrity, quoted and linked below. These are potentially relevant official sources, not a determination of which one governs any case. Two separate tracks exist at Mississippi State and they publish different rules: the Student Honor Code, administered by the Student Honor Code Office, governs academic misconduct, while the Code of Student Conduct, administered by the Dean of Students' Office, governs non-academic matters — a provision found in one does not establish a provision in the other. Course syllabi and department rules may add further requirements, and some of what is quoted here is department-level rather than university-wide. Confirm applicability with the institution. Any dates are quoted from the sources, not a deadline calculation performed for you.

01Detection status

What is documented — and at what scope

Mississippi State documents more than one integrity technology, and they are not the same accusation. A similarity product runs in Canvas, an AI-monitored proctoring service runs for online exams, one department's syllabi describe AI writing detection, and the university's own working group on generative AI published a caution about detection software. Each is set out separately below with the scope the university states for it.

Turnitin Similarity, in Canvas

Mississippi State's Information Technology Services announced the change to Turnitin (page dated Aug 5, 2022; retrieved Aug 31, 2026):

"Effective Aug. 8, Turnitin Similarity will be Mississippi State's product for academic integrity. At this time Turnitin will be the only option in Canvas." "All faculty are strongly encouraged to verify plagiarism settings on all Canvas assignments prior to student submissions."

Source: MSU plagiarism detection software changes to Turnitin Similarity. The ITS Service Desk maintains a supporting article, Helpful Turnitin Links (page dated Aug 17, 2022, modified Dec 10, 2024; retrieved Aug 31, 2026), which is a list of links and states nothing about an AI writing indicator. No central Mississippi State page located in this review states that Turnitin's AI writing detection is enabled, disabled, or in use across the university, and none states who may see such a score or what weight it carries. That absence is the finding at university scope.

Turnitin AI writing detection, documented at department level

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering states in its Fall 2024 course syllabi, under the heading “GENERATIVE AI” (dated Fall 2024; no further date stated; retrieved Aug 31, 2026):

"The unauthorized use of a generative AI tool to complete an assignment constitutes academic dishonesty and may be reported as an Honor Code violation." "All submitted work will be filtered through Turnitin's AI writing detection tool, and other screeners may also be used."

Source: ECE 3433 Circuits II, Fall 2024 Syllabus, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The same block appears in other Fall 2024 syllabi from that department. This is a departmental statement about that department's courses, not a university-wide one, and it is recorded here at that scope. What it does establish is that a student in one of those courses may have work run through an AI writing detection tool without any central Mississippi State page saying so.

Honorlock, for online proctoring

MS State Online, the Center for Distance Education, states (page dated Sep 14, 2023, modified Feb 25, 2025; retrieved Aug 31, 2026):

"Mississippi State contracts with Honorlock for online proctoring services at no cost to students." "Secure Online Proctoring: Honorlock employs advanced technology and artificial intelligence to maintain the integrity of exams." "MS State Online encourages online faculty to seek alternatives to proctored exams as a primary method of assessment."

Source: Academic Integrity — MS State Online. This is exam proctoring, and Mississippi State does not describe it as detection of AI-written text; it is recorded here because a case that begins with a proctoring flag is a different accusation from one that begins with a writing score, and a reader whose case began with the first will not find it under Turnitin.

The Honor Code Office's own services

The Student Honor Code Operational Procedures Manual, § III.B.2, “Faculty Assistance” (revised and approved Jun 13, 2023; retrieved Aug 31, 2026):

"A proctoring service has been created (as a function of the Student Honor Code Office) to provide services by trained proctors for all tests where needed or requested." "A plagiarism detection service is available for use by instructors and students where needed."

Source: Student Honor Code Operational Procedures Manual (PDF). The manual does not name the plagiarism detection service or state whether it includes AI writing detection.

What the university's working group published about detection

The Provost's Office Working Group report on generative AI, under “Best Practices,” carries the subhead “Don't rely on AI-detection software alone in evaluating the originality of student work,” and states (report submitted Nov 8, 2023; retrieved Aug 31, 2026):

"Understand that GAI-detection software is currently unreliable and can only be part of a more comprehensive strategy to ensure academic integrity on assignments."

