Lately I've noticed more and more students, including undergraduates, asking questions on RG. When looking at their profiles it's obvious they are not RG "members in residence," so to speak, but merely passers-by looking for an easy way to get their term papers done. They generally want a list of articles on their topic. Their questions are not for scholarly discussion or assistance with an issue or problem. Most of their questions can be answered by suggesting they enter their topic in a search engine. If this trend continues we will be overwhelmed with first-year students of every imaginable discipline asking the most basic of questions. I don't believe that's the intention of RG and I don't believe that's our role or responsibility. What's your opinion?
I'm not quite sure why no one has responded to this question, especially since the issue has grown worse since I first posted it. There are more questions than ever that are obviously from undergrads and grad students seeking information for a course paper or a thesis--definitions, explanations, bibliographies, web sites, etc. Plagiarism is frowned upon. Buying a paper from someone is academically unethical as is cheating on a test. Taking the easy way out and obtaining information from RG members is also academically unethical. I'm sure that 99.99% of RG members are astute enough not to fall for this. So what do you do with such student mining for info/student questions? Scroll through the excessive number of such questions each time you are checking your Q&A Feed? Delete these questions? Either way, it takes a lot of time and I'm sure all of us are busy enough with our own students, classes, research, etc. Are there any remedies?
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