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Learn more about our experts who help with writing a thesis

On our website, a thorough screening method is a crucial component of the thesis writing services. This allows us to use the most skilled ghostwriting service professionals who have expertise with a thesis in their subject. Every potential thesis author who applies to our writing service must get their identity confirmed.

Second, the candidate provides the credentials that evidence their ability to deliver a writing thesis service. For example, it might be a diploma, which is subject to verification. In case of successful authentication, an applicant to our ghostwriting service is to provide samples of their works, which help decide whether to proceed with further recruitment steps. If our service makes a choice in the candidate’s favor, they pass an interview, take a ghostwriting exam in their area, and perform a testing task.

Professionals who help with writing a thesis are always striving to enhance the quality of their services. To that end, the program analyzes and ranks ghostwriting professionals who deliver services to students. This strategy of our service determines how satisfied their customers are with writing assistance. That’s how the service manages to assign the most qualified ghostwriting professional to your thesis.

We help with thesis writing in more than 35 academic research areas

When assigning the order, we select a writing service expert for you, depending on the topic of your research. Our service has ghostwriting specialists in over 35 branches of science, and 4+ years of writing experience contribute to the expertise of ghostwriting pros. Be sure that, using this service, you get writing thesis help from a ghostwriting expert who is well-versed in the research topic and, therefore, qualified to write for you.

At our service, pros are classified into categories based on research areas, the thesis creating performance, and customer gratification: best available ghostwriting pro, top writing specialist (one of the top 30), and premium ghostwriting master (one of the top 10). Our service allows you to choose any ghostwriting expert option in your field. Whichever ghostwriting specialist you select, you get satisfying help for thesis writing in the listed subjects:

• Health Sciences and Nursing
• Business & Management
• English, Literature & Philology
• Psychology Social & Political Sciences
• Computer Sciences & Information Technology
• Finance and Accounting
• Data Science & Statistics
• Law & History
• Macro & Micro Economics
• Engineering & Construction

Our working process

Can i trust writing my thesis to someone else.

Sure. We can either complete the thesis you’ve started or write it from scratch. We always imitate your style when ghostwriting your thesis. The hired writing specialists are qualified to ghostwrite absolutely new research. You can even have us select a topic before we write your paper.

How do you provide help for thesis writing?

We write the work from scratch. Ghostwriting is done by following your instructions and topic. If the topic for ghostwriting hasn’t yet been chosen, we can select it at no cost, send it for approval and start to write after confirmation. Experts in ghostwriting conduct research, collect data and make calculations.

If you have some ghostwriting preferences, mention them in the instructions or discuss them with the writing specialist. Before delivery, the quality assurance team will check if the writing is compliant with requirements and original. You have 30 days to request edits from a ghostwriting specialist at no price.

Is your writing thesis help legal?

This website is owned by BrainUp Limited company registered in Gibraltar, having no legal restrictions on this kind of business. The service provided positions itself as academic assistance. It has nothing to do with academic dishonesty, and ghostwritten works are protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

How do I pay for my academic thesis? Is it safe?

You can pay for ghostwriting specialists’ services with Visa, Maestro, and MasterCard. These options are in internationally recognized payment methods, so your money and personal data are safe with us.

Use academic writing thesis assistance 100% following your needs

Are you one of the students who need some help with thesis writing from a competent service? If so, you should consider your choice of writing master’s service carefully. The service run by writing professionals has a high client satisfaction rate. How has this service achieved this ghostwriting quality level? Learn about the writing specialists’ service approach below.

The writing professionals’ service is dedicated to meeting the needs of clients. So high-qualified specialists deliver quality ghostwriting services following all of your specifications about an academic thesis. The writing master assigned to provide you with service thoroughly examines specifications. Aiming to be the best thesis ghostwriter website for MBA and other academic levels, writing gurus may ask you some questions to customize the service and ghostwrite as well as possible.

What makes us one of the best thesis ghostwriter websites for college students:

• The framework is clear, and the written ideas flow well.
• Ghostwriting and formatting come without errors.
• The thesis is done in a proper academic ghostwriting style.
• Extensive research ghostwriting on the subject is guaranteed.

We’re among the best thesis ghostwriting websites for masters, doctorate, or bachelor’s students. So only Turnitin-friendly texts are ghostwritten by our writing service. Every student who hires a writing specialist from service expects high-level quality and originality regardless of the complexity or types of theses .. Nobody wants to put their reputation at risk because of plagiarism in a ghostwritten thesis from a fraudulent writing service.

Ghostwriting professionals from this service complete original research. Grounding their writing on the most relevant and reputed sources, they make proper citations, which is especially crucial for some thesis parts (e.g., if you’d like to hire our literature review service ). Your ghostwritten thesis will have a low similarity score proved by antiplagiarism software if you use our academic writing thesis assistance.

It doesn’t matter whether you need bachelor thesis ghostwriting or service at any other academic level. The service ensures writing includes a unique perspective on the topic of your thesis. You will receive service, including ghostwriting on unique ideas and a high academic value of the thesis. But if you are here for writing tips and guidelines, check our helpful articles, e.g., find out the difference between thesis vs hypothesis .

No more “writing my thesis” Google requests. Hire a ghostwriting expert and get a top-grade thesis!

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Secure your top grade with Academic Ghost

We know that you have a hard time. Exam stress, submissions and deadlines - it can all quickly become too much. But don't worry, we're here for you. We are Academic Ghost, your reliable partner for professional ghostwriting.

Our team consists of experts in various fields who are happy to assist you. We understand how important your academic goals are to you and we want to help you achieve them. Whether it's writing a term paper or a thesis, we have the experience and know-how to help you. We take pride in providing personalized attention to each of our clients, ensuring that your unique needs are met and your expectations are exceeded.

Our service is not only professional and reliable, but also discreet. We know how important it is that your work is authentic and original, which is why we only work with highly qualified writers who are passionate and dedicated to their work. We are here to guide you through this stressful time and make your academic life a little easier. Trust us to deliver exceptional academic writing services that will exceed your expectations.

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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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With experience as a ghostwriting agency since 2004, we are now one of the most important international providers of academic ghostwriting. We offer you an individual service, which you can rely on 100% ‒ not matter if it concerns your term paper, bachelor, or master thesis .

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Our ghostwriting agency guarantees you an experienced ghostwriter in your scientific field. Over many years of proven quality management ensures that your project is unique and does not only contextually but also formally meet the highest academic standards.

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With ACAD WRITE you benefit from decisive advantages

Our ghostwriting agency offers you a unique service with many advantages, enabling the best prospect of success. We guarantee you the academic qualification of your author, of which you can convince yourself in a telephone conversation. Thanks to the direct, secure exchange with your ghostwriter, you then maintain full oversight and control over the progress of your project. Professional proofreading by a second expert promises a perfect result. By means of a plagiarism check, we ensure that your project is scientifically unique. During the execution of your project, we guarantee you absolute discretion, complete data protection, and encoded communication through our internal communication tool ACAD office ® . Throughout the whole process, our customer service maintains your anonymity towards the author and helps clarify questions before misunderstandings arise.

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Dr. Herbert Jost-Hof holds a degree as well as a doctorate in ethnology from the Philipps University in Marburg. His research focus is reflected in his publications centring topics in the area of sociology, education as well as communication between media culture and senior management. Besides his job as quality manager and ombudsman, Dr. Jst-Hof has been working as author, journalist, artist and lecturer for many years, among other things for the training academy for the professional care of the sick and the elderly (Bildungsakademie für Alten- und Krankenpflege) in Dortmund.

Dr. Bettina Küpper-Latusek has completed a series of academic projects including publications in her focus areas of political science, philosophy, history and business administration. For our ombudswoman, who holds a doctorate in philosophy, interdisciplinary questions are among the preferred method accesses in research. Specialist and management coaching as well as the editing of various newsletters and online portals round up her profile. Furthermore, Dr. Küpper-Latusek has many years’ experience as a lecturer in business and economics and in German as a foreign language.