Source: Report on Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) and Instruction (PDF), Provost's Office Working Group. The report is guidance to instructors; nothing located in this review disables a detection tool or bars its use, and the same report recommends that a standing committee “report on the best practices for detecting and reporting academy dishonesty involving GAI” (sic).

Provenance note. ZeroGPT and GPTZero appear in that report only inside a block-quoted example of one instructor's syllabus language, offered as an illustration of how a course might be written. They are not documented anywhere in this review as tools Mississippi State licenses, deploys, or endorses, and they are recorded here only so that a reader who finds those names in the report knows what they are attached to.

Where the burden is placed. The Student Honor Code Operational Procedures Manual, § I.C (revised Jun 13, 2023; retrieved Aug 31, 2026), states a requirement that falls on the student rather than on any tool:

"Mississippi State University students are responsible for authenticating any work on assignments or scholarly projects submitted to an instructor or graduate committee. If asked, a student must be able to produce proof that the assignment submitted is indeed the work of that student. Students must keep appropriate records at all times. The inability to authenticate one's work, should the instructor or graduate committee request it, is sufficient grounds to initiate an investigation of academic misconduct."

Source: Student Honor Code Operational Procedures Manual (PDF).

What was searched and came back empty. No page on the institution's own domain was located in this review documenting iThenticate, SimCheck, Turnitin Originality as a separate license, Copyleaks, Originality.ai, Winston AI, Crossplag, Packback, Grammarly Authorship, Proctorio, or Examity as a Mississippi State deployment. The search covered those named vendors, the Canvas integration and ITS service catalogue, the graduate thesis and dissertation pipeline in the Libraries' electronic-thesis pages — which describe format review and document no similarity or AI screening — the proctoring stack, and the Libraries' generative-AI guide. One central page could not be read: the teaching centre's generative-AI resources page for instructors, still linked from the Honor Code site and from the working-group report, now redirects to the centre's homepage, so whatever it said about detection practice is not currently readable.

02Published process

What Mississippi State's own pages say about how cases proceed

Who may be present: Not stated in the sources reviewed. Neither AOP 12.07 Student Honor Code (approved Aug 24, 2020) nor the Student Honor Code Operational Procedures Manual (revised Jun 13, 2023) was found in this review to contain any provision for an advisor, support person, or note-taker at an Honor Code meeting or hearing, or any provision about recording one. What was found instead sits in the separate non-academic track: the Dean of Students' Prehearing Conference Form, under “STUDENT CONDUCT BOARD RIGHTS,” states “That the student may be accompanied by an advisor of his/her choosing during any time that he/she may appear before the board; however, if the advisor is an attorney, the Dean of Students' Office must be notified 48 hours prior to the hearing.” and “That the student, not the advisor, is responsible for presenting his/her case; therefore, the advisor may not address members of the student conduct board or witnesses or speak during the proceedings.” — Prehearing Conference Form, Dean of Students (file dated Jan 2025; no date stated in the document; retrieved Aug 31, 2026) · students.msstate.edu — Prehearing Conference Form (PDF). That form governs Code of Student Conduct hearings, which is a different process from the Student Honor Code track that handles academic misconduct.
What follows on the record: “The ‘XF’ shall be documented on the student's transcript with the notation ‘failure due to academic misconduct’.” — Student Honor Code Operational Procedures Manual, § I.D.1 (revised and approved Jun 13, 2023; retrieved Aug 31, 2026) · Student Honor Code Operational Procedures Manual (PDF). On removal and retention, the Student Honor Code Office's FAQ states “The ‘X’ can be removed upon completion of the AIP; however, the F will stay on the transcript.” and “Case records are expunged five years following the date of the student's graduation.” — Student Honor Code FAQ (no date stated; retrieved Aug 31, 2026) · honorcode.msstate.edu — FAQ

The two questions an adviser raises first, answered from this institution’s own published documents — or recorded as not stated in them.

