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Ghostwriting in academic journals: How can we mitigate its impact on research integrity?

Research integrity

Well-intentioned open access journals that engage in best practices have been a boon to the research community. But the flipside is that the burgeoning field of open access journals has given rise to fake journals, also known as predatory, deceptive, fraudulent, clone, or pseudo-journals (Beall, Nature 2012). These journals are ones that do not engage in peer review and have minimal or little copy edits. In other words, they exist primarily to extract publication fees from authors.

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Contract cheating –engaging a third party like an essay mill or even a friend or family member to submit work as one’s own–is an unquestionable form of academic misconduct. We’ve established that engaging in contract cheating hampers learning. To that end, there are now laws and activism against contract cheating in various regions around the world.

In academic research, other terms synonymous with contract cheating are more widely used; these words are ghostwriting or ghost authorship .

Ghostwriting is a term used to describe academic research written by someone whose name is not acknowledged. The third party may be anyone who engages in this behavior, including individuals hired by private companies in the industry that may provide undisclosed influence on research.

Ghostwriting may entail taking credit for an entire article written by a third party, crediting “honorary” authors for work they did not do, or not crediting junior researchers for their participation. When authors are named without having participated in research or writing, they are called “honorary” authors or “guest” authors and this related form of behavior also qualifies as misconduct.

The most egregious forms of ghostwriting are articles completely written by an industry representative about research in which the stated authors have taken no part, or articles written by industry that provide selective research outcomes to promote products of which the researchers and acknowledged authors are unaware.

In the world of medical writing, the misconduct of ghostwriting is particularly pervasive, as pharmaceutical companies often collaborate with researchers to promote products and support regulatory requests; in fact, the term for legitimately doing so is called publication planning and strategy . But when these contributions aren’t acknowledged, research slides into misconduct. Researchers state that “We believe that critics are right to condemn the production of ghostwritten journal articles, a practice we believe to be unethical and dangerous” and while collaboration itself is not the problem, “the problem is the specific ways in which these collaborations are disguised, manipulated, and used as tools for marketing drugs” ( Moffatt & Elliott, 2007 ).

Studies have shown that ghostwriting and guest authorship are prevalent within research. A study published in Nature stated that 10.0% of participating scientists engaged in “inappropriately assigning authorship credit”; mid-career scientists’ numbers are even more troubling, with a 12.3% admission rate ( Martinson, Anderson, and de Vries, 2005 ). A more recent 2011 study found that “the prevalence of articles with honorary and ghost authors across three peer-reviewed journals was 14.3% and 0.9%, respectively” ( Dotson & Slaughter, 2011 ). And a 2002 study of Cochrane reviews revealed that an astounding 39% of articles had “honorary” authorship and 9% had “ghost authors” ( Mowatt, et al., 2002 ).

The above numbers may vary, but establish that ghostwriting is happening due to myriad pressure points.

Ghostwriting can be perceived as a way to increase economic opportunities. For medical writers employed by industry, it is a career opportunity. For academic researchers, collaboration with industry may be correlated to prestige and grant support. And “for industry sponsors, these practices are part of global publication strategies for product promotion,” by developing relationships with academics ( Bosch & Ross, 2012 ).

The nature of research, too, can lead to ambiguity. Collaboration is a core component of good citizenship within academia. Funding, too, is more often than not tied to related industries. But these working relationships can often blur boundaries.

Propagating a perception of collaboration has encouraged the practice of multiple authors on research articles. By adding co-authors to a paper, particularly names of more established academics, researchers provide more esteem to their work and increase their chances of being published in more prestigious journals and gaining a wider audience. In fact, “Part of the problem is that good names give papers credibility. A colleague once told me that in his country it was more important to know the authors than the methods of a research paper, as some professors lent their names to almost anything if they were well paid. I have seen single-authored meta-analyses on drugs presenting sophisticated analyses that went far beyond the capability of the author, without a word about who did the analyses (and presumably even wrote the paper). Similarly, many drug reviews are unlikely to have been written by the authors, as these professors probably have more important things to do than writing book-length drug reviews in sponsored supplements or peripheral journals that few would ever read and that have no impact factor,” according to 2009 research ( Gøtzsche, et al., 2009 ).

Such “honorary” or “guest” authorship has been linked to ghostwriting; academic dishonesty is a slippery slope.

Research supports the slippery slope theory. “It is this culture,” states 2010 research, “that pharmaceutical companies have tapped into, rather than inventing a new type of author. But by flattering academics into being guest authors, they have created, and then filled, a need for ghost authors to actually write the papers. The academics accepting the apparent honor of authorship thus provide cover – as accomplices or as dupes – for manipulative marketing practices” ( Barbour, 2010 ).

Finally, ghostwriting is a growing practice because it is often viewed as a slight, rather than as uncontested research misconduct. (Plagiarism, on the other hand, is an uncontested ethical failing). So in the face of economic and career rewards, the incentives to engage in ghostwriting outweighs the low risk of discipline.

When authors collaborate with industry and do not reveal this collaboration in clear ways, research loses integrity and thus erodes trust.

Transparency is a key component to research integrity. Knowing exactly who is writing the article and making clear any bias or influence is critical to accurate findings and research conclusions. According to medical writer Langdon-Neuner, “Articles ghost-written by medical writers engaged by pharmaceutical companies who have a vested interest in the content have caused concern after scandals revealed misleading content in some articles” ( Langdon-Neuner, 2008 )

Advertisements carry the name of the manufacturer whereas ghost-written articles do not reveal affiliation. Confusing the two results in medical decisions made by doctors and policy makers that affect health.

Scientific communication and scientific objectivity is a clear line that delineates research from marketing. This line must be upheld, according to Barton & Elliott, who state, “One approach to scientific objectivity holds that science is objective because of its procedures. According to this view, the foundation of scientific objectivity rests in the way scientists communicate and contest results. Helen Longino (2001) argues that scientific communities are objective insofar as their communication procedures are open and contestable. But ghostwritten papers conceal the interests of authors and sponsors in a way that makes it difficult to assess and contest the scientific data, which undermines the objectivity of science itself” (Moffatt & Elliott, 2007, p. 27 ).

Bosch and Ross go even further in saying that “ghostwriting and guest authorship are acts of research misconduct and deserve such widespread indignation because they entail maintaining secrecy, falsifying credentials, and fabricating the attribution of writing to another, representing an intentional and significant departure from accepted practices within the research community” ( Bosch & Ross, 2012 ).

When practitioners and policy makers make decisions for others based on research, that research needs to be transparent and accurate. The consequences of ghostwriting are widespread; by undermining the integrity of research, it removes critical data that influences how that data will then be used, whether it be policy decisions or a basis for further research.

