Title: The emergence of academic ghost writers from India in the international contract cheating industry

Authors: Thomas Lancaster

Addresses: Department of Computing, Imperial College London, UK

Abstract: The modern contract cheating industry allows students and ghost writers to connect to each other over the internet, often using through an essay mill, agency website or other third party service. Contract cheating sees students undertaking the ethically questionable practice of trying to gain academic credit using original work that they have covertly used a third party to produce. The contract cheating industry is international by nature, but little is known about the ghost writers circumventing academic integrity processes by supplying academic work to students. This paper analyses and profiles the ghost writers offering contract cheating services from India. This is based on data openly available on a freelancing website that operates like an essay mill, including information on the projects ghost writers have completed and the marketing techniques these writers use. It is hoped that understanding the ghost writers will aid instructors in taking preventative measures against contract cheating.

Keywords: contract cheating; academic integrity; outsourcing; ghost writing; essay mills; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2019.099281

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2019 Vol.18 No.3, pp.349 - 367

Received: 20 Apr 2018
Accepted: 01 Sep 2018
Published online: 24 Apr 2019 *

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