In the course of her career, Dr. Sandra Reichstetter has committed herself to researching cellular immunology. She spent eight years as a leading researcher at PharmaIN Corp., Seattle, USA, and six years as a doctoral student at the Benaroya Research Institute. During her time there, she researched the role of TH1-type t helper and regular t cells in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. Dr. Reichstetter holds a doctorate in immunology and genetics, a Bachelor of Science in zoology and biochemistry, and has been the leading researcher in numerous start-ups in the biotechnology sector, for which she received NIH-funded scholarships. With her immense expertise in medical research and science, Dr. Reichstetter is not only an extraordinarily competent quality manager in the field of chemistry, biology, medical writing and statistical analysis, but also the main correspondent of ACAD WRITE in the USA.

Clara Amanda Müller holds a Master of Arts in German philology, sinology (modern China), and modern and medieval history. To deepen her sinological language and cultural studies, she spent one study year at the University of Yangzhou in China. She wrote her master’s thesis in German philology at the Department for German, Scandinavian and Dutch at the University of Minnesota, where she also spent a semester as a research scholar. A second master’s degree in American studies with a focus on politics, history and post-colonialism followed, with the aim to do a doctorate in this field.

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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The long-term experience and proven quality management of our ghostwriting agency as well as the aspiration to continuously improve our service often get rewarded with the positive feedback by satisfied customers. If you decide to have your academic project written by ACAD WRITE, we will ask you to take a minute of your time to rate the collaboration with your author from different perspectives. Your assessment helps us to become more familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of our ghostwriters. This way, we ensure that your expert does not only convince professionally but also as a person.

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Our ghostwriting team is made up of experienced authors who all have at least a Bachelor’s degree. Ghostwritten master’s theses are written exclusively by qualified writers with a master’s degree, while dissertations are written by postdocs or professors.

Thanks to attractive remuneration and an awareness of the importance of their role in our clients’ academic careers, our writers place the utmost importance on quality and treat every paper as if it were their own .

What ghostwriting costs

The prices for our ghostwriting agency services depend on various factors. On the one hand, the complexity of the topic of your work plays a role and, on the other, how much time is left until the deadline. To give you a rough idea of the price, here are the prices for work with a deadline of more than 30 days:

from 53 €/page

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from 54.5 €/page

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from 60 €/page

You may be wondering why GhostWritingTeam is more expensive than other ghostwriting, grammar correction and translation providers. It’s true that many websites offer the same services for €20-25 per page or even under €15 per page. But here’s the problem: the lower the price, the lower the quality of the documents.

Our founder, who worked as a ghostwriter himself for many years, knows that writers need to be paid appropriately to produce high-quality documents . Writers who earn as little as €10 per page tend to write papers such as term papers, bachelor’s theses and ghostwriting master’s theses quickly in order to make a good hourly wage. In some cases, this can lead to them using programs to rewrite sentences or even plagiarize . Therefore, we offer not only ghostwriting but also plagiarism checking to ensure that all documents are unique.

The GhostWritingTeam attaches great importance to quality. That’s why we offer our writers a comfortable working environment and reasonable compensation . Our philosophy is simple: writers who are paid decently deliver better work. This leads to happier clients and a sustainable business model.

In addition to ghostwriting, we also offer services such as proofreading, presentation preparation and translation . You can find more detailed information about our prices and specific services on our  pricing page . However, we recommend that you make an inquiry using our form to find out the exact price for your individual order .

Frequently Asked Questions

A ghostwriting agency offers professional writing services for a variety of text types. This can include academic papers, books, blog posts, business reports and much more. The service includes the creation of a high-quality, customized text by an experienced writer who remains in the background.

Yes, using the services of a ghostwriting agency is generally legal. However, the legality also depends on the use of the text produced. In the case of academic papers, for example, it is important to observe institutional guidelines and not to pass off texts written by a ghostwriter as your own.

Costs can vary depending on the type and scope of the project, the experience of the ghostwriter and the research required. Most ghostwriting services offer customized pricing based on the client’s specific requirements.

Reputable ghostwriting services guarantee quality by working with experienced and knowledgeable authors. In addition, many services offer a revision phase in which feedback can be given and appropriate adjustments made.

Professional ghostwriting services usually offer revisions to ensure that the final text meets the client’s expectations. Clear communication from the outset is crucial to avoid misunderstandings and achieve the desired result.

Discretion is a cornerstone of ghostwriting services. Reputable providers ensure that all communications and transmitted information are treated as strictly confidential. Germany has one of the strictest data privacy laws called the DSGVO, which GhostWritingTeam has to follow.

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Your Ultimate Guide to Academic Ghostwriting

Two weeks until finals and Cassy is stressed out. Three exams and two papers are looming on the horizon. She remembers all too vividly how she spent hours crafting her term paper last semester, only to almost fail the class. Now she has not one but two papers to write, no idea how to go about it, and not enough time.

Searching online for term paper help, she comes across a ghostwriting ad . It promises term papers that are guaranteed to pass the course. This could be the answer to all her problems, but Cassy is worried. She has never cheated on a paper before and her professors were clear about their zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism and cheating .

It is difficult to estimate how many students use some form of academic ghostwriting for their assignments. Some agencies claim they have served thousands upon thousands of students. But what constitutes academic ghostwriting? Is ghostwriting in the same league as plagiarism? And what is the role of artificial intelligence in newer ghostwriting software?  

What is Ghostwriting? Different Ghostwriting Options – Agencies, Essay Mills, AI Why Do Students Use Ghostwriters? How Do Universities Safeguard Academic Integrity? Why Is Academic Ghostwriting Banned? What Are Some Legal Alternatives to Hiring a Ghostwriter?

What is Ghostwriting?

The most basic definition for a ghostwriter is someone who writes for someone else and who is not credited as the author. Often they create the whole material, a book, a paper, or an article, on their own. Sometimes the ghostwriter only writes certain parts of the material or reworks an author’s first draft.

As the name implies, ghostwriters work in the shadows. Typically, readers don’t know that the book they hold in their hands has been written by a ghostwriter. 

Not all ghostwriting is problematic. Celebrities commonly use ghostwriters in their autobiographies, musicians have songs written for them. Politicians have ghostwriters to write their speeches or other publications in their name, companies hire writers to create blog posts or articles and whitepapers. In these cases, ghostwriting is perfectly legal and an accepted business practice. 

Different Ghostwriting Options – Agencies, Essay Mills, AI

However, ghostwriting is not confined to celebrity memoirs, songs, and speeches. Students unwilling to write their own papers can turn to academic ghostwriting services such as dissertation writing agencies.

The current market is overflowing with ghostwriting agencies and essay mills that promise academic papers on every topic imaginable. Agencies and essay mills employ writers that create papers and dissertations. Prices and quality vary widely. 

Agencies usually assert that their dissertation writers are professionals and knowledgeable in their fields. However, customers have little chance of verifying these claims. 

Moreover, ghostwriters and writers working for essay mills are paid by the project. The quicker they finish, the more work they can take on. Writing a high-quality, well-researched paper takes time. Ghostwriters have no incentive to do time-intensive research. Therefore, there is no guarantee that their work is of a quality high enough to pass a course. 

Writing academic texts with AI (ChatGPT, YouChat...)

More recently artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a player in the ghostwriting field. If you are using Gmail, you have almost certainly experienced AI-generated texts as Gmail suggests words and even whole phrases as you type.  ChatGPT and  YouChat  write texts at your request.

