With the graduation season approaching, the phenomenon of "gunman ghostwriting" graduation thesis has risen, and propaganda terms such as "thesis package" and "one-stop service for opening and answering" are not uncommon on some online platforms. Writing papers for others seriously violates the principle of good faith, tramples on a fair academic environment, and promotes a deformed business model, which is a bad atmosphere and related illegal industrial chains that urgently need to be strengthened.
Shopping platforms can buy papers
Despite the long regulations, it is still difficult to eliminate such phenomena as participating in the sale and ghostwriting of dissertations. More than half of the students surveyed said they knew they could "buy" a graduation thesis, and some said that some of their classmates were looking for a gunman to write a thesis.
The investigation of the reporter found that finding the "gunman" to write the graduation thesis was mainly carried out online. Some shopping platforms have become the main channel for writing secretive papers. The reporter entered "thesis ghostwriting" on a shopping software, and the page that popped up showed relevant laws and regulations as a warning, but entered keywords such as "thesis" and "thesis counseling", and the multiple business icons displayed on the page contained the text "graduation thesis". The reporter contacted multiple customer service to ask if it was possible to write the paper, and the customer service said yes.
Through communication, we learned that the thesis writing agency is priced through the topic, word count, major, repeat rate, academic qualifications and whether a graduation project is required, the price usually ranges from 1000,1 to <>,<> yuan, and it can be completed in about a week, and the follow-up weight reduction and modification services are given away, and the "one-stop" thoughtful service is provided until the student graduates. Screenshots of the chat box of some intermediaries' moments show that the number of inquiries and transactions have increased rapidly recently.
The market is maturing and harmful
A number of ghostwriting agencies are blunt, the institution has been open for many years, the service chain is mature, and there will be many orders every year to the graduation season. The half-month reporter's investigation found that how to find the "gunman" was spread by word of mouth among new and old college graduates, which made many college students rely on and luck, and usually did not study well.
A student who purchased a ghostwriting service for his graduation thesis said that he neglected to study when he was in school, and it was difficult to write his thesis, so he could only find a ghostwriting agency. "The online price is also very 'reasonable', which is much easier than writing your own paper."
In addition, the threshold for ghostwriters of graduation theses is not high. The reporter contacted a number of writing agencies in Beijing, Taiyuan, Zhengzhou and other places, introducing that he was a master's student at a 211 university and wanted to be a thesis "gunman", and the merchant said that the relevant papers would be distributed immediately, and did not require to show relevant documents.
Since the "gunmen" are usually master's and doctoral students in the same major, most of the undergraduate theses they write are higher than those of undergraduate students, and often get high scores in the final selection, which is very easy to cause dissatisfaction among students who have original graduation theses. A former graduate of a university in Shanxi recalled that when he graduated, he knew that some classmates around him were looking for a gunman to write a paper, but he was afraid to report it to the school for fear of causing trouble. "We wrote our papers carefully for months, and others could complete them without worrying about anything, and the defense score was probably higher than ours." She said.
The ghostwriting of papers weakens the innovation ability of college graduates and seriously undermines the learning atmosphere and fairness and justice of colleges and universities. Wen Yueli, associate professor of the School of Environmental Engineering of Taiyuan University of Technology, believes that the ghostwriting of papers is equivalent to the elimination of the ability to summarize and sublimate the theory of college graduates, and this kind of academic fraud must be resolutely stopped.
Increase the cost of untrustworthiness for ghostwriting
Curb demand at the source and increase the cost of illegal paper ghostwriting. Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Chinese Minmin University, said that in order to crack down on the phenomenon of ghostwriting, it is necessary to increase the cost of untrustworthiness in ghostwriting, so that the cost of ghostwriting is higher than the benefits of fraud.
If the amount of money involved is huge, it may constitute the crime of illegal business operation, and the operator will be investigated for criminal responsibility. Experts suggest increasing the punishment of paper writing intermediaries, continuously improving laws and regulations, strengthening the investigation of criminal responsibility, and avoiding excessive reliance on fines, blacklists and other methods to weaken the crackdown effect.
Relevant departments should intensify the review of paper fraud. Wang Bin, a lecturer at the School of Chemical Engineering of Taiyuan University of Technology, believes that in order to rectify the phenomenon of ghostwriting papers, universities should increase punishment on the one hand, and on the other hand, strengthen the preservation and supervision of the original data of papers for verification before publication. (Half Moon Talk, Reporter: Lu Mengqi, Chen Zhihao)