First and foremost, raising awareness is the first step in preventing ghostwriting from occurring in research articles. #Pleasedontstealmywork in Denmark, for instance, documents instances of ghostwriting in order to make clear the prevalence of ghostwriting. When unknowing researchers understand that ghostwriting is a form of misconduct, they are dissuaded from engaging in dishonesty. And when those who knowingly engage in ghostwriting are under the spotlight, they are less likely to engage in research misconduct.

Journals can take part by requiring contributorship statements for publication . Additionally, they can ask authors to make clear any written contributions by private industry. It is not the participation with industry that makes ghostwriting unethical but the lack of transparency with partnerships. Acknowledging medical writers can clarify conflicts of interest–and make their contribution legitimate ( Yadav & Rawal, 2018 ).

From the initial steps of awareness and journal participation, institutional involvement helps enforce a culture of academic integrity around research. Encouraging universities to define ghostwriting as research misconduct is a way to impress the importance of authorship. Other institutional-level support involves forming a standing committee or task force to sanction ghostwriting ( Bosch & Ross, 2012 ).

Some suggestions are punitive, and go as far as making it standard practice that ghostwriters and guest authors be named as defendants in litigation against the pharmaceutical industry, per Moffatt and Elliott ( Moffatt & Elliott, 2007, p. 29 ). Certainly, this would be a deterrent. The lack of disciplinary measures to date has contributed to widespread ghostwriting. Plagiarism results in retractions and negative reputation; the same must happen when it comes to ghostwriting.

As with all academic integrity issues, we hope it doesn’t come to punishment and that such breaches are avoided through education. We hope that spotlighting ghostwriting helps spare unknowing participants of misconduct.

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Academic ghostwriting: to what extent is it haunting higher education?

I f you Google "academic proofreading," you will see a list of sites offering to "proof" your work. What they are also offering, however, is to write your assignments for you. How do I know this? There are two main reasons.

The first is that I occasionally assess ghost texts: I teach English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Where I work , students don't sit traditional exams. Instead, they write research papers and at the end of the process (which we scaffold), they sit a viva voce exam to extend and defend their research. Both the paper and the viva are assessed. This, we believe, provides several opportunities to get to know the writers and their texts. In the end, we are reasonably confident that final papers are genuine.

Now and then, however, a student will submit a piece of beautifully polished and referenced work that is clearly at odds with evidence from our day-to-day interactions. It is usually sufficiently and artfully peppered with inaccuracies to be attributable to a novice writer, but we know it is not the student's work. When a piece of work is plagiarised, we can usually prove it – but in cases where the student has paid someone else to write the piece, we can't.

Paid by the grade

The second reason is that, in a fit of professional curiosity, I recently sent my CV to, and was interviewed by, a "proofreading" agency. Proofreading prices range roughly from £16 for a 2,000-word essay to £600 for a doctoral thesis, though most sites don't give prices. It wasn't until my interview, however, that I was asked if I would actually write essays and told that I would be paid according to whether the essay got a first or second. When I asked how much, the response was vague, but if the story about Saif Gaddafi's use of the writing services of a PhD student is anything to go by, ghostwriting pays well! Much of what I was told also chimes with this ghostwriter .

I do not have statistics on the extent to which ghost writers haunt higher education. What I do know is that there are several agencies offering the service and that obtaining a degree really matters to the UK's 2.5 million students (their parents and sponsors), half a million of whom are from overseas, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency .

Academic writing is complex

Such pressure can contribute to inequitable levels of competition. Could you produce lengthy academic assignments without having benefited from a traditional academic background or without English as your first language? Academic discourse is highly complex, inherently cultural and discipline-specific. It requires extensive reading and is also rapidly evolving. In the same situation, I too might be tempted to ask for help, plagiarise or drop out.

However, since all students – including those who write for themselves – are subject to the same assignments, deadlines and assessment criteria, it is unfair for universities to collude tacitly with ghostwriting.

Name and shame?

I am not advocating a culture of penalties where students are named and shamed, as happens in plagiarism cases: I can understand why some students do it. But since ghostwriting isn't illegal (yet), what can universities do to maintain high academic standards?

A typical response is to extend deadlines, run workshops and set up writing centres. Re-instating the written exam might help, but that too has drawbacks.

I would endorse a profoundly different attitude to academic writing, one that recognises its role in the development of responsible academic individuals and communities. I would like academic writing to become more integrated, not outsourced to market forces or bolted on as a response to last-minute deadlines.

There are some universities with an integrated writing culture. These include Warwick University, which runs an MSc in chemistry with scientific writing , and Coventry University, which offers an MA on academic writing theory and practice . At Nottingham, we take this approach in our EAP programmes . But how do other programmes integrate a culture of writing within their disciplines? And to what extent might nurturing such a culture reduce the need for ghostwriters and foster more pride in developing our writing selves?

Julia Molinari is a PhD researcher and EAP tutor at Nottingham University – follow her on Twitter @serenissimaj

Join the Higher Education Network for more comment, analysis and job opportunities , direct to your inbox. Follow us on Twitter @gdnhighered .

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• Published: 01 July 2016

A close encounter with ghost-writers: an initial exploration study on background, strategies and attitudes of independent essay providers

• Shiva Sivasubramaniam   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7014-5000 1 ,
• Kalliopi Kostelidou 1 &
• Sharavan Ramachandran 1  

International Journal for Educational Integrity volume  12 , Article number:  1 ( 2016 ) Cite this article

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Academic dishonesty presents in different forms, including fabrication of data, falsifying references, multiple submissions, collusion, and sabotage, with two forms haunting academia, namely plagiarism and contract cheating or ghost writing. These latter forms have received considerable attention and have been subjects for research. This interview-based study provides some further insight into the problem of ghost writing through presenting the attitudes, justifications and networking practices of some hired ‘ghost-writers’ from a developing country and discusses the depth of this emerging threat to the academic community.

Initially, through simple internet searches using specific keywords, an array of professional advertisements selling contract writing services were identified. Some of these promotional advertisements were found in Facebook® posts, and/or Twitter® feeds. The second part of this study presents a summary of findings from interviews of a group of ghost-writers including their background, attitude and justifications for setting up this new business. The study identifies several high calibre post-graduates who have come to understand the Western (European/North American/Australian) ways of scientific writing and have produced a network of ‘consultancy’ services. Although the birth of their business was ad-hoc, they have established a good network and are now able to share projects and practices. Many of them offer services to home and foreign students with varied levels of customer focus. Some of them are even using Turnitin © software to identify text matching issues. This study suggests that these paper mills have widely been subscribed to by students. The article finally discusses wider issues arising from these interviews and proposes some ways of tackling this new threat to academia.