AI writing tools create content and automate many aspects of the writing process such as structuring a text, coming up with headlines, and writing paragraphs. Since everything is automated, these services are usually cheaper than hiring a professional ghostwriter. However, AI writing tools draw from existing sources on the internet and repurpose them. It is possible that their essays could be flagged by plagiarism software . Moreover, Compilatio can tell the difference between a text written by a human being and an AI such as ChatGPT or YouChat, thanks to its AI detector .

Dissertation writing agencies and AI writing programs promise discretion and plagiarism-free content, but there is no guarantee that their essays and theses will meet the high standards of universities, that they are free of plagiarism, and uniquely produced. With countless ghostwriters, AI services, and thesis-buying agencies in existence, quality varies widely. 

Why Do Students Use Ghostwriters?

The reasons why students decide to buy an essay or thesis are diverse: some lack the time to write papers themselves due to family or work obligations or don’t know how to prioritise and organise their academic work, some did not receive enough support to know how to create original research and writing, some simply see this as a quick and easy way to obtain a degree .   

Frequently students lack confidence or the skills to write academic papers, whether they write in their native language or not. Afraid of failing and convinced that somebody else can turn in a better paper, they turn to ghostwriting agencies and essay mills.

How Do Universities Safeguard Academic Integrity?

Instructors have come up with strategies to minimise students cheating on their essays such as:

• teaching academic integrity and why it is important,
• running writing workshops to teach essay writing, 
• extending deadlines ,
• offering additional support to alleviate pressure,
• opting for in-person written exams , 
• using software to detect plagiarism ,
• assigning essays in stages , where students hand in outlines and drafts before their final paper.

In addition, instructors themselves have access to further training that equips them with tools to safeguard academic integrity such as Compilatio’s training modules on how to raise awareness of good academic conduct and detecting plagiarism. 

Why Is Academic Ghostwriting Banned?

Considered to be contractual cheating, buying a thesis, even buying a short term paper can have severe consequences. Whether written by a human or an AI, ghostwritten papers are a serious academic infraction that in the worst case can lead to expulsion. Degrees can even be revoked retroactively if it becomes clear that a student has cheated to obtain them. 

Hiring a ghostwriter falls under “ contract cheating”. The academic integrity expert Thomas Lancaster first coined the term in 2006: “Contract cheating describes the process through which students can have original work produced for them, which they can then submit as if this were their own work. Often this involves the payment of a fee and this can be facilitated using online auction sites.”

Academic integrity defines the rules that all members of an academic community abide by: 

• honesty, 
• correct citations, 
• not presenting other people’s work as your own, and 
• in general acting ethically in your research. 

When writing a term paper, students demonstrate that they have understood concepts, are able to engage with research respectfully, and write in an appropriate style. In other words, they display academic integrity. 

Plagiarism , the taking of another person’s writing or ideas without crediting them, is the most common academic infringement. The line between plagiarising another’s work and paraphrasing ideas can be quite blurred for students. Some students cheat by accident because they don’t understand what plagiarism is or how to write an original paper.  

Many universities and schools have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to plagiarism and ghostwriting. Yet, despite the potentially serious consequence of contract cheating, students turn to essay mills, ghostwriters, and dissertation writing services. An estimated 15% of students have purchased papers and essays. 

Ultimately, all students – whether they wrote their assignments themselves, hired someone, or used AI – are subject to the same deadlines, assessment criteria, and grading systems. 

Using someone else to create papers is unfair to your peers . A world where grades can be bought ultimately cheapens and devalues education . In addition, students who pay others to write their essays also cheat themselves out of learning opportunities. 

While writing papers and theses can undoubtedly be a stressful process, it also provides a chance to reflect, think deeply, and create original work . Writing essays can help students hone their creativity and bring their voices and perspectives to a topic. Critical thinking, authenticity, and personal reflection are soft skills that will serve students beyond university. They are not easily taught. Rather, they are acquired through hard work and integrity. 

Some students report feeling remorse after buying an essay. Not only have they cheated their educators and peers , but they have also taken a learning opportunity away from themselves. They might also realise that they lack crucial workplace skills after graduating.

Moreover, instructors work with their students throughout the semester, have likely graded shorter writing assignments already, and know how students formulate thoughts in class. They usually have an idea of how they will perform in their final assignments. 

If a student hands in an essay that is at odds with their previous performance, instructors might get suspicious and start the process of reviewing the work for academic infringement. 

If students clearly understand what constitutes cheating and why it is problematic, if they feel supported and are allowed to work with realistic timelines and achievable workloads, the risk of them cheating decreases. 

What Are Some Legal Alternatives to Hiring a Ghostwriter?  

Students can fall back on various resources to help them write their academic assignments. Many universities have writing centres and free writing courses that help students with their essays and theses. Students can learn how to construct and write a paper, receive feedback on their writing, and might even find a writing group. 

In addition, students can also seek the help of a professional editor or can use an editing software to bring clarity to their writing. 

Compilatio Studium provides many resources to help students with their essays such as guidelines on academic integrity and citations, advice on student life, and methodological guides to help students create their best term paper possible. Some students are worried about plagiarising accidentally. Compilatio’s anti-plagiarism software makes self-checking easy and reliable so that students never have to worry about handing in a faulty paper. 

Using these resources and connecting with their peers, allows students to create original and insightful papers and theses and become part of the academic community. 

Cassy eventually decided to write her own papers after connecting with her writing centre and forming a study group. After many caffeine-fueled nights with her friends, she succeeded, feeling proud of herself and her work. 

The market that caters to students willing to cheat – from essay mills, theses writing agencies, ghostwriters, and AI writing tools – grows steadily. However, so do options for instructors to catch academic infringements.  

Worried about your term papers and tempted to give a ghostwriter a try? You have other options!

• Compilatio provides you with many resources such as a plagiarism checker and study tips to help you with your academic writing. 
• Create your free Compilatio Studium account and start working on your best essay yet!

5 Effective Ways to Avoid Ghostwriting for Busy Researchers

This article is also available in: Turkish , Spanish , Portuguese , and Russian

“….. and what do you think about it?” asked one of the researchers on the review panel. Stumped by it, you had no clue what the question meant—was it related to the introduction? some citation in the introduction? You were clueless about it! You were prepared with questions related to aims and objectives, methodology, results, all the graphs, and discussion too! Of course, you used a ghostwriter to write your paper! Your silence speaks it all and the panel is waiting for your reply, it looks like they have concluded your lack of knowledge, on what might have appeared to be the basic foundation of your research paper .

And then, dejected, you accept the fact that you did not really write the paper. You opted for ghostwriting! Although the experiments in the laboratory were conducted by you and the data was generated and analyzed by you, the manuscript, the paper you published was written by a ghostwriter, who took no credit for it!

Table of Contents

What is Ghostwriting?

Ghostwriting is a practice wherein an individual makes a significant contribution to the manuscript and is yet not named as an author or a contributor. These writers are often found to work for medical communication agencies that carry out publishing of clinical trials studies. Thus, ghostwriting is common in journals that report large scale clinical trials and literature studies. Furthermore, many journals and editors allow professional medical writers to contribute to the papers. They do not list them as authors and acknowledge their role with remuneration.

However, scientific communication depends on trust and reliability on published literature i.e. to be able to believe what is read and trust the knowledge that is imparted. This is the biggest challenge in case of ghostwriting because the medical writers are not originally aware of the depth of the conducted research work.

What is the Role of a Ghostwriter in Research Publishing?

Research findings from various fields of study generate scientific data; it is on a large scale. This data is presented in a document format. In the field of research, writing original research and review papers is a challenging task. The notable medical writers ethically help researchers to convert their raw data into a research document.  Therefore, medical writing agencies or independent writers write regarding the products or drugs overlooking their adverse effects. Pharmaceutical companies fund many ghostwriters to create a manuscript which is published in a reputed journal under a well renowned scientist (who may or may not be allowed to incorporate changes).

