Paper mills offered research paper authorship for up to $800

ERR’s Novaator found that buying authorship of a research paper from so-called paper mills can be surprisingly easy, with one offer priced at $800.

Paper mills do not conduct genuine research. Instead, they mass-produce texts that appear credible and sell authorship for a fee, allowing buyers to improve their rankings in research databases.

The businesses operate openly, mainly on social media, and attempt to ensure that the papers are published in real academic journals.

To test how easily authorship could be purchased, Novaator contacted several paper mills in a journalistic experiment. The editorial team said it did not endorse using their services, describing the practice as fraud that violates research ethics and could, in the worst case, lead to criminal punishment.

Offers arrived within half an hour

Paper mills advertise their services in Facebook groups with seemingly innocuous names such as “Free Scopus publication and research help”. The advertisements use information-rich posters generated with artificial intelligence and appear to offer consulting services, although they in fact promote other services.

Novaator collected the contact details of seven active providers and contacted them directly on WhatsApp, as requested in the advertisements. The journalists presented themselves as a fictional computer scientist named John Robert Steezy and asked directly about buying authorship of a research paper.

Five of the seven contacts, most of whom had Indian names, responded within the next half-hour.

The offers varied widely. The most expensive paper cost $800 and was due to appear in a journal titled Journal of Intelligent Decision Making and Information Science.

The experiment was prompted by the wider pressure in academia to publish an increasing number of influential papers. Publications can affect researchers’ salaries, positions and future careers, creating conditions for fraudulent businesses to flourish.