Introduction

Academic dishonesty can present in a variety of forms, including data fabrication, falsifying references, multiple submissions, collusion and sabotage. Two common forms of academic dishonesty which haunt academia are plagiarism and ghost writing or contract cheating. The term ‘contract cheating’ was coined by Clarke and Lancaster, when they used IT–based tools to track bids by students trying to outsource computer work on the internet (Clarke and Lancaster 2006 ). In contrast ‘ghost writing’, has several distinct meanings, depending on the level of involvement of the ghost-writer (POGO 2011 ; Bosch and Ross 2012 ). Some examples, such as autobiographies that are mostly written collaboratively by a named author and ghost-writer, are considered ethically acceptable providing the use of the ghost--writer is properly acknowledged. In contrast, ‘contract cheating’ in which the student/academic is using/paying ghost-writers to complete parts of or entire projects without any inputs of their own, or proper acknowledgement is defined as academic dishonesty. Dedicated businesses such as essay mills/paper mills or writing services, as they are often presented, are being set up to serve these customers.

Since many Western (see methodology for definition) universities have incorporated text-matching software checks as a part of the submission process, plagiarism has been somewhat deterred, if not always detected (Sivasubramaniam 2013 ). However, there is less focus on addressing the issue of ghost writing or buying essays from paper mills (Molinari 2014 ). As Rothschild ( 2011 ) argued, although ghost writing is technically plagiarism under strict definition, many institutions fail to address it as a problem. Based on personal discussions with some 30 academics in the Bioscience field, approximately 60 % believe that a professionally ghost written article can easily be identified either by text matching detection software, by its style or use of citation. They also think that essays from most paper mills are too expensive for undergraduates to buy, since they are only going to contribute a percentage to their final degree. The former belief is based on assumption that ghost-writers do not spend much time researching the subject and therefore may use internet-based articles, or may sell basically the same essay, or parts of it, more than once. However in reality, it is impossible to detect an article carefully ghost written by an expert just by using text matching software. The second assumption is based on the idea that ghost-writers are professional experts who would charge high fees that are unaffordable by most students. However, it is questionable whether all ghost-writers are professionals.

Due to internationalisation of education, availability of web resources coupled with the spread/penetration of social media and their broad use by the young generation have together invalidated these assumptions.

So what is the connection between internationalisation, social media and ghost writing? Many students with postgraduate qualifications from Western Universities are returning to their native countries to face a grim future as regards employment. Having studied internationalised curricula and established global links via social media, some of these students can and do start new ghost writing services. These services are easily accessible, economical, and above all, provide realistic essays that resemble an original student essay which may be precise, but include common student mistakes.

This article first captures the extent of internet presence of ghost writing advertisements and then investigates the attitudes and justifications of a group of hired ‘ghost-writers’ from a developing country, as well as their working and networking practices, to examine the depth of this emerging treat to the academic community.

Methodology

Terms used in this work.

For the purposes of this work, terms used are defined as follows: ‘ghost-writer’ the person who authors essays, books, articles, theses which are credited to another person. For the present work, ‘ghost writing’ is used to describe the act of ghost writing, namely hiring a ghost-writer to author an academic assignment. Synonymous terms used in this paper are: contract-cheating, marketing of writing services, paper mills and essay mills. Although the actual definition of these terms may vary, the resulting phenomenon is the same, i.e. provision of an authored work, for a fee. ‘Western’ is used in the text to refer to Anglophone universities from Europe (any country), Northern America (USA and Canada), or Australia/New Zealand. ‘Commercial Essay Providers’ and ‘Amateur Writers’ are used according to their respective establishments. The former is used to depict a network of well-established writers;the latter to describe non-professional independent writers.

Concept of this work – online search

The idea of carrying out this exploratory study was initiated in 2013 after reading a Facebook © post (advertisement) about ‘high quality help for writing assignments’. Following this, a Google® (UK-Version 49.0.2623.112 m) search was immediately carried out using words linked to the term ‘ghost-writers’ such as ‘ghost writing’; ‘how to ghost write’; ‘detecting ghost writing’, to capture the extent of popularity/presence of these words within the online community. A similar search was performed in April 2016 using other popular terms such as ‘contract cheating’ and ‘professional writing service’. In 2013, the authors looked into social media such as Facebook © , Twitter®, and What’s App® to identify 25 posts/advertisements for ‘academic writing services’. These writers were randomly selected and contacted through phone calls, when authors explained the purpose of the study. Out of the 25, only ten agreed to participate so they were sent an invitation, with more details. All responders were given details of the purpose of this study, its mode of investigation and ethical aspects involved, including maintaining confidentiality. The study included interviews with the ten ghost-writers/organisations. Representing different subject areas but mainly Biosciences, they were all educated in Western countries and had since returned to their country of origin. Because these interviews were conducted in a different country from that of the author’s institution, ethical issues were covered by conducting them under UNESCO’s ‘Norms of Journalistic Conduct’ as described within the country in which these interviews were carried out. For reasons of confidentiality, this file cannot be presented, as it would expose the country where the interviewed ghost-writers were based. As almost all of the interviewees considered their work as a ‘professional writing service’ or ‘project’, the term ‘ghost writing’ was avoided in interviews. Interviews were held face-to-face with a duration of approximately fifteen minutes or by email. Comments and answers by the interviewees were recorded. These notes were subsequently re-read and key points selected to be reproduced in this text and commented upon. All interviews took place between March and to December 2013.

The purpose of these interviews was to assess (a) the individual background/circumstances for starting or joining this service (b) its popularity (c) its reliability/affordability and (d) whether they considered their service as academic dishonesty. Some examples of questions, taken from each category are given in the Appendix . While these questions were posed to the interviewees, specific answers were not always received and data presented only refer to the answers received.

Voluntary contributions of few ghost written articles were also collected to check their authenticity using the text matching software Turnitin® - Moodle Direct Version 2.2.1.

Online searches

General online searches were carried out to capture the numbers of hits on ghost writing in Google® to obtain an idea of the extent and popularity of this phenomenon. Searches were carried out in 2013 when this work started and repeated in 2016. Initially only the term ghost writing was used as a search keyword, while in the most recent search (2016) we also included ‘contract cheating’. The terms used are shown in Table  1 . As search keywords, phrases containing either neutral or positive connotations were included e.g. ‘how to ghost write’, ‘definition of contract cheating’, or negative ones such as ‘problem of ghost writing’, ‘detecting ghost writing’, ‘contract cheating in Higher Education’. The overall search data is summarised in Table  1 .