There are medical writing agencies, such as Medical Education and Communications Company (MECC) or American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), that identify ghostwriting malpractices in the field of scientific literature. Although ghostwriting service proves helpful for busy researchers who are not able to cater to the substantial literature review . This service is a scientific misconduct. Academic research publication rarely detects ghostwriting.

Ghostwriting Service – A Scientific Misconduct

Part of publishing a paper relies primarily on journal and authors reputation. If researchers happen to use the ghostwriting service, due to time constraints, they could be charged with professional misconduct. Ghostwriters draft the article under the name of reputed authors to publish it in leading journal. While this practice is not considered illegal yet, it is as an unethical practice and soon will be tackled with rules to curtail ghostwriting in the field of research. Some researchers genuinely struggle to publish their scientific data, and with the current research race to ‘Publish or Perish’, the need to publish the study as early as possible is important. However, with the growing availability of application-based language assistance tools, writing articles has become an effective exercise.

Tools to Assist Research Article Writing

1. trinka ai.

Trinka is an AI-powered English grammar checker tool used to improve your writing as well as language enhancements. As a writing assistant tool, Trinka works well for all kinds of writing but performs much better on academic and technical texts compared to most other tools . It corrects contextual spelling mistakes and advanced grammar errors by providing real-time writing suggestions. The result is more concise and impactful  for professional and academic writing.

2. Enago Plagiarism Checker

Enago Plagiarism and AI Grammar Checker tool uses the advanced text similarity detection algorithms, in partnership with Turnitin, to check for plagiarism. It has the largest database on the internet with 91+ billion webpages as well as 82+ million scholarly articles. It delivers a comprehensive plagiarism report with plagiarism percentage score and color-coded system. You will understand how similar your paper is as compared to the published papers with the help of plagiarism percentage score. It performs plagiarism checkers out there. Another feature that sets this tool apart is –  it also checks your paper for grammar errors and gives writing improvement suggestions powered by AI. You can download the tracked changes of MS word document to review the suggestion.

Trello is a work management app. It tracks team projects, highlights tasks, and gives the details of its completion. Furthermore, it allows the user to list and schedule activities, provide deadlines and show progress percentage. The user can create multiple board for different assignments.

Collecting and analyzing literature for your research is of utmost importance. Scopus is a multidisciplinary citation database of peer-reviewed literature like, scientific journals, books, and conference proceedings. Research has become global and with interdisciplinary and collaborative researches on the go, it is essential to stay updated.

5. Mendeley

This tool manages references. Mendeley is a reference manager tool that helps researchers organize relevant references for their research paper. This tool helps organize your citations and research.   

Avoid Ghostwriting with the Help of Reviewing Services

Peer review service.

The peer review service handles some activities in the peer review process and puts best practices to research workflow. This service will help authors maintain and improve the outcome of their peer review process. This service suggests improvement in the manuscript based on the journal requirement and enhances the author, reviewer or editor experience. However, if you opt for ghostwriting service, you will have to share the references and data to the ghostwriter. He/she will not have any personal views on the journal in which you want to publish the article.

Proofreading & Formatting

There are many proofreading and formatting services that provide affordable and fast manuscript proofreading services which ease the publishing process .  Proofreading focuses on correcting the errors in writing and helps enhance the language of the manuscript and formatting brings in the uniformity and helps adhere to the guidelines issued by journals for the authors. A ghostwriter cannot vouch for a feature like this.

Artwork Editing

To meet the journal’s technical requirements, the artwork editors revise/format the artwork for consistency and accuracy.

Initially, these applications will appear to be a challenge and assigning the writing task to a ghostwriter might look like a better option. But these applications give user-friendly interface and you will eventually get familiar with these tools. However, some researchers might choose unethical practices, while many others are genuine researchers struggling to keep up their laboratory responsibilities with their writing targets!

There is a blurred line between the use and misuse of ghost authorship. However, the research fraternity will see, how to some extent ghostwriting is distorting the scientific literature. It won’t be long before authors will be penalized for unethical practices and scientific misconduct. And the best way to avoid ghostwriting is to use the tools available for writing and organizing scientific research.

Tell us if you have used any of these tools or any other tools for writing your reviews or research papers? Did you like it? Would you recommend it to others? Write to us or leave a comment below!

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• Ghostwriting Legality: Ethics, Ownership, and Writer…

Ghostwriting Legality: Ethics, Ownership, and Writer Credit

Ghostwriting is not new by any means. Ghosting for creative pursuits has a long and storied history. Even famous people like Mozart spent part of their career  ghosting for others . Throughout history, there have always been people who want to get their ideas out there. Some people or brands want to build a reputation for themselves. However, many of these people have neither the time nor the inclination to do that work themselves.

While emphasizing intellectual property rights, copyright, and the threat of lawsuits in modern business, it might seem like ghostwriting is too risky. If you pay a ghostwriter for content and use that content, they still wrote it. Right? What stops them from using it elsewhere or suing you later if they don't like what you're doing with it?

Let's talk about the intricacies of ghostwriting, including the legalities, ethics, and quirks of using a ghostwriter to create content for you.

30 Second Summary

Ghostwriting, a time-honored practice, involves creating content for others. It's viewed as legal and ethical provided there is a mutual agreement, although full non-involvement of the client can be viewed as unethical. Ghostwriting involves contracts, shaping intellectual property rights and compensation. Ghostwriters offer writing expertise, saving time for clients, while collaboration ensures a high-quality final product. No chronic need to credit the writer exists as contracts usually sell the rights to the content to the client. Businesses may benefit when working with a content marketing agency providing ghostwriting services.

A Quick Answer To Both

Ethics are highly debated in ghostwriting. The general consensus (broadly accepted in various industries, academia, and journalistic fields) is that if the person hiring the ghostwriter still takes some part in the production of the content, it's ethical. If the person hiring the ghostwriter has zero involvement in the creation of the content, and yet the words of another are being published under their name, it crosses into unethical territory. 

Legality  is more cut and dry. Ghostwriting is legal as long as there is a clear-cut agreement that both the writer and the person paying for the content agree to. If somebody breaks the contract or uses the content without permission, then it becomes a legal issue. Otherwise, it's just somebody paying a writer to write content, and there are no legal issues at all with that.

Now, there is a lot of grey area, historical precedent, and even court cases on this subject. Let's cover this with a bit more nuance.

Is Ghostwriting Legal?

Is ghostwriting legal?

The longer answer has to do with two things: historical precedent and contracts.

Ghosting is a practice that has been happening for centuries. Many such methods end up enshrined in culture as acceptable even if modern sensibilities might find them objectionable in some way.

With ghostwriting, there's some level of ethical concern about passing off the work of others as your own. I'll talk about that more later. That said, ethics are only sometimes codified into law. It's unethical to steal, and theft is criminal. The ethics of ghostwriting? Stay tuned.

The second thing making ghostwriting legal is contract law.

Ghostwriting is even used by attorneys and contract lawyers themselves for the appellate briefs and pleadings of law firms. In a 2007 formal opinion , the ABA (American Bar Association) deemed that legal ghostwriting meets their Model Rules of Professional Conduct / Professional Responsibility , provided they're making the proper disclosures with their legal services. In a separate New York ethics opinion paper, published in 2010 , the New York County Law Association agreed with the ABA.

However, court rules haven't been as straightforward with the legal ethics of ghostwriting. Most legal ghostwriting complaints come from the court, opposing counsel, or are revealed in pro se litigant papers. If you're curious about statements from the federal courts, informed consent, court documents, and case law, you might find this article interesting:

The fact is, ghostwriting is legal specifically because it's a willing agreement between two parties:

• The ghostwriter agrees to produce content within the constraints and about the subjects required by the contractor.
• The contractor agrees to compensate the ghostwriter for their work.

There's a bit more to it, though. The contract specifies several details that are relevant to this agreement.

