Direct answer
No, students cannot delete their own paper from a Turnitin assignment. Only your instructor (or an account administrator with the appropriate role) can remove a submission from the assignment inbox, and deleting a paper also removes its similarity and AI writing reports [1]. If your instructor has enabled resubmissions, you can overwrite your previous draft with a corrected file before the due date, which replaces the old report. The safest approach is never to rely on deletion: check your own Turnitin report before you submit [1].
Who Can Delete a Submission From Turnitin, and What Rules Govern Removing a Paper?
Deletion rights live with the instructor. In Turnitin, a submission can only be removed by a user with delete permission — typically the instructor who owns the assignment or an account administrator — through the assignment inbox or Feedback Studio. There is no student-facing "remove" button anywhere in the system [2].
When an instructor deletes a submission, the paper and its attached reports are removed from the assignment, and that action cannot be undone from the student side. If the account is configured to store student papers, institutional retention policies still apply after deletion, so you should confirm with your instructor what actually happens to the file [2].
The AI writing report behaves the same way: it is attached to the specific submission that generated it. Deleting that submission removes the AI writing report with it, while resubmitting a new draft generates a completely fresh report on the new file instead [2].
Can a Student Remove Their Own Paper From a Turnitin Assignment Before the Due Date?
In nearly all Turnitin configurations, students cannot delete submissions themselves. Once a file is uploaded, only the instructor can remove it from the assignment inbox — there is no self-service deletion available to the student account [3].
What students can do, if the instructor has enabled resubmissions (which is the default in most classes), is upload a new file over the old draft before the due date. The newest submission becomes the version that is graded, and the previous similarity and AI reports are replaced by fresh ones for the new draft [3].
After the due date, or when resubmissions are disabled, the submitted draft is locked, and you would need to contact your instructor to remove or replace it. Where Turnitin Draft Coach or self-check features are enabled, students can review their own writing for similarity and AI signals before the final submission reaches the instructor [3].
How Can You Check Your Own Turnitin AI and Similarity Report Before Submitting?
Since removal is rarely in your hands, prevention is the only reliable strategy. The most effective approach is to preview your paper through the same Turnitin AI and similarity checks your instructor will run, before you ever hit submit [4].
A pre-submission check shows you exactly what would be flagged — AI-written passages, paraphrase overlaps, and citation gaps — while you still have time to revise. Instructors are far more receptive to a conversation about a flagged draft when you can show a corrected version with a clean report [4].
This is the workflow thousands of students use: run a real Turnitin check on your draft, review the AI score and similarity matches, fix the flagged sections, and re-check until the report is clean — then submit with confidence. A clean report before submission means you will never need to ask about removal in the first place [4].
The bottom line is simple: you usually cannot pull a paper back once it is in Turnitin, so the smart move is to know your report before your instructor does. Turnitin0 gives you the exact Turnitin AI and similarity reports your university uses — check your draft first, fix whatever gets flagged, and submit with confidence instead of hoping for a deletion.
※ Turnitin0.com - Actual Turnitin AI Report Cover, Score, Flag And Similarity Summary
FAQ
1. Can a student delete their own submission in Turnitin?
No. Students do not have a delete option in Turnitin; only the instructor or an administrator with delete rights can remove a submission from the assignment inbox [1][3].
2. What happens to the AI and similarity report if a paper is deleted?
Deleting a submission removes the paper and its attached similarity and AI writing reports from the assignment, and the deletion cannot be reversed by the student [2].
3. If I resubmit before the due date, does Turnitin keep my old AI score?
No. When resubmissions are allowed, the newest upload replaces the previous draft, and Turnitin generates a fresh AI writing report for the new file [2][3].
4. Who has permission to remove a paper in Turnitin?
Only the assignment instructor or an account administrator with the appropriate role can delete submissions; there is no self-service removal for students [1].
5. What should I do if a flagged paper is already submitted?
Do not wait for deletion — contact your instructor to explain the situation, and if resubmission is allowed, upload a revised draft. Going forward, check your Turnitin AI and similarity report before submitting [4].