As can be seen in Table  1 , Google® searches revealed that ghost writing is extensively publicised online under different terms, for instance ghost writing, writing services etc. Interestingly in 2013 when this study began and with the use of the term ‘ghost writing’, phrases with ‘encouraging’ connotations, such as ‘how to ghost write’ or ‘ghost writing’ achieved a high number of hits, while corresponding ones with deterring connotations, as ‘detecting ghost writing’ or ‘problem with ghost writing’ had fewer hits. The most recent search in April 2016, however, revealed a few interesting points. First, the phrase ‘problem of ghost writing’ has increased its number of hits by 458 % (Table  1 , row 2). Also the number of hits for ‘ghost writing’ has risen by an impressive 1499 % (Table  1 , row 1). This trend not only reflects the increasing penetration and spreading of ghost writing but also increased awareness of this service. Interestingly, all the other entries, such as definition of ghost writing’, ‘how to ghost write’ ‘ghost writing in higher education’ and also ‘detecting ghost writing’ have been markedly reduced in number of hits [−21 % for ‘how to detect ghost writing’;−92 % for ‘how to ghost write’]. We would like to believe that these observations could be due to a universal tendency to use ‘contract cheating’ instead of ‘ghost-writer’.

A Google Scholar® search using the entire phrase ‘contract cheating’ which was performed on 15 April 2016 and excluded patents and citations, retrieved 197 articles. A large proportion of these were by Clarke and Lancaster. This was expected as these authors have presented pioneer work in this subject since 2006 and have since published several manuscripts (Clarke and Lancaster 2007 , 2009 , 2012 ). Simply changing the search term into ‘ghost writing’, but maintaining the exact search criteria retrieved 160 entries, mostly linked with ghost writing in the medical sector and industry-sponsored ghost writing on clinical trials.

Social media searches

Social media searches have revealed several small to medium size advertisements, blogs and chatting strings concerning these ‘writing services’. They were embedded as tweets, or Facebook® entries, which are linked to a home page. Some example screen shots are given in Fig.  1 .

Example advertisements from common social media websites

These advertisements are taken as screen-shots from social media and anonymised. Five of the anonymised advertisements are from ghost-writers 3, 4 and 5, 7 and 8, who were later interviewed.

Almost all of the examples in Fig.  1 are openly offering ‘writing help’ and appear to be addressing university students, both undergraduate and post-graduate. At least one writer has managed to post his advertisement on the common student Facebook® pages of a university. It is also interesting to note some are assuring, or claiming, that essays written by them would have less than 6 % Turnitin® similarity matches (white arrow in Fig.  1 , top left advertisement). This shows that these advertisers are fully aware of the use of text matching software in higher education (see section  Qualitative data obtained from Interviews ). Some offer discounts of up to 15 %, giving gift coupon codes (white arrow-head in Fig.  1 , bottom right advertisement). Others offer help with thesis write ups, even at PhD level.

Qualitative data obtained from Interviews

A total of twenty five ghost-writers were approached and ten (40 %) consented to be interviewed following a confidentiality agreement that their personal identification, location, age and sex not be disclosed. Their educational profiles are shown in Table  2 . Their qualifications are significant, with 90 % having a post-graduate Master’s degree and onea doctorate from Western Universities.

Reasons for ghost writing

Most of these services were started by students who returned to their home country after finishing post-graduate studies abroad. As a result of lack of employment in their field in their own country, some began as solos; others formed a consortium of friends from different fields of study. At least one interviewee claimed that s/he never intended to start this as a business model but continued after realising his/her first two assignments were highly successful. All of those interviewed felt that there was a high demand for ‘writers’. Commercial Essay Provider 1 held a doctorate in bioinformatics and had worked as a lecturer for a short period. During this time, s/he developed contacts with student communities. As for the incentive or reasons for starting this, s/he replied:

‘It was my own effort to start this service to our students studying overseas. I had utilized my acquired analytical and vocabulary skills to address the needs of our students.’

Similar answers were obtained from Amateur Writers 7 and 8.

Amateur Writer 4 stated:

‘One of my friends gives me projects to complete but I am planning to advertise through social networking sites.’

Although it appears these ‘writers’ started ad-hoc (mainly Commercial Essay Provider 1, 2, 9, and 10) they established a good network and were able to share projects and practices. Half of those interviewed advertise only in the social media as posts/tweets, not as advertisements. In contrast, others feel that advertising does not have an impact on their business and it is a waste of money.

Commercial Essay Provider 3 said:

‘Advertising through main internet servers does not have any impact in our promotion; also Google © have banned promotions for such report writing services.’

In their opinion (Commercial Provider 3), media can be used as a bridge for creating awareness and can also provide an opportunity to monitor market status. Eighty percent of the ghost-writers interviewed claimed they never used Google® for advertising. It should be noted that the initial Google® searches did reveal several ghost writing advertisements, many of which looked as if they came from professional Western organisations. There were also claims in Google® blogs by reformed ghost-writers that many Western paper mills outsourced their work to developing countries (Tamlyn, 2009 ). However none of the ghost-writers interviewed in this investigation seem to acquire ‘projects’ via this route. Their main forms of advertising are either through social media or personal contacts/networking. Considering claims from Tamlyn’s ( 2009 ) and other similar blogs ( Sydney media service ; Raven’s Blog 2013 ) and comparing responses from this study, it is clear that there might be three groups of online based ghost writing services: (a) established Western country-based providers, (b) Western country-based providers who outsource their contracts and (c) those based and run by former students of Western education who are now based in their native, non-Western countries. From the replies received, participants of this study fall into the third group. As stated above, their personalised approach via Facebook © or through contacts might have improved their business. When interviewed many of them said that their ‘service’ is valued by students.

Amateur Writer 4 who started his service recently, stated:

‘I mainly get projects through my references and contacts. Perhaps, my outstanding performances in various projects speak a lot, which I feel (is) better than commercial advertising’

However, Writer 4 did not deny that social media played a part in their ‘popularity’. In fact, everyone agreed that the probability of students going to them via referrals and contacts by word of mouth/social media was higher than through advertising. The interviews also revealed that these writers are highly successful. One consortium of writers proudly claimed (Commercial Essay Provider 5):

‘The frequency of our writing is constant and we get projects more frequently by any other means; so, our work and our service will fetch us further projects.’