• The compensation.  Compensation is most often money but can be other goods or services agreed upon by both parties. In other words, how much do you pay the ghostwriter?
• Plagiarism protection.  Many people who pay ghostwriters will pay for plagiarism checking services to guarantee that the ghostwriter is producing original work and not stealing content from elsewhere to sell to you.
• Intellectual property rights. The contract usually is not simply selling the content itself; it's selling the rights to the content. This practice is very commonplace. In some cases, that contract will include a nondisclosure agreement.
• If one side or the other violates the agreement , penalties may be agreed upon ahead of time to avoid litigation.
• Termination agreements.  In case one party or the other wants to terminate the deal, who gets what? Are responsibilities ceased, or will duties be finished? And so on.

The key is intellectual property rights. The writer owns the copyright to the content they produce, and when they sell that content to you, you buy the rights to own, use, reproduce, publish, edit, and otherwise do what you want with the content submissions.

In some cases, the ghostwriter must receive credit or attribution, and in others, they don't. Attribution depends on your agreement with the writer, and I'll talk more about attribution later.

So, ghostwriting is legal because there's a contract making it legal and because it doesn't violate any laws or the rights of others.

Is Ghostwriting Ethical?

Now, you might be wondering, is ghostwriting ethical in the first place?

In many blogging and blog-based ghostwriting cases, the ghostwriter is doing the legwork, but the information and authority come from the person paying them. The contractor might speak their thoughts into a recorder and deliver the transcript to a blog post, eBook, or book. They might perform topic research, write an article brief and outline , and have the ghostwriter flesh that out.

In these cases, the brand owner is an authority; they're just using the ghostwriter to save their own time, to spend it in other ways.

When you hire someone like me, I do my research on your topic, and I have writers who are experts in a wide variety of subjects. We're not going to be performing unique case studies or experiments for your blog, but we know how to separate truth from fiction and create good content based on your expertise.

If you're a complete neophyte to a topic, trying to pass yourself off as an expert and use ghostwriting to do it, there may be a conflict of ethics. If you go to a doctor, you want that doctor to have attended medical school and acquired certification, not paid someone to pass it for them, right? The same goes for a brand leader; you want the person you're trusting with your money to be an actual expert.

There are dozens of websites where people will sell ghostwritten term papers and assignments for students who can't finish their homework.

We create blog content that converts - not just for ourselves, but for our clients, too.

We pick blog topics like hedge funds pick stocks. Then, we create articles that are 10x better to earn the top spot.

Content marketing has two ingredients - content and marketing. We've earned our black belts in both.

This practice is unethical for two reasons:

• It passes off someone else's work as the student's original thought. The student isn't an expert, and they're using a ghostwriter to replace their learning and effort rather than save themselves time.
• It violates academic honesty policies. While it might not be illegal, it's against the educational institution's policies and thus constitutes academic fraud.

These are just a couple of reasons we choose not to offer academic writing services; we focus on blog posts and business writing.

It all comes down to collaboration . A ghostwriter collaborates with an expert to produce content that conveys the expert's thoughts, views, and opinions in a written format. The expert could do it themselves, but they don't have the time or energy to do so. If you hire a ghostwriter to write a blog with zero direction, zero collaboration, and zero input,  that doesn't bode well for you .

Should You Credit Your Writer?

If you're a company looking to hire a ghostwriter for your blog, you might be worried about the writer asking for credit. Should you credit them?

Ghostwriters are well aware that they aren't getting credit for the writing they produce. Part of their contract is that they sell the rights to the content. Once those rights transfer, the company owns the content, and the writer is compensated with money.

The lack of credit is why you can pay a writer less money if you hire them to write publicly for your blog. Public recognition is valuable, and they can work for a lower fee in exchange for that credit, which lets them build up a reputation and work with more people down the road.

Credits aren't worth that much, though, which is why you can't pay writers in free exposure .

Sometimes, the writer will ask that you act as a reference for them if they need one for a future job. They might also ask that certain pieces they write can be allowed to be used as part of a portfolio, though to be honest, if a writer is good enough to write for your blog, they're good enough to write a second variation on the same topic to use for their purposes. It's very rarely an issue.

Most of the time, you do not need to credit a ghostwriter because the contract you've signed with them gives you the rights and ownership to the content submissions in exchange for money.

There are some cases where the contract may specify more. For example, suppose a ghostwriter writes a fiction novel for an author, and the book is picked up and optioned for a hit TV show. In that case, the ghostwriter might have negotiated to receive some compensation or additional value from that contract. The original agreement might also cover publication rights and not rights for further options. That's a matter for contract law, however, and is largely irrelevant for our discussion.

After all, no one is going to be optioning your blog posts for a movie, no matter how good they are.

What Do You Get When Hiring a Ghostwriter?

If a ghostwriter isn't an expert, and you still have to put time and effort into creating a brief, recording your thoughts, and working with the writer, why would you hire one?

What do you get out of it? Several things.

1. First, you get writing expertise . You might be an expert in health topics, business marketing, or technology, but the writer is not. You probably aren't an expert in technical SEO, written optimizations, technical grammar, or web writing, but the writer is . Together, you can produce well-written content on your topic of expertise; alone, neither of you could.

You can think of this as speechwriting. The president has all his speeches written for him, but those speeches reflect his positions and opinions. The president might be less eloquent if left to his own devices, but the speechwriter wouldn't be an authority at all without the ability to work with the president.

3. Second, you get to save time . Writing takes time to write, to edit, to format, to publish. A ghostwriter can handle all of that for you, or at least most of it, saving you time to spend furthering your expertise.

3. Third, you get a partnership . This situation is especially beneficial when your ghostwriters are working through content marketing agencies. When you work with me, you aren't just getting ghostwritten content. You're getting all of my marketing and SEO expertise, my ability to help you pick and choose topics, and my ability to help you figure out what direction to take your content marketing. And, of course, you get content ghostwritten by my team of writers.

All of this is added value you  could develop on your own, but why would you? You have more important things to worry about, and when you can pay someone like me to handle it all for you, that's always going to be the better option.

Should You Hire a Ghostwriter?

Whether or not you should hire a ghostwriter is tricky because it all comes down to what you want:

• Do you want someone that you can hand a packet of information to, and can you trust them to turn it into a coherent piece of content within a specific format you desire? If so, a ghostwriter is a good option. You can work with them to answer their questions, refine the content you want to be created, and produce something you can be proud of (with your name attached to it). I wrote a whole guide on  how to hire a ghostwriter here .
• Do you want someone who will do all of the legwork for you? You give them a topic, do all of the research, write all of the words, and publish it for you, with no deeper collaboration? A ghostwriter can do this, but it may be unethical depending on the purpose of the content. It would be best if you were careful when doing this, but it's possible to do. I recommend using it for things that aren't flagship or authority content, like product descriptions, website copy, and blog posts.
• Do you want someone to write for your blog, cover all of the bases, and handle content marketing? If you only want to work with one person, you can hire a freelance writer. You might be better off hiring someone you can give credit to and who can bring their audience and authority to your blog to boost your chances of success even higher.
• Do you want someone to manage your entire content marketing scope for you, with collaboration to ensure that the information is accurate, the formatting fits your brand , and the marketing works? Then it would be best if you had a content marketing agency.

Let me tell you; I'm always available for a phone call. Just reach out, and we can discuss what I can do for you.

Did I answer all of your questions on ghostwriting? If not, please share with me in the comments area below! I'd be happy to answer your question and add it to this article as well. Don't be shy!

James Parsons is the founder and CEO of Content Powered, a premier content marketing agency that leverages nearly two decades of his experience in content marketing to drive business growth. Renowned for founding and scaling multi-million dollar eCommerce businesses through strategic content marketing, James has become a trusted voice in the industry, sharing his insights in Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Journal, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, and other leading publications. His background encompasses key roles across various agencies, contributing to the content strategies of major brands like eBay and Expedia. James's expertise spans SEO, conversion rate optimization, and effective content strategies, making him a pivotal figure in the industry.

