Tempted to use a paper writing service to get published? It will destroy your academic career! We’ll teach you how to write your own research papers!
As you know, Magda and I created Motivated Academic to support you to grow as successful researchers and academics. That is why we’re doing all we can to ensure that the work we share adds value to your career development.
So far on our blog, we tend to provide advice, frameworks and tools for motivation, paper writing and general research career development. As you probably know, I’ve gathered significant experience in academic publishing – I’ve authored over 50 academic papers in prestigious Q1 journals and I’m an editor with recognised international publishers, such as Elsevier, Wiley and Oxford University Press. I’ve compiled all my learning in a step-by-step paper writing course that will help you get published in international journals.
Reflecting on what I’ve already written about and the recent discussions on research groups, I noted that I hadn’t talked much about the dark side of academic publishing. However, some time ago, I did share my thoughts on how you can avoid publishing your research in predatory journals.
But I’ve noted a worrying trend, especially on unmanaged Facebook groups – professional paper writing services! So let me tell you why using such paper writing companies will hurt, or even destroy, your academic career in the long term.
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What is a paper writing service online?
If you haven’t come across or haven’t been approached by one of the paper writing companies, consider yourself lucky. The more I’ve engaged on LinkedIn and Facebook, the more people approached me to offer their paper writing services, research paper publishing services or requested me to write research papers for others.
I need to distinguish here between paper writing services and research paper publishing services.
The former, paper writing service, implies that someone else writes a research paper for you and then you present that paper as your own. Such paper mills are quite common for assignments but have become increasingly seen for academic publishing. It means that you pay someone to write a research paper for you. The cost for such an online writing service can be between $500 to $5000, depending on the area.
The latter, research paper publishing services, implies that you’ve already written a research paper and need it to be published. In this case, you may be offered a guarantee that your paper will be published in the Q1-Q3 journal within 7-14 days. But, of course, you would need to pay someone for such publication service, usually on top of the article processing charges. Based on the outrageous offers I’ve seen on Facebook, the cost of such publication service can vary between $500 to $10,000.
A variation of the above would be the paper co-authorship service. What is it? It is a “service” where someone adds you to a paper that has already been through a peer review in exchange of $600 to $5000, depending on whether you’re 1st, 2nd, or nth co-author…
Why using a paper writing service can hurt your academic career?
Does the above seem like a dream? I understand that paying for getting their work published or being named as a co-author on a paper is the way to go for some people.
I do hope that you, dear motivated academic, are not one of those people.
In my view, not only is paying for such paper writing services or research paper publishing services by far unethical, but it can also destroy your academic career.
Talking about the ethics of publishing, whenever you submit a paper to a journal, you are asked whether the work that you present is your own and whether another journal is considering it. If you pay someone to do research paper, you may violate the ethical standards of the journal. This may not have significant implications if you’re further down your career, but if you’re a Master student or a PhD student and this journal forms a part of your research thesis, using a paper writing service may get you in trouble. For example, if the paper gets retracted by any chance, you may lose your PhD!
Although the probability of the above is rather small, these things do happen. But believe me or not, this isn’t the worst thing that may happen.
Let’s consider a scenario.
You’re a PhD student and you know that you need to publish at least 3 research papers to get your PhD. You have two options. Pay