From AOP 12.07, Student Honor Code (approved Aug 24, 2020; retrieved Aug 31, 2026), on who resolves a first offence:

"Individual faculty shall have the authority to handle cases of academic misconduct on their own if it is a student's first offense…"

Source: AOP 12.07 Student Honor Code (PDF).

From the Student Honor Code Operational Procedures Manual (revised and approved Jun 13, 2023; retrieved Aug 31, 2026):

"will also contact the Student Honor Code Office within 10 business days of either observing or receiving a report of an alleged incident to determine if the student alleged to have committed the violation has any prior record of academic misconduct." "Note that if a student has a prior violation of the Student Honor Code, the case must be automatically referred to the Student Honor Code Office." "the faculty member will meet with the student to notify him/her of the allegations, recommended outcome, and the adjudication and appeal process." "Both the reporting faculty member and the accused student will have the opportunity to review the case file prior to the hearing." "Hearings will be conducted in accordance with applicable due process requirements." "the Student Honor Code Office will notify the student in writing of the Hearing Panel decision, normally within 48 hours."

Source: Student Honor Code Operational Procedures Manual (PDF). On the appeal, the Student Honor Code Office states (no date stated; retrieved Aug 31, 2026):

"A student found responsible for academic misconduct may request an appeal in writing within five (5) university business days after notification of the original hearing panel's decision." "Students are limited to one appeal per case. The decision of the Appeal Hearing Panel is final."

Source: Filing an Appeal — Student Honor Code.

Two further facts about this process were located but are recorded here as findings about what Mississippi State does not publish. First, no evidentiary standard is stated for Honor Code cases: neither AOP 12.07 nor the Operational Procedures Manual was found in this review to state a standard of proof, and the word “preponderance” appears in neither. A “more likely than not” formulation does appear in the separate Code of Student Conduct track, on the Dean of Students' Prehearing Conference Form, but that governs a different process. Second, the hearing panel composition, sanctions range, and the graduate and veterinary-medicine variations are set out in the Operational Procedures Manual linked above rather than restated here, and the manual and the Honor Code Office's contact page give different addresses for the office — the YMCA Building on the current site, 608 Allen Hall in the 2023 manual. What any of this means for a particular case is for the institution and its process to determine.

03Source map

Where the documents live

Document	Location
AOP 12.07 Student Honor Code (approved Aug 24, 2020)	policies.msstate.edu — AOP 12.07 (PDF)
Student Honor Code Operational Procedures Manual (revised Jun 13, 2023)	honorcode.msstate.edu — Operating Procedures (PDF)
Student Honor Code policy index	honorcode.msstate.edu/policy
Filing an appeal (five university business days)	honorcode.msstate.edu/resources/filing-appeal
Student Honor Code FAQ — transcript notation removal and record retention	honorcode.msstate.edu/faq (no date stated; retrieved Aug 31, 2026)
Turnitin Similarity in Canvas (ITS announcement, Aug 5, 2022)	msstate.edu/newsroom — Turnitin Similarity
ITS Service Desk — Helpful Turnitin Links	servicedesk.its.msstate.edu — Helpful Turnitin Links (page dated Aug 17, 2022, modified Dec 10, 2024)
Turnitin AI writing detection, departmental syllabus statement (ECE, Fall 2024)	ece.msstate.edu — ECE 3433 syllabus (PDF)
Honorlock online proctoring (MS State Online)	online.msstate.edu/faculty/academic-integrity (page dated Sep 14, 2023, modified Feb 25, 2025)
Provost's Office Working Group report on generative AI (Nov 8, 2023)	provost.msstate.edu — AI Working Group Report (PDF)
Code of Student Conduct — Prehearing Conference Form (advisor and recording, non-academic track)	students.msstate.edu — Prehearing Conference Form (PDF) (file dated Jan 2025)
Student conduct hearing procedures (non-academic track)	students.msstate.edu/student-conduct/hearing-procedures (page dated Dec 15, 2023, modified Jan 3, 2025)
Student Honor Code Office	1st Floor YMCA Building, 195 Lee Blvd, Mail Stop 9515 · (662) 325-9151 · studenthonorcode@saffairs.msstate.edu (from the office's pages, retrieved Aug 31, 2026)
Office of the Ombuds — serves faculty, staff and administrators, not students	ombuds.msstate.edu/faq (no date stated; retrieved Aug 31, 2026)
Student Advocate/Ombudsman, within the Dean of Students' Office	students.msstate.edu — Student Advocate/Ombudsman (page dated Jan 2, 2024; retrieved Aug 31, 2026)

Organizing your own drafts and records to bring to any of this: the records checklist. Capturing the pages above as they read today, and keeping your own dated record beside them: what to do with these sources.