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December 08, 2021 at 4:19 pm

Thank you! I hired a writer who wanted his name on my blog posts, and I received some pushback when I wanted these ghostwritten.

It's good to know I'm not alone and this is pretty much the standard in this industry!

December 09, 2021 at 6:43 pm

Hey Dale! You bet.

I think it's the standard for freelance writers and contractors, for sure.

I can see them being a little upset about it with full-time employees, but it depends on whether that was communicated to them or not before their onboarding. Communication is key.

May 02, 2022 at 10:52 pm

Hi James, would you recommend hiring someone with ghostwriting experience compared to those who are new to the concept? I'm afraid the unfamiliar ones might not be too keen on the idea.

May 05, 2022 at 8:24 pm

Hey Sharon!

I don't think it matters much. Most all freelance writers are comfortable and familiar with ghostwriting.

Still, it's a good idea to be upfront with them about the articles being published under somebody else's name.

In all my years of interviewing hundreds of writers, I've only had one writer who was surprised to learn that we wouldn't publish all of his content under his name.

February 03, 2022 at 3:08 pm

I'm quite new to the details of ghostwriting so this was a big help. I was considering hiring one and now I think I am all-set for it.

February 04, 2022 at 1:28 pm

Thanks Alan!

Please keep us in mind if you're looking for a new content writer. I'm happy to help if you need pointing in the right direction.

February 21, 2022 at 6:45 pm

I am Nicole Ross, and I'm curious I have a massive story in the making. However, as I make a discovery, I hear directly speaking to Stephen king, yet I have never met him or contracted with him. I can listen to him through the Illuminati. What I'm asking is, since he never confronted me with signing anything for a contract, how could he possibly be in my house and digging in my life without my permission? How do I go about handling it

March 04, 2022 at 5:52 pm

Hey Nicole! That sounds like a very different kind of ghost writing than the one I was talking about 😉 You might have to contact a professional who is an expert in that sort of thing.

October 04, 2022 at 3:19 pm

This is definitely not the kind of ghostwriting I was expecting to discuss when I read this article. 😅

October 07, 2022 at 7:44 pm

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• Original article
• Open access
• 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

8097 Accesses

36 Citations

27 Altmetric

Metrics details

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.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

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

Shiva Sivasubramaniam, Kalliopi Kostelidou & Sharavan Ramachandran

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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shiva Sivasubramaniam .

Additional information

Competing interests.

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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Last updated on May 13, 2024

How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Ghostwriter? [Rates and Fees]

A ghostwriter’s help can be invaluable in researching, outlining, and writing the book you've always dreamed of. But securing their services requires thoughtful budgeting.

In this article, we look into how much it costs to hire a ghostwriter , drawing insights from hundreds of collaborations across diverse genres on our marketplace. If you’re curious about how much you can expect to pay, then read on.  

What will it cost you to hire a ghostwriter?

Find out here! Takes 10 seconds.

Average ghostwriting fees

According to Reedsy data from 2023, a professional ghostwriter costs between $6,500 and $42,000 for nonfiction books, $3,500 to $16,000 for novels, and $1,500 to $5,000 for picture books. The pricing will depend on the ghostwriter’s experience and your specific book genre.

Here is a breakdown of the average cost range for book ghostwriting by genre and word count: 

Biographies and memoirs top the charts as the most in-demand genres for ghostwriting, closely trailed by business and self-help books. This is because many authors seeking ghostwriters aren't natural wordsmiths but rather have interesting stories and valuable ideas to share.

Because of the extensive research and interviewing involved in writing these books, they are on the pricier side. While novice ghostwriters may charge around $10,000 per project, more experienced ones cost upwards of $40,000, and superstar ghosts can even charge six figures.

If, instead, you’re dreaming of learning the craft of novel writing with the help of a ghost, expect to pay between $4,500 to $16,000 for common genres like fantasy, sci-fi, and adventure or slightly less for shorter middle-grade books.

Last but not least, picture books fall between $1,500 and $5,000 per project, due to their limited word count.

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Charging per word, hour, or project

Based on Reedsy data, ghostwriting rates for book writing can range from $0.10 to $2 per word, $35 to $140 per hour, or $1,500 to $42,000 per project. 

For full-scale projects, most professionals charge a flat fee that covers various aspects of the work, from research to writing to manuscript revision, and then charge an hourly fee if any extra work is required. It’s highly unlikely for ghostwriters to charge per word or hour, unless you hire them for a short book or if you simply need them to revise or finish a part of your manuscript. 

Who pays for a ghostwriter?

If you self-publish your book , the cost of a ghostwriter will fall on you, whereas a traditional publisher will usually cover the fee — depending on what stage the writer is brought on board at.

Traditional publishing

If you've already signed a publishing deal to produce a ghostwritten book for a publisher, congrats! Your publisher will be covering the cost of the collaboration. If you're yet to secure a deal, but still want to pursue the traditional publishing route with the help of a ghostwriter, you may have to pay for some of their services yourself. 

You could hire a ghostwriter to write a book proposal that you, the ghostwriter, or an agent can submit to publishers. The ghost may then write the whole manuscript once a publisher has been secured. 

The typical book proposal for a traditional publisher is usually between 5,000 and 10,000 words 一 it contains a short synopsis, chapter breakdowns, and market research, as well as a sample book chapter. According to our data, the cost for a proposal ranges between $2,000 and $7,000.

If your book is commissioned in full, you’ll usually continue to work with the same ghostwriter to turn your proposal into a full manuscript. Again, this will be at the expense of the publisher. If instead you don’t get a deal, you can work independently with your ghost and pay them in full. In this case, the work already paid for the proposal (e.g., the draft of one chapter) will be deducted from the final fee.

Note that this method of writing a proposal and securing a book before the manuscript has been written applies mostly to nonfiction , as book proposals aren’t part of the fiction publishing process. That said, even for novels it’s common to hire a ghost to work on a book outline and sample chapter to test their skills and gauge whether you want to work with them or not. While traditional publishers would have a list of vetted writers and samples, in self-publishing you would have to start with this step.

Self-publishing

The self-publishing route will give you complete creative control over your book, but you’ll be entirely responsible for finding the right ghostwriter , negotiating the scope of work, and, of course, paying for it. 

Freelance ghostwriters will have varying ways of organizing payment. Generally, you can expect to pay part of the fee upfront and the rest in installments. The initial fee ensures commitment from both parties and mitigates the risk involved in embarking on a costly and demanding project without guaranteed success.

The other stages at which you pay are negotiated and may be determined by the length of the book or the kind of project you’re working on — a memoir might have different milestones than a novel. You might decide to pay them by chapter, or after the first half of the draft is finished. Some people prefer to wait until they have a completed first draft. Whatever makes the most sense for your collaboration and publishing timeline.

Payments in installments also allow you to walk away from the relationship if it doesn't work out or you change your mind. On the Reedsy marketplace we offer mediation so that if a collaboration does go off track, you have even more protection than if you directly hired the ghostwriter. Regardless, the most important thing is that you are both clear about what is expected and that there is an atmosphere of mutual trust.

Indirect costs of ghostwriting

Keep in mind that the project fee may not be the only cost involved with hiring a ghostwriter. You have to consider additional expenses that could arise from interview-related activities, legal considerations, or the need for further editing services. Let’s go through them one by one. 

Travel costs

If your book requires in-person interviews or research-related travel, you’ll have to cover the budget for the ghostwriter transportation, meals, and lodging, which could potentially tally up to an additional few thousand dollars.