Another writer (Amateur Writer 6) said:

‘It depends upon the needs of the students and university. As I am handling the services to all degree students, irrespective of their level of study, it will be busy all year around. For international dissertation services, it will be very busy during the months of June and January.’

Due to this high demand, this writer is now recruiting and training MSc/PhD holders from his own country. Seven writers admitted they have constant demand from both overseas and home students, the former being defined as those studying in overseas countries. As for expertise in a given subject, they share projects by networking, to ensure the is handled by an expert in subject’s essay. For example, if a bioscience project is acquired by a provider with social science expertise, they would refer this on to an individual with bioscience specialism and vice versa.

Reliability

With respect to the reliability of their service, all interviewees had a clear understanding of academic writing and plagiarism avoidance. In fact some of them even use text matching detection software to reduce the percentage matches as they perfect their essays. An example email from a senior writer to their apprentice (Commercial Provider 3), highlighting the text matching issue with instructions to rephrase the essay and screen shots of a Turnitin © report, is given in Fig.  2 .

Example communication between ghost-writers regarding a Turnitin© report

An example email correspondence between writers within Commercial Essay Provider 3. Personal identifiers such as names, email addresses are removed as requested by the interviewee.

After showing this example, the provider (Commercial Essay Provider 3) quoted:

‘We train them (the apprentice) to meet the international standards and requirements. By doing this, we can deliver plagiarism-free services to our international clients and customers.’

The same provider admitted that they clearly advise students how to address academic misconduct investigations. They are clever enough to use the student’s (customer) name and their respective university registration numbers for Turnitin © checks, so if detected, the student can claim they had checked the assignment for accuracy before submission.

Considering the seriousness of the claim that some ghost-writers are using Turnitin® to reduce the percentage of text matches, the authors requested some of their (ghost-writers’) past ‘projects’ to validate this claim. All but one, including those who claimed to be using Turnitin®, refused to provide any essays. The single ghost-writer who agreed was Commercial Essay Provider number 2, who provided four pieces of his/her work, two each for in-country customers and for students in Western universities. These four essays were checked for authenticity using Turnitin® (Moodle Direct version 2.2.1) and the percentage matches are highlighted in Fig.  3 . The right hand panels, which have a high similarity index with other published sources, were apparently written for in-country customers. In contrast, the left hand panels with low similarity index were produced for students studying in Western countries.

Percentages matches of example articles supplied by the ghost-writers

Screen shots of Turnitin® reports on articles that are claimed to be written for international (panels A and C) and in-country students (panels B and D) are given on the left and right respectively. The percentage matches are 5 and 8 % for panels A and C respectively and 75 and 54 % for panels B and D respectively. Percentages are circled on the top right part of each panel.

It is interesting to note that within the country where this study was conducted, the number of Universities/Higher education institutions which actually make use of any form of text matching services or programmes to check for academic dishonesty is below 1 % (the data was arbitrarily collected from 100 university websites in that country). A potentially low level of detection may have been realised by these writers, who may be offering widely copied material to in-country students. Although the sample size is too limited to give a meaningful conclusion, this data points to a customer-focussed service being offered by these ghost-writers. They may be trying to offer customised essays to students in Western countries where academic honesty is properly checked, whilst for their in-country customers producing essays that just address learning outcomes by copying, or ‘ patch-working ’. Patch working is mixing and matching sections of other essays into a new one, rather than carefully reading and then paraphrasing content of the sources to create an original piece of work. It is interesting to note, that the author (Commercial Essay Provider 2) who supplied these essays, when confronted with this evidence denied the accusation that ghost-writers may be offering a two-tier customer service and claimed it was merely coincidental. Since this investigation only focussed on ghost-writing practices, their popularity and justifications, investigating this suspected two-tier service which is based on minimal evidence is beyond the scope of this study.

When prompted with the question about the morality of performing this service, the writers’ argument was that the process of ‘writing’ usually involves the customer (student). They maintained their service is merely carried out in the form of collaboration with the customer, with whom they have a constant dialogue, making the student read their drafts and comments so that understand the essay and fulfil its learning outcomes. In other words they are claiming their role is as ‘editors’ rather than ‘writers’. The following excerpt given by one of the ghost writing consortia (Commercial Essay Provider 5) summarises the attitude of these writers and clearly shows they know students’ weaknesses:

‘Although the students from this (anonymised) country are highly focussed on knowledge, they lag far behind when it comes to execution. This will mask their career growth. The main reason is that, they are not taught the importance of writing at preliminary levels. They are not aware of plagiarism. This is mainly due to the design of our (anonymised) educational system. Consequently, their research is not recognised in the international platform. We (the writers) are simply helping them to get recognised.’

Similar attitudes were observed in the answers of Commercial Providers 9 and 10. The writers understood the differences in expectations between Western and non-Western assessments and use these differences to enhance their business. They are committed to their customers, promise to write better essays, and avoid plagiarism. One writer (Commercial Essay Provider 2) even accused the university system and its assessment practices by quoting:

‘The lack of support from the university tutors with their (students) course work is the main reason for students to seek the assistance from us.’

Affordability

The authors of this manuscript have found that these writing services are substantially cheaper than paper mills located in Europe, US or Australia, especially for an under/post-graduate who could afford to pay international tuition fees of the UK or USA. The charging practices differ from writer to writer. One (Commercial Essay Provider 3) claimed s/he charged the equivalent of 3 to 5 UK pence per word with a minimum charge of £100. This is important evidence that contradicts the common academic belief that ‘ students cannot afford to buy an essay from an essay-mill ’. The charges of the interviewed ghost-writers depend on the complexity of the project, from £150 for an undergraduate-level assignment to £1000 for a PhD thesis. Although some claimed they even wrote PhD theses, the authors were unable to gather any evidence for this.

Summary of findings and concluding remarks

Unlike plagiarism, there are no statistical data showing the extent of ghost writing amongst academics and students. This is justified by the difficulty in properly detecting these practices and possibly a general academic belief that ghost writing is not prevalent amongst university students. There is considerable published work on the subject of ghost writing/contract cheating (Clarke and Lancaster 2006 , 2012 ) but our work first aimed to explore the online ‘presence’ of ghost-writers and secondly to capture their styles and attitudes towards their business, as well as shedding some light on their operative ways and networking practices.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work aiming to present collective opinions of a group of ghost-writers in an academic journal rather than a newspaper or blog. In this transformed world of communication, social networking plays a major part in discussing course-related matters amongst students of higher education (Roblyer et al. 2010 ; Connell 2009 ). Essay mills businesses have noticed the potential of these websites as an advertising platform (Todi 2008 ). The phenomenon of students using social networking sites to obtain educational support has already been described (Peluchette and Karl 2008 ; Roblyer et al. 2010 ), and the ghost-writers capitalize on this. They not only specifically yet discretely target large customer groups, but also twist its use to avoid creating a media outcry. Therefore, they endorse the strategy of posting for their ‘availability’ as a simple entry on the web, rather than tagging it as a proper advertisement. From our study, approximately 80 % realised that their services may not be legal and could be blocked by the service providers.

