Ghostwriting Puts Academic Expertise at Stake

Scientific paper ghostwriting service agencies have become rife as people look for a shortcut in acquiring academic recognition for their expertise.

DHANANG DAVID

One of the joki providers for scientific work, PT Fast Pass Utama Education, is promoting its services on Instagram, Friday (10/2/2023).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Expert labels can be purchased by paying for the services of writing scientific works up to their publication. Jockey services offer various ghostwriting packages that allow someone to get scientific work done instantly.

The Kompas investigation team traced ghostwriting service institutions, which help in preparing scientific papers and having them published, throughout January 2023 in several places in Sumatra and Java. One of them is the Rivera Publishing (RP) institution in Cirebon, West Java. Inquiring as someone who was looking to prepare an article for a publication on a reputable international journal as part of a professorship requirement, the team found the costs it charged for ghostwriting the professorship paper.

The communication was first established via a WhatsApp contact number listed on the RP web page on Thursday (12/1/2023). RP offers assistance for publication in the internationally-indexed journal Sinta. They take orders for scientific articles, ghostwriting for foreign and domestic publications.

Someone who claimed to be the RP manager initially only offered a review and editing of scientific papers intended for a lecturer to collect credit scores. However, when the team said an article, which was to be proposed in the process of professorship, had not been prepared at all, the manager said they could prepare it from the start. The manager then asked what the target index of the journal the team was looking for and what the topic of the journal was.

"Is it possible, without the paper having been prepared yet?" the team asked. "Yes, we can help make it [from the start] too," the manager replied.

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The manager said they were prepared to undertake the order to write scientific articles to be published in a journal with the Scopus index 1 (Q1). The manager promised to provide examples of journals for the professorship proposal they had been assigned to ghostwrite. "The author's confidentiality is definitely guaranteed," the manager said in reply to the team’s question on confidentiality of the ghostwriting transaction.

On Tuesday (31/1), no one at RP responded to the team’s inquiries via the chat application. Neither did they pick up the phone nor answer a request for confirmation. In fact, the RP site changed its format with an antivirus program warning it being a dangerous site. After further investigation, RP was found to have used another site, namely penerbitanjournalilmiah.com while the name of the institution was retained.

Another ghostwriting service agency jagoketik.com, which is based in Sleman, Yogyakarta, only offers typing services. However, asked if they took an order for dissertation work, an admin official said they did and asked for details of the topic and work deadlines.

DHANANG DAVID ARITONANG

Jagoketik.com Kiosk located in the Yogyakarta area, Sunday (29/1/2021). Jagoketik.com is a scientific work joki service provider.

Kompas posed as a client looking to order a thesis on political communication. Within three hours, three people who claimed to be working partners of jagoketik.com made contact to negotiate the rate and asked about the details for the thesis.

All three, from different cities, came up with their own rate scheme. FF was from Riau, AU from Banyuwangi, East Java, and AM from Pangkal Pinang, Bangka Belitung Islands.

FF offered a rate of Rp 10 million for the work of preparing the proposal and its writing completion. FF appeared to be a lecturer at Riau University. Majoring in English, he claimed he frequently took orders for theses on political communications.

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A psychology graduate, AU also claimed he had experience in working on political communication theses. He lives in Banyuwangi and runs a business selling curd. He offered Rp 7.5 million for writing the thesis and Rp 2.5 million for its proposal preparation work.

Meanwhile, AM offered Rp 5.5 million with a promised guarantee of passing the plagiarism test and Turnitin (plagiarism checking application) 20 percent. For the proposal he charged Rp 2.2 million, including revisions up to three times. A graduate of German literature, AM lives in Pangkal Pinang, Bangka Belitung.

Some users of jagoketik.com gave testimony about their satisfaction with the services. From Surabaya, Rahayu Larasati said jagoketik.com served as an option for people in writing a thesis or dissertation. "You need to try it because it is truly guaranteed and includes free revisions without a time limit," she said.

KOMPAS/ANDY RIZA HIDAYAT (NDY)

Members of the Kompas Daily Investigation Team show a conversation with a scientific work joki service provider, Friday (10/2/2023) in Jakarta. This conversation proves that scientific work joki services are easy to find on the internet. The service packages also vary according to client requests.

Journal publishing

The discussion with FF continued with the issue about creating a Scopus indexed scientific journal. He said the Rp 10 million rate did not include the cost for journal publication. “If you want help to publish it, there is a fee [for it]. I have the team in charge of publication," he said.

YDP (29), the owner of jagoketik.com, said most of his clients were undergraduate students. The turnover from the services he first established in 2019 was reported to be Rp 60 million per month on average. Of that amount, about 50 percent came from the services of making scientific papers.

Currently, jagoketik.com is reportedly employing around 40 ghostwriting partners in scientific works. YDP said many university lecturers inquired about the services. "For lecturers, only a few [have used the services], maybe once a month. They just asked around at times. For lecturers, they usually just ask the students to do the work," said YDP, who graduated from a vocational school majoring in office administration.

Also read:Steep Road to Being Published in International Journals

One of the requirements for obtaining recognition for specific expertise is for academics to be able to have their scientific papers published in international journals. Publications in journals are also sought to boost credit scores. The demand for ghostwriting services has been increasing in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra. In this regency, there is an agency managing the Budapest International Research and Critics Institute (BIRCI), which publishes scientific articles quarterly.

The issue of Volume 5 No. 1/2022 appears to be a special edition for MR, the editor in chief of BIRCI, with the journal being claimed to publish some 1,000 scientific articles.

Kompas tried to validate MR's claim by looking into the issue of BIRCI Volume 5 No. 1/2022 through https://www.bircu-journal.com/index. php/birci/issue/view/52. By scrolling a quarter of the computer screen, Kompas found as many as 300 articles.

On its website, BIRCI attaches rates, namely fast-track reviews (quick review) for US$85 (Rp 1,300,000), online publication for US$40 (Rp 607,000) and print publication for US$20 (Rp 303,000). Seeking to have it checked quickly and published online or in print form, a client will have to pay US$145 or around Rp 2.1 million.

If it is true that BIRCI Volume 5 No. 1/2022 carries 1,000 articles, MR has the potential to earn Rp 2.1 billion. “What a windfall this international journal makes. It’s lots of money. That's why I focus on my journal,” he said.

This article was translated by Musthofid.