Transcription costs

You may also need to pay for the interviews transcription costs. As ghostwriter Tom Bromely points out, if you don’t want your recordings accessible in the public domain or stored on personal devices, opting for more premium services becomes necessary. “While many authors are comfortable with ghosts utilizing budget-friendly tools like Descript , those concerned about privacy may prefer them to use more secure tools like rev.com , which provides human transcription services.”

Legal costs

Then there’s the legal side of it. Before starting the collaboration, you’ll need to draft a contract defining deliverables, timelines, revision agreements, payment schemes, but also copyrights and non-disclosure agreements, among other things. You could use a basic contract, or hire the ghost through platforms like Reedsy, which offers an automated contract that can be edited with additional clauses.

But if you have more complex considerations or require legal advice (e.g., for a libel read of your book, if it’s contentious) getting a lawyer to draft the contract may be a wise move. Unless you’re already paying for a lawyer, this will cost you some money.

Copy editing costs

Finally, while pro ghostwriters will hand you a polished finished manuscript, you can’t expect them to do the copy editing and proofreading too. Like any other writer, they’re too close to the work to notice every little mistake and typo. Just as if you wrote the manuscript, the best practice is to have someone else copy edit and polish it for publication.

Similar to how you would approach a manuscript you wrote yourself, the best practice is to have someone else look at it and polish it for publication. On average, you'll pay just shy of $2,000 to copy edit a nonfiction book of 75,000 words.

However, you usually have some rounds of structural edits included in your project fee. So at least you won’t have to pay for those. Once you receive the first draft, make sure to thoroughly review it, perhaps even asking friends and beta readers to do so, so that the final manuscript will only require a final proofing before publication. 

Will ghosts work for a share of the royalties? 

The brief answer is no, particularly if the client is not an established publishing house. If the ghost will spend three to six months working for you (and forgoing other work), they are unlikely to defer their salary when there’s no guarantee the project will be a commercial success.

Very few books make much money from sales — both in self-publishing and even in traditional publishing. You are quite unlikely to earn back the money that you are going to spend on a ghostwriter from sales alone, especially enough to split the royalties with them. It’s better to think of the money you spend on a ghostwriter as an investment. They will help you achieve your goal and publish a book you both can be proud of. 

Ultimately, there’s no set price for how much a ghostwriter will cost. Every project is unique and requires different skills and investments from you and any potential ghost. One way to get an estimate on Reedsy is to request quotes from ghostwriters. This will give you an idea of how much it might cost to work with one, and turn your dream of publishing a book into a reality.

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Three ways to stop students using ghost writers

Senior Lecturer in Leadership, People, Management and Organisations, The Business School, University of Huddersfield

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You might not believe in ghosts but you should believe in ghost writers. According to recent research , many students have only a sketchy understanding of what plagiarism actually is. Some engage in dishonest practices to get their work done. A quick internet search reveals a number of opportunities to procure essays on a range of topics, and at reasonable prices. But when students take credit for work that is not their own it devalues academic qualifications and reduces the confidence we can have in the ability of graduates.

A 2010 study by the business lecturer Bob Perry examined the extent and reasons for academic misconduct among 355 undergraduate and 122 postgraduate students at one school in one academic institution. It found that 14% of undergraduates and 6% of postgraduates in the study admitted that they had looked for essays online, and seven students admitted purchasing and submitting these essays. While this was clear evidence of the use of ghost writers in one department, a sector wide examination would be necessary to determine the full extent of the problem.

I’m not convinced university lecturers can always detect the ghosts. Commonly used software such as Turnitin looks for similarities to other published sources and so cannot “catch” bespoke written pieces produced by someone who is not the credited author. The notion of a lecturer challenging a student who they suspect may have used a ghost writer is good at first glance, but it is not always practical.

It’s possible that the lecturer may judge a submitted piece to exceed a student’s capability or demonstrate a fluency in the English language that is not apparent in their verbal communications – and suspect them of plagiarism or employing a ghost writer. But when these concerns are communicated to a student, no matter how they are expressed, they may sound a lot like “I didn’t think you were that smart”, or worse “I thought you were stupid”. Those are not things I want to say to my students.

So if we believe some students use ghost writers but we can’t determine whether they have or not, then what can we realistically do about it? Here are three suggestions.

1. Preventative measures

First, adopt methods that help ensure the authorship of the work. The time-honoured tradition of the oral examination in which the student demonstrates their understanding of the content of their work may catch out those who have paid for an essay. But it would take a significant amount of time to organise and then mark the performance of hundreds of oral examinations, making this solution largely impractical for those who teach large cohorts.

Alternatively, as Perry suggested, university lecturers could design the ability to use a ghost writer out of their assessments. I can envisage this taking a number of forms. For example, greater use of practical projects could be made, in which students undertake relevant tasks, such as designing and running a charity event as part of a business module. But there may not always be sufficient time, opportunity or resources available for all taught material to be engaged with in this manner.

2. Do away with traditional essays

Second, stop using individual written assignments altogether and replace them with assessment methods that are less amenable to ghostly assistance. Group assignments in which students work collaboratively to produce an essay, report or other output may be a viable choice – the hope being that the social pressure to conform would discourage students from using ghost writers.

The students’ goals also play a role. Research I have been involved in has found that students who said they were most interested in learning favoured being put into a group with students they did not know, while those who were primarily interested in getting high marks wanted to pick those they knew. With that in mind we might be able to dissuade students from using ghost writers by convincing them that the best way to learn and gain high marks is to work together in the production of their assignments.

Still, written examinations may be the best alternative to stop cheating – although some students struggle with exams, and research has shown that students’ performance in coursework can be significantly better than in unseen exams. So swapping coursework for exams may put some students at a disadvantage.

3. Student and teacher collaboration

Third, and this is my preferred option, teachers could take a more hands-on approach to the production of students’ work. They could design assessments so that students’ work is a collaborative co-construction of the student and educator. A good example would be a final dissertation or research project that students produce under the supervision and guidance of their tutors. If lecturers spend time helping students to develop their ideas, construct their arguments, and direct their research then they can also have some assurance that the final piece is the result of a joint effort between the lecturer and student. The obvious difficulty would be finding the time to make this work.

These solutions aren’t perfect, and some may be more appropriate in different contexts than others. But the ghosts are already in the machine, and if universities want to be confident in the credibility of their graduates then they’re going to have to do something about it.

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Ghostwriting 101: Tips from Bloggers Who've Done It

Updated: December 06, 2021

Published: October 27, 2020

As someone who has done it in the past, ghostwriting can certainly be a bit spooky at first.Wondering whether you're doing your subjects and their ideas justice can run a chill down your spine.

From my perspective, taking the fear out of ghostwriting comes down to knowing when to use your subject's voice or your own. And it should be a half-and-half blend -- too much from column A, and the piece can lack structure; too much from column B, and you're just writing, not ghostwriting.

I learned early on that some Frankenstein-esque combination voice where you try to write as yourself and your subject simultaneously isn't really a thing, so save yourself the headache and divvy up their voice and your voice like so.

What is Ghostwriting?

Ghostwriting is the process of writing a piece of copy under someone else's name. For example, as a freelancer, you might be hired to write a blog post that's published under the CMO's name.

Essentially, ghostwriting is when someone else has the byline on a piece you wrote.

How to Ghostwrite

• Interview the person you're ghostwriting for.
• Make sure you understand the voice of the person you're writing for.
• Find the themes.
• Be flexible.

1. Interview the person you're ghostwriting for.

The most important part of ghostwriting is understanding the material that you're writing about. As a ghostwriter, you probably write about a variety of topics from industry blogs to memoirs. Before you dive into each piece, it's essential to talk to the person you're ghostwriting for and discuss the topic in depth.

Pam Bump, the Audience Growth Manager on the HubSpot blog team, says, "If you can, interview the person you're ghostwriting for over the phone or on a video call. This will not only allow you to take down all the key details they want to cover in the content, but you'll also learn more about how they speak or present tips. This can help you write content that naturally reads as if it was written by them."