Unemployment, particularly for specialised graduates seems to serve as the incentive for these people to starting such ventures, clearly indicating that a coveted international education may not currently be suitable for their country of origin at least for the present time. As Teichler ( 2004 ) stated, internationalisation of education without addressing core competency requirements of a global market results in unemployment. The fact that these ghost-writers are relatively recent graduates (80 % of them graduated within the last 5 years) clearly proves Teichler’s point.

Another consequence of recent graduation is that these contract essay providers are accustomed to marking criteria, learning objectives and outcomes, and the overall styles required for assignments. In terms of originality, there are signs of a ‘two-tier’ service. One service is tailored to students in Western universities and includes the use of Turnitin © or similar programmes to detect/correct potential text matching issues. The second service is designed for in-country students and lacks any provision for plagiarism checks, as home universities lag behind in use of text matching software.

Regarding the question of ethics in academic writing, the writers’ arguments were somewhat varied. By showing evidence, some (at least 2) tried to prove customer involvement throughout the project and therefore argued it is not unethical or immoral. The rest justified their service as similar to English Language Editing (ELE) services offered by many journals. One of the ghost-writers (Amateur Writer 6) even pointed out that it has been a common practice by Western academics to hire grant writers, and questioned how their service is dissimilar to this. Quoting Fugh Berman’s ( 2005 ) manuscript about pharmaceutical industries using ghost written articles supporting the efficacy of new drug (before its release onto the market, (Commercial Provider 5) defended argument that ghost writing is a common and acceptable practice. They also questioned the authors ‘ why you (the authors) are only keen to investigate these practices in my country, instead of investigating the corporate ghost-writers of the West? ’

These findings may come as no surprise, but indicate that these interviewees have a clear understanding of their work. They know how to justify their existence as well as sustain and grow their business. As prices become affordable and business is growing, this new generation of ghost-writers is going to be a major challenge for the internationalised higher education system. Therefore it is necessary for institutions to focus and redesign their assessment strategies to remove the chances of ghost writing. A holistic approach, where the strategy of assessment by means of a written assignment as a ‘measure of learning’ is shifted to an approach that evaluate the ‘learning process’ through constant student engagement and input. Different levels of organisation are required from all involved stakeholders, including the students and the Government (Clarke and Lancaster 2007 , 2009 ). Academic tutors need to tailor their assessment methods so that the process, as well as the outcome are assessed. It is also possible to have a test linked to an assignment, for example testing an element of the product, or to introduce team work activities. The latter was successfully introduced by the first author in his own institution. Administrative and IT staff can also be involved to perform regular checks on student fora, University websites and discussion pages.

University management needs to put in place a clear code of conduct and policies to deal with all the aspects of ghost writing, from detection to penalties to the involved student. Policy making can also be requested at Government level, which could result in cancelling the VISA of an overseas student who is proven culpable.

Obviously, dealing with contract cheating is not easy, especially in today’s large departments and classes, but with the introduction of an array of measures and fostering of an altered perspective by students, ghost writing could be, at least to some extent, deterred.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr Christopher Terrell-Nield, Nottingham Trent University for his editorial help and constructive criticisms throughout this study. The authors also wish to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on this manuscript.

The study was internally funded by the Nottingham Trent University.

Disclaimer statement

A part of this study was presented in the ‘Plagiarism across Europe and beyond 2015’ conference at Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic June 10th-12th 2015. Therefore some findings were published as a proceeding manuscript from this conference.

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School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Lane, Nottingham, NG11 8NS, UK

Shiva Sivasubramaniam, Kalliopi Kostelidou & Sharavan Ramachandran

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Correspondence to Shiva Sivasubramaniam .

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

All authors contributed extensively to the work presented in this manuscript. SDS designed the research plan, organised the study and assisted in the analysis. SR carried out the survey and interviews; he also analysed the data and drafted the manuscript. KK has carried out the online based searches, addressed the issues pointed out by the reviewers and made the final draft. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Authors’ information

Shiva Sivasubramaniam (SDS) is principal lecturer and Subject lead for Pharmacology. He has been an active researcher in developing novel approaches in teaching biomedical sciences. His pedagogic research interests include (a) internationalisation; (b) Student centred teaching, (c) peer-assisted learning and (b) plagiarism deterrence. Working closely with the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and Plagiarism Advisory Services (PAS), he has addressed student education by enhancing academic writing and graduate attributes. This has resulted in several publications in HEA and PAS conferences. He has also been involved in developing several post-graduate courses to suit the needs of international students without affecting the experience of home/EU students. In addition he has developed innovative teaching techniques to educate under- and post-graduate students and plagiarism deterrence.

Kalliopi Kostelidou (KK) is a lecturer/sabbatical assistant for the corresponding author.

Professor of Biochemistry, Department of Life and Health Sciences, School of Sciences. Her research interests include microbiology and pedagogic development. She is currently working to develop distance learning modules at post-graduate level. She is also involved in corresponding author’s current research to develop methodologies to enhance student involvement.

Sharavan Ramachandran (SR) holds an MSc –Research degree in Bimolecular sciences from the Nottingham Trent University. He worked as a research assistant to SDS during this study. He is currently pursuing a PhD degree in molecular bioscience.

Appendix – some example questions asked during the interview

A. The Background (reasons for starting/joining)

What was the main reason for starting this service?

Were you confident that you had the experience and/or expertise to start this project?

When you started this project how many others were involved?

B. Popularity and accessibility

How many projects per month do you usually undertake?

How do you advertise? (Whether you advertise? or do students contact you?)

How do you network? Do you share expertise? If so, how do you allocate/share projects? Are staff well trained to meet the International Standards?

C. Reliability and affordability

What is your price range? And why do you think it is appropriate?

Who decides on price? You or the customer?

Do you think your price range is affordable by home/international students?

D. Views on academic dishonesty and plagiarism

Do you know about academic dishonesty? What is your view regarding plagiarism?

Do you think that your services contravene the code of practice in academic writing? If not, why?

Do you take steps to avoid plagiarism in your projects? If so, how?

