There are dozens of papers in the SSRN eLibrary about plagiarism, paper mills, and cheating, including ones specifically about Law, Management Science, and Medicine. Since many you have a long a weekend, we think you’ll be interested in this thought provoking article about paid authorship in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Shadow Scholar, written by the ghostwriter of 5,000 pages of research in the last year alone, discusses a troubling topic: the truth behind many student papers.  Paper mills are a very real problem and now we get to peek behind the curtain to see what is actually happening. Definitely an interesting read.

I was shocked by the article and will be revisiting this topic over the next few weeks as it potentially relates to the pressures of Information Overabundance. Cheating may very well be correlated to the need to produce. Typically in academia, one is expected to produce high-quality work competitively and uniquely in a short amount of time. Are the expectations unrealistic?  Have attitudes changed amongst certain groups?  What can be done to stop the cheating?

Darby Dickerson dives further academic dishonesty in her paper, Facilitated Plagiarism: The Saga of Term-Paper Mills, and the Failure of Legislation and Litigation to Control Them.

Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for your continued support!

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