2. Make sure you understand the voice of the person you're writing for.

Jumping off that last point, interviewing the person you're ghostwriting for will help you get a sense of their voice. We'll dive into when to use your voice or the client's voice below, but each piece you write should have a distinct style and tone.

Bump adds, "If you can't interview them to get a sense of how they talk or present their thoughts, you can alternatively read some of their other blog posts, social media posts, or published works to get a sense of how they write."

3. Find the themes.

When you're interviewing the person you're ghostwriting for, it's important to think about the narrative and structure of the piece you're writing.

Karla Cook, HubSpot's Senior Manager of the blog team, says, "It's important to meet with the person you're ghostwriting for at the beginning of the project and have a conversation about what they want the written piece to cover. This is their chance to share their brilliant, unfiltered thoughts with you, and it's your job as the ghostwriter to identify themes, strong phrases, and potential narratives for when you approach producing the piece later on. This is also an opportunity to get a feel for how your subject approaches communicating, and can help inform how you represent their voice."

4. Be flexible.

While interviewing the subject is the best way to learn about the topic you'll be writing about, being adaptable and flexible is important to succeed.

Cook adds, "People who use ghostwriters are usually busy, so if you can't meet with them in person, ask them to record a voice memo or even jot down a few notes in a document to get started."

Now, let's dive into one of the most important aspects of ghostwriting: when to use your own voice versus your client's voice.

When to Use Their Voice

1. main ideas.

The argument of the piece should be determined by your subject, no matter what your personal take on it is. Bear in mind that it's going to be published under their byline. Your opinion is moot, and therefore should be mute.

Thesis aside, I also steer clear of adding or subtracting ideas. If a subject bothers to bring up an argument that means it's important to them, and should be featured in the finished product in some way. Conversely, if the subject does not mention a topic, don't bring it in, no matter how much you think it would bring the point home, clarify the argument, or sound awesome.

It's simple: If they don't say it, I don't write it.

2. Signature Words or Phrases

If I were writing an article for Emeril Lagasse , you can bet it would be peppered with "BAM!"

You would be hard-pressed to find me using this phrase in my day-to-day life -- heck, it's not even my go-to exclamation. But Emeril says it, and for that reason, I would write it.

"Bam!" is a fairly innocuous example, but I bet you can think of some favorite turns of phrase that are senseless, silly sounding, or unnecessary. But if this is how the subject talks, then this is how the subject would presumably write. Including signature words makes the article seem more genuine, especially to readers familiar with the person.

The only time I would strike or edit a favorite phrase is if it's unintentionally grammatically incorrect. All other instances of "BAM!" "fuggetaboutit," "survey says," and "that's all folks!" stay in.

3. Data Points

Data is in almost every business article these days, and rightly so. Nothing can support an argument quite like the perfect statistic or chart.

The problem is there are plenty of statistics out there that aren't perfect. Sometimes, a subject offers up great data to support their points, and other times … less great. But I try to keep in mind that I'm not the expert here -- there's a reason why the subject used this specific piece of data, and it's not up to you to judge whether it's up to par.

I aim to use the majority of data points that subjects give me, but I always inquire after the source. That way, if I really feel shaky about the numbers, I can go back and check into their accuracy on my own. If I find a problem, I bring it to my subject's attention and let them determine if it should still be published.

When to Use Your Voice

Generally, people who use ghostwriters are busy doing fascinating stuff. That means that their minds are crammed with interesting information, and with so much on their plates, they may not always be the most organized speakers. They probably didn't have time to document exactly what they would like to talk about, and they might interject an off-topic fact or two.

The subject's ideas should be the meat of the piece, but it's the writer's responsibility to organize those thoughts in the most logical and effective way. Set the subject up for success by grabbing an anecdote they mentioned in the middle of your interview and moving it up to the opener if you think that's where it belongs. Similarly, conclusions can come from anywhere -- carefully listen for a solid closing thought, and bring it to the last paragraph.

List out the arguments presented, and arrange them in whatever way you think flows best. Odds are, your subject will be grateful for the organization help.

2. Transitions

Not many people move from one point to the next with perfectly crafted segues. Instead, they jump back and forth, interrupt themselves, or abruptly change directions.

That means it's up to you to add the nice transitions. I find that these are easier to provide in your own voice, since everyone has their own way of making arguments flow. Trying to mimic someone else's segue style might result in a garbled article.

3. Very Necessary Explanations

I try not to insert any points that weren't at least referenced by my subject, but there is an important exclusion to this rule: explanations.

Some subjects are so embroiled in their area of expertise that it can be difficult for them to break down their arguments for laypeople. The writer should act as a proxy for the audience, and if they think a point could use some clarification, they should circle back to the subject. If the subject fails to deliver an adequate explanation, ghostwriters should then take it upon themselves to provide succinct supporting information -- but it should be done in no more than a few sentences.

Bonus: When You Shouldn't Use a Voice

Just as important as understanding which voice to use is knowing when to not use any voice -- in other words, recognizing what should be cut.

As I mentioned above, subjects who rely on ghostwriters are often brilliant, passionate people. That said, they can sometimes go off on a tangent.

You don't have to make the article representative of the time spent talking about each point. Maybe you covered one argument in five minutes, and another in twenty. You should include both in the piece, but try to allot each equal space by paring down the second. Cast an editorial eye to which details are important and which aren't, and cut accordingly.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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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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Rian Johnson has a new Knives Out mystery coming, and we’re going to solve it right now

You don’t have to get out of bed for this one, Benoit

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Share All sharing options for: Rian Johnson has a new Knives Out mystery coming, and we’re going to solve it right now

Rian Johnson, that sly devil, has done it again: He’s gone off and made another mystery in the series that began in 2019 with Knives Out and continued in 2022 with Glass Onion . The director has promised that Daniel Craig’s effete sleuth Benoit Blanc will return in a new whodunnit next year, and that it’s called Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery . But you know what? Don’t bother, Monsieur Blanc. We can solve this one right now. We have all the clues.

Consider: The announcement teaser, which shows no footage, but features the previous title cards in the lead-up to the reveal of the new film title. Leading us there is this little trinket, a magnifying glass with a knife’s blade instead of a handle.

Or is it… the weapon of murder ?! Will the killer in Wake Up Dead Man (Arnold Schwarzenegger, I have no doubt) use this to fry his victim (Richard Kind, very upsetting), in an elaborate death trap, like a cruel child scorching an ant? It’s more likely than you think! I bring your attention to exhibit B, Johnson’s X post about the new movie:

I love everything about whodunnits, but one of the things I love most is how malleable the genre is. There’s a whole tonal spectrum from Carr to Christie, and getting to explore that range is one of the most exciting things about making Benoit Blanc movies. — Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) May 24, 2024

This makes my horrifying thesis plausible. Here, Johnson is signaling a tonal pivot for Wake Up Dead Man , and the gothic typeface of its title card suggests it will be a spooky pivot. Richard Kind’s horrible, nightmare-inducing death will be preceded by a red herring, Schwarzenegger’s faked death at the hands of Gisele Bündchen, in her first feature film role since The Devil Wears Prada . She, however, will believe she murdered Arnold accidentally, and spend the movie being haunted by various ghosts (played by Megan Thee Stallion , Tig Notaro, and, controversially, an AI recreation of Eminem, which is confusing because they could’ve just asked).

And Benoit Blanc, of course, will spend the entire film puzzling over a Ouija board and writing an original musical. We’ll think this is vital to solving the case, but in fact, he already knew the answer. It’s what they call a shaggy-dog story. Well played, Rian.

But if you still want to make this movie, I guess I’ll see it. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery does not have a release date yet, but the teaser says it’ll come to Netflix in 2025.

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