04Change log

Revision history of this page

2026-08-31 — Page created. All quotations retrieved this date from the msstate.edu pages linked beside them. Source page dates as displayed: Aug 5, 2022 (ITS Turnitin announcement), Aug 17, 2022 modified Dec 10, 2024 (ITS Service Desk Turnitin links), Sep 14, 2023 modified Feb 25, 2025 (MS State Online academic integrity), Jun 13, 2023 (Student Honor Code Operational Procedures Manual), Aug 24, 2020 (AOP 12.07), Nov 8, 2023 (Provost's Office Working Group report), Jan 2, 2024 (Student Advocate/Ombudsman), Dec 15, 2023 modified Jan 3, 2025 (student conduct hearing procedures), Jan 2025 file date (Prehearing Conference Form); the Honor Code FAQ, appeal page, policy index and Ombuds FAQ display no date. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter (review confirmed 2026-08-31). Internet Archive captures: to be added.

2026-08-31 — Detection sweep recorded. Named-vendor sweep run on the institution's own domain for Turnitin including its AI writing indicator, SimCheck and Turnitin Originality, Copyleaks, iThenticate, GPTZero, Originality.ai, Winston AI, Crossplag, ZeroGPT, Packback, Grammarly Authorship, Honorlock, Proctorio, Respondus and Examity. Category sweep run across the Canvas integration and ITS service catalogue, the graduate thesis and dissertation pipeline, the proctoring stack, and the teaching-centre and Libraries guides. Found and documented on the page: Turnitin Similarity in Canvas; Turnitin AI writing detection at Electrical and Computer Engineering department scope; Honorlock; and the Honor Code Office's own proctoring and unnamed plagiarism detection services. Came back empty as a Mississippi State deployment: iThenticate, SimCheck, Turnitin Originality as a separate license, Copyleaks, Originality.ai, Winston AI, Crossplag, Packback, Grammarly Authorship, Proctorio and Examity; the graduate thesis and dissertation pipeline documents format review only and no similarity or AI screening. ZeroGPT and GPTZero were found only inside a block-quoted example syllabus paragraph in the Provost's working-group report and are recorded on the page as a provenance note rather than as deployments. Respondus LockDown Browser appears as an ITS service-catalogue entry that was identified by URL but not fetched in this review, so it is not stated on the page; it is recorded here as an outstanding item. This is a searched negative, not an unasked question.

2026-08-31 — Deliberate omissions and unresolved points. The teaching centre's “Generative AI Resources for Instructors” page — the most likely home of a central statement on detection practice, and still linked from the Honor Code site and the working-group report — redirects to the centre's homepage and could not be captured; nothing is stated on this page about its contents. An ITS Service Desk article on blocking third-party AI services was identified by title from a Libraries guide link but not fetched; it concerns tool access rather than detection and is not cited. The hearing-panel composition, the full sanctions range, and the graduate and veterinary-medicine variations are left to the Operational Procedures Manual rather than restated. Two divergences within Mississippi State's own documents are recorded rather than resolved: the Student Honor Code Office address differs between the current site (YMCA Building) and the 2023 Operational Procedures Manual (608 Allen Hall), and the Honor Code track states no standard of proof at all while the separate Code of Student Conduct track states “more likely than not” — the two are kept distinct on the page and neither is carried across to the other. A search result asserting that Turnitin AI detection is not available at “MSU” was traced to Michigan State University's help documentation and discarded; it does not concern this institution. Nothing on this page is paraphrase-pending; every quotation above was captured first-party.

Spot an error or an outdated quotation? hello@gatheredwork.com — corrections are made on the record, in this log.