Are your footnotes highlighted in your similarity report? That's a good sign! :)
To calculate your similarity score, the plagiarism checker compares your document with all other sources in the Turnitin database. In this process, all similarities of your document with these sources are marked. So, if your footnotes contain sources and are marked, it means that other documents in the database have also used and cited these sources and your work was successfully compared to them!
So initially, the similarity score includes possible source references in your footnotes. However, you can easily exclude irrelevant similarities from your check. Here you can find a step-by-step guide.
To calculate your similarity score, the plagiarism checker automatically excludes all similarities found in your bibliography from the result. Similarities marked in your sources mean that the source was also used and cited in other texts in the database. This means that they are usually not plagiarized. Here you can find more information about this.
Footnotes are not excluded in this way, however, for two reasons:
Footnotes will sometimes include sources and sometimes text, depending on citation style and university requirements. Since it is very important to check the text as part of a plagiarism check, your footnotes cannot be automatically excluded.
Even if your footnotes contain sources, they are linked to the text and it is important to check that all marks in the text are either reworded or already contain source references. Basically, it is a good sign if they are marked, because it means that the sources are in the database and your text has been compared to it.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.