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Sivasubramaniam, S., Kostelidou, K. & Ramachandran, S. A close encounter with ghost-writers: an initial exploration study on background, strategies and attitudes of independent essay providers. Int J Educ Integr 12 , 1 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-016-0007-9

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-016-0007-9

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The human biologist Dr. Vera Hedtke, who has extensive experience in the field of biomedicine, completed her PhD in Human Biology and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Guelph (Canada). After completing her doctorate, she took on various research projects at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine (USA) and the Justus Liebig University in Giessen. During this time, Dr. Hedtke supported numerous students as well as colleagues in their scientific endeavours through personal coaching and worked as a guest lecturer for various specialist magazines. Beyond that, she established herself as a medical writing manager in the pharmaceutical industry. The emphasis of her research interest lies on cancer research, reproductive medicine, metabolic research and medical statistics.

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As the successor to the diploma thesis, the master’s thesis marks the completion of the degree program. In the context of the Bologna reforms, the master’s thesis has replaced the diploma thesis in most courses. After a standard period of 10 semesters, students must complete this thesis and demonstrate that they are able to conduct independent academic research and present it factually, formally and correctly in the form of an academic work. The secure mastery of academic knowledge should manifest itself in the final thesis by applying the knowledge acquired to concrete questions in the course of study. In addition to subject-specific citation and the correct handling of specialist literature and bibliographies, the master’s thesis should also promote basic skills such as self-organisation, time management and project planning. In order to achieve their own results in research, of course graduates must master academic working methods as well as master and apply statistical knowledge and different evaluation methods, depending on the field of study.

Master’s theses differ significantly in terms of content and scope from department to department and subject to subject. As a rule, a master’s thesis comprises 70-90 pages. In a natural science subject, however, this can be a bit shorter, while in a humanities subject, it can be a bit longer. Ultimately, your faculty and the lecturer who supervises your thesis, determine the aspects of the work regarding the extent and content. For this reason, we recommend that you make detailed and exact arrangements in advance with your supervisor at the college or university.

How can ghostwriters help you with your master’s thesis?

Following the transition to the bachelor’s/master’s degree study programs, time pressure on students during their studies has risen sharply. In a relatively short time, they will have to complete a wide range of coursework in order to achieve the credit points required for admission to the final exam. If you have to take exams or do a written assignment before you graduate, this does not mean that your master’s thesis has to be extended. A ghostwriter can take over many tasks and phases of your master’s thesis while you are still completing the final coursework. Early on, we start with a joint planning phase so that the result of your master’s thesis will ultimately correspond exactly to your ideas. In intensive discussions, we limit the topic of your master’s thesis to one central question and formulate initial working hypotheses. Subsequently, we assume the research of the technical literature, the gathering of research results and the actual writing process. Extensive editing as well as the formatting of your work according to your faculty specifications completes our service.

Naturally, you own approaches or content proposals are always welcome during the preparation of your master’s thesis. We involve you in as much of the development of the research as you wish. Of course, you can also make your own changes to the text after we have completed our work and encourage you to give the whole work a personal touch. After all, it is your name that will appear on the title page of the finished master’s thesis.

How long does it take to write a master’s thesis with a ghostwriter?

Although most colleges have firm guidelines for the time in which the master’s thesis is to be prepared, it is difficult to make precise statements about the duration of the production process. As a rule, universities set the period between application and submission of the thesis at 6 months, but this can be extended in empirical work according to the research effort. In addition, many students already deal intensely with their topic well before the actual registration. As a result, of course, the processing time is extended and may prove beneficial in a more intense literature search or a prolonged writing phase. As ghostwriters, we will follow your instructions and write your master’s thesis in such a way that you can easily submit it before the deadline. The sooner you come to us, the more intensively we can work on your master’s thesis.

Which phases comprise the writing process?

After working out the central question together with you and formulating various hypotheses, we start with the actual creative process in developing your master’s thesis. A very important phase that comes right at the outset is the literature search. Using selected bibliographies, we limit the immense mass of research literature to the works that are relevant to the topic of your master’s thesis. In a second step, we review the selected literature and summarise the most important contents. We only commence with the writing process when all the information and results from the research are available. The finished chapters are usually revised by a professional editor before we submit it to you. Of course, we maintain strict discretion and data protection.

Creating an exposé for your master’s thesis

Many theses are preceded by an exposé, or synopsis. We can create the exposé for your master’s thesis! Many lecturers require an exposé before you start writing your master’s thesis. This serves to narrow down the topic in advance and to cite the academic methods used in research.

The exposé as an introduction to the master’s thesis

When it comes to the master’s thesis, which marks the conclusion of your studies, you should definitively prove that you are able to work independently at a higher academic level. In some subjects, you can choose the topic of your thesis, in others, it is determined for you. The preparation of an exposé ensures that you already deal with the topic prior to the actual research and gain insights into the research effort. In a few pages, you explain the question, the theoretical and methodological approach and present the planned outline . In the exposé, it is important that you draft an outline of an academic assignment that has not yet been written, but which is still in the planning stages. The exposé usually consists of four parts: A presentation of the topic and the central question, an explanation of the current state of research, the development of a provisional timetable and a working plan/schedule, including a first outline and bibliography.

How our ghostwriters can help you to write an exposé

Developing an exposé for your master’s thesis is, of course, part of our services. The sooner you contact us with your master’s thesis project, the more intensively we can supervise it and, for example, assume the writing of the exposé for you. At the beginning of our collaboration , our ghostwriters discuss with you, in general, exactly those aspects that are formulated in an exposé, from the narrowing of the central question to the approach to the respective topic and the formulation of working hypotheses, including a first literature search, in order to sketch out the state of the research to be done. Our authors are well versed in academic writing and are well versed in the requirements for an exposé. Therefore, they can also help with the preparation of your master’s thesis exposé at short notice. We support you in researching the current state of research as well as in formulating the text.

Having your master’s thesis proofread

Your thesis should be linguistically sound and of high quality. We can proofread your master’s thesis! In order to create a successful master’s thesis, it’s not enough to conduct good research and put the results of your research in a simple text. As a rule, when your work is evaluated, great importance is attached to error-free language.

Checking the master’s thesis for proper spelling and grammar

Using error-free spelling and grammar is simply part and parcel of excellent academic work. Anyone who works in academics commits himself or herself, so to speak, to rendering work in a linguistically perfect way. A bachelor’s or master’s thesis that has linguistic and grammatical errors usually will fail to meet the requirements of an academic thesis. The high level of academic research should be reflected in the external form of the text; if this requirement is not fulfilled, even a thesis with good content may also receive a poor grade. The reason for this will be that content and form do not align. The correct usage of spelling and grammar is just as important for the final result of your master’s thesis as the profound academic content.

