PlaGraph relies on the MOSS plagiarism detection system to extract and compare the representation of the program structure and measure similarities in the programs. This graph-based model presents structural similarities of programs introduced to address cases of plagiarism in programming assignments.
To use PlaGraph, an instructor is expected to get a MOSS User ID and Password. To get a MOSS ID, a user is required a user to send an email to moss@moss.stanford.edu. A mail sent to this address would result in a reply email which contains a perl script, which can be downloaded into the instructor’s computer.