So recently, they have come out with AI detection for university plagiarism reports. I had seen some students falsely accused of using AI when they did not. Is there any setting or something in place that would help me prove that I sat and wrote out everything in LibreOffice? Besides screen recording everything I do, there would be no proof if someone was falsely accused. Although I have had no trouble with this myself, I would like to know if there is something I could have in place if something were to come up. I wanted to see if anyone had any ideas. I refuse to use Google doc, which everyone suggests because it records your keystrokes, and that is proof, but honestly, I try to stay away from Google.
No idea if using change tracking during your work, and providing the result with the tracked changes, would count as a proof.
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No, it only records you have typed in the text. There us no proof of the source. You can have ChatGPT in one Window and type into another.
This would prevent using another window, but you can read from your mobile phone, another computer or even the printed AI-session done before you start the screen-cast.
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If one really whishes to document everything, you will need a webcam wich monitors you at your desk with surroundings and save this locally as additional proof (better two of them from differnt angle). Even this can not prevent reading AI generated text, when off-screen and reproducing it from memory…
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So all we do can give hints on doing our work ourselfes, but not prevent cheating, if one really wish to do this.
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Btw, i doubt google is really recording keystrokes. So using software to “type” my text via a custom keyboard-driver will not being detected. An nobody told me not to use speech to text…
Save often, with different names. Not only is that a good back-up strategy, but if you can hand over a dozen of earlier versions of your work, it also proves that you have been working on it for a while.
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[Editted] There is an add-on extension for LibreOffice and OpenOffice that saves and time-stamps your saved file. If you save often with this software, it creates a “paper-trail-like” record of your work and could be ideal for the proof that you might need, just in case. The unique time-stamp added automatically to the file name means that you don’t have to bother with using a different name for each save.
Save and time-stamp add-on
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Strictly speaking, I don’t seen any LO configuration that would keep you safe from being accused of plagiarism.
However, what comes nearest to it is probably regular saves of your work, with timestamping, as was already mentioned… and speaking of timestamping, even better than just adding the date and time to a file name, is having your document digitally timestamped, i.e. signed by a reasonably trusted authority, certifying the document did exist at the given time.
Fortunately, such an option is already part of LO : you can configure timestamping authorities. There are free timestamping services, such as this one for example. Just add the URL of the service in Options => LibreOffice => Security => Timestamping authorities.
Unfortunately, it’s not possible to just digitally timestamp a document, which means a second step is necessary : getting your own digital certificate. I realise that at this point, it may become too much of a pain to some people.
First option, you can contact an external authority to get one. Be careful to choose a certificate who’s enabled for document signing, or LO may refuse to sign the document (I don’t know if it performs that check actually). I suppose trying at first with a free certificate service, such as this one, is the safest move. It delivers e-mail certificates, used for signing e-mails, but iirc, the certificate is enabled for document signing too. The process they use for the free certificate generation would make a professional scream in horror, since the public/private key pair is generated on their servers, but I guess it’s simpler for people who don’t know the whole story, and isn’t much of a concern here.
Second option, create a self-signed certificate all by yourself. Now it’s getting complicated… Windows and Linux include tools to create a self-signed certificate with an associated private key. On Linux, use OpenSSL. I’m on Windows right now, so I’ll give the Windows procedure :
- Use the Certificates MMC snap-in (command line :
mmc certmgr.msc), right-click on thePersonalfolder in the right pane => All tasks => Advanced operations => Create a custom request => Continue with no enrollment policy. At this point you should have a certificate information window. Click the arrow to the right of Details, then Properties. - You will have to check the object tab, where the owner of the certificate (you) can be defined by common name, e-mail, etc. Define yourself however you want.
- Then, go to the extensions tab, I recommend that you choose Digital signature as a key usage, and Document signature as extended key usage, as that’s what we came for. Make sure that both usages aren’t marked critical by unchecking the appropriate boxes, just to make sure LO won’t choke on it for whatever reason.
- Finally, in the private key tab, you can let everything by default, except Allow exporting the private key, in case you want to export the whole certificate+private key thing later and use it elsewhere, otherwise Windows will refuse to let you do so. You can set a longer private key if you want, e.g. 4096 bits, but that’s optional. Then, click OK, and Next.
- You will now have to save a certificate signing request as a file. Save it wherever you want, then delete it, or keep it if you want, it doesn’t matter.
- Now, back to the certificates snap-in, check the certificate enrollment requests folder, your self-signed certificate should be there, valid for one year, move it to the personal certificates folder, and that’s it, finally !
On LO, when choosing to export your document to PDF, don’t choose direct export, as it will automatically apply the latest options chosen for PDF export, which likely don’t include signing, choose Export to => PDF… Go to the Digital signatures tab, select your certificate, and most importantly, choose the timestamping authority, click Export, save, and voilà , you have your timestamped PDF document.
You should then be able to see the signature + timestamp yourself on the file, with some PDF reader such as Adobe’s of course. Unfortunately, neither Edge’s PDF reader nor Firefoxe’s will do in that respect (I guess Chrome won’t either).
Note that if you use a self-signed certificate, the PDF reader will likely complain the document signature isn’t valid. In fact, it will probably be the case even if you use a certificate signed by an external authority. That’s because Adobe would like you to purchase their expensive certificates instead… but anyway, technically, the associated timestamp remains valid, that’s a thing you can’t forge (unless of course you have some high level access to the company that hosts the timestamp authority).
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