Our ghostwriters can proofread your master’s thesis

Of course, if you write your master’s thesis together with our ghostwriters, we will be happy to help you with the proofreading of your texts. Once you have completed a chapter, you can hand it over to your contact for proofreading. Alternatively, you can wait until the entire work has been completed and then hand it over to our authors for review. In the proofreading phase, we primarily focus on the correct use of spelling, grammar, and sentence structure rules. Our ghostwriters also pay attention to the good readability of the text.

The content and stylistic review of your text is not part of the proofreading phase. These steps are performed when your master’s thesis is subjected to final editing. Of course, during the working phase of your master’s thesis, you can also provide our authors with individual parts of the text and have them check it for correctness and a correct academic language. During the editing, we check the style and content as well as the general comprehensibility and the logical structure of your thesis, so that you can submit a flawless product to your university.

Having your master’s thesis edited

Formal and stylistic editing lends the finishing touches to your thesis. We can edit your master’s thesis! Before submitting your completed master’s thesis to your university or college, you should have it reviewed by a professional editor. Just as with the writing and proofreading, we can also support you in this phase of your master’s thesis.

Editing: style, expression, form

Our editing service applies a finishing touch to your master’s thesis. In order for your text to appear as a seamless work, we optimise it both formally and in terms of content. If spelling and grammar have already been revised in the proofreading phase, we then examine your master’s thesis for general comprehensibility, logical structure and the so-called central theme. Of course, proofreading of any remaining errors is included in this phase. Our editors align and correct missing headlines and phrases and delete sentences or paragraphs that fail to provide new information or are redundant. We also check the correct application and usage of academic terminology and insert the appropriate vocabulary, where necessary or appropriate. In addition to your personal writing style, our editors also make suggestions for linguistic corrections that may possibly be made. All these changes are made for improved readability.

Our ghostwriters can edit your master’s thesis

The editing of an academic thesis goes one step further beyond clarity, comprehensibility and logical structure: In this last phase of your master’s thesis, our editors also review your quotes and highlight all the places where you have deviated from the correct or standard citation method. We also take a close look at the uniform structure of the lists in your work, because the lists of contents, abbreviations, illustrations and bibliographies are just as important parts of your master’s thesis as all other elements.

In addition, we check the quotations you use for accuracy. After all, we not only want your dissertation to be linguistically and substantively sound, but also free of any plagiarism. Therefore, it is even important that you take notes of small thoughts that you see in the research literature on your topic, and mark them with a footnote the writing already, referencing the corresponding work.

We carry out empirical work for your master’s thesis

Empirical research requires time and motivation. We can do the empirical research for you! Especially when it comes to natural science subjects, empirical research is an essential part of the thesis. In subjects like physics. biology or chemistry , you have to carry out laboratory tests, the results of which should confirm or disprove your working hypotheses. But also many social science subjects like education or political science involve empirical research tasks. In these subjects, you create questionnaires and carry out surveys that you must evaluate in order to answer the central question of your master’s thesis.

Surveys and laboratory experiments: Empirical research

Empirical research tasks require a high degree of time and motivation. At the end of their master’s program, many students are under enormous temporal and psychological pressure, because they want to finish their studies within the normal period of study despite the high demands. If they have to prepare for final exams or hand in a term paper while they are completing their thesis, they lack the energy they need to focus on the empirical part of their thesis. After all, preparation and evaluation are also part and parcel of the actual research work. Our ghostwriters can do a great deal of work for you in this area, too. Relieve the stress of everyday student life by delegating the preliminary and follow-up tasks of your empirical research to our experts.

How our ghostwriters can help you with the empirical research

Thanks to their many years of academic experience, our authors are very familiar with the content and working methods of their field of study. In close consultation with you, they develop test setups and questionnaires for surveys. Since we cannot take over the practical implementation of the empirical research for data protection reasons, we depend on your cooperation in this area. But as soon as you have results, we reenter the picture: We carefully and precisely evaluate the results of your lab tests and surveys and summarise them in spreadsheets, graphics or informative texts. You can then incorporate our elaborations and interpretations into the presentation of the research results of your master’s thesis.

Having your master’s thesis formatted for you

Your faculty specifies the form in which you have to submit your thesis. We can format your master’s thesis for you! Once you’ve completed the master’s thesis writing process, there are only a few steps left until you have the final product. Once the proofreading and editing have been completed, there is only one thing missing: the correct formatting according to your department specifications at your college or university.

The correct format of your master’s thesis

Depending on your area of study and the university where you are writing your master’s thesis, the formatting of each work can sometimes be very different. Of course, the thesis is primarily about the content. But the correct formatting also contributes to the success of your master’s thesis as a separate evaluation criterion.

University and subject-specific formatting includes the form of the table of contents as well as all other directories, the design of the title page, as well as general formalities such as font size, line spacing and margins. Additionally, faculties attach great importance for quoting specific citations for the respective subject area. The individual subjects differ greatly from each other, particularly in this area. Therefore, it is important that you carefully read the formatting guidelines in your college’s examination regulations and provide them to our staff for the final formatting of your master’s thesis.

Our experts can format your master’s thesis

Modern word processing programs have many user functions that allow you to customise your text as you write to make later formatting easier. These include, for example, the designation of headings in the appropriate style or the creation of the page, aligned in the correct size. Of course, you can also simply write your text and leave the final formatting to our experts. Thanks to our many years’ experience in the field, we are familiar with the pitfalls of word processing programs and can format your work quickly and efficiently. In order to lend your master’s thesis ends a consistent feel, we rework the page formatting, the font as well as all the directories and attachments that are part of your work on the formal level.

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Understanding Ghostwriting and Ghost Authorship As Problems of Research Integrity

• First Online: 14 October 2022

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• Lisa DeTora 3  

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Ghostwriting is a serious problem of research integrity; however, its true impact remains unclear, and little concrete advice is available on how to avoid it. Ongoing discussions and engagement are needed by all authors and contributors to research publications. Efforts made by professional groups to ensure authorship transparency with an aim of ending ghost authorship and ghostwriting are presented. Attention to publication planning and execution is necessary to ensure that ghostwriting is eliminated, and research integrity is protected, especially in the context of large studies sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry.

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DeTora, L. (2022). Understanding Ghostwriting and Ghost Authorship As Problems of Research Integrity. In: Faintuch, J., Faintuch, S. (eds) Integrity of Scientific Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99680-2_43

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99680-2_43

Published : 14 October 2022

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-99679-6

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-99680-2

eBook Packages : Social Sciences Social Sciences (R0)

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