Concerning papers, see https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_you_know_what_a_paper_mill_is/1. This seems to be a big problem in certain fields of science. There is also a business model in which doctoral theses are written by ghostwriters. Several years ago, there was a scandal in Germany when the minister of defense had his doctorate revoked due to plagiarism and resigned. It appeared that he was not familiar with his own work and that the plagiarism had been committed by a ghostwriter.

Dr Wolfgang R. Dick

Thank you for your interesting reply and link to the other discussion; I looked at it and will go back to look at is in more detail.

We are looking forward to the programme tonight.

When I think of all the work that I put into my own work; but I would not have wanted it any other way. I really enjoyed the time when I was funded to do my PhD research full time (not having to do it part time and my nurse practitioner work for the rest of the week, when someone else was not being funded to cover my caseload).

I was looking at this link on ResearchGate:

https://help.researchgate.net/hc/en-us/articles/14292720154513-Profile-information-and-visibility

Readers of this discussion may also be interested in this more general one: https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_big_of_a_problem_is_scientific_misconduct

Dear Mary C R Wilson

Unfortunately, I have no access to Channel 4, and the program is (as far as I can see) not available online (yet). However, the program is called “The Shadow Scholars” and according to https://www.channel4.com/press/news/inside-billion-dollar-fake-essay-industry-shadow-scholars-airing-channel-4-24-september

and

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/sep/14/kenya-shadow-scholars-paid-to-write-essays-for-uk-students

it focusses on a “essay mill” industry in Kenya and how this example of scientific misconduct is used by students in the UK. It looks to me as a follow-up of what has been revealed and discussed somewhere in 2019

https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-universities-catch-less-than-one-per-cent-of-bought-in-essays-own-records-suggest

Though this phenomenon of buying essays (or even a complete PhD thesis) produced by in this case highly qualified Kenyan scholars is sad and disturbing, it seems to indicate that in a way it is already “old news” since nowadays the role of AI in this type of misconduct is “on the rise”.

Unfortunately, like indicated by Wolfgang R. Dick there are more types of scientific misconduct related to this:

-Paper Mill

-Buying authorship

-Selling citations

-AI generated papers in combination with fake profiles

-Citation/Metrics boosting operations

-Plagiarism

Etc.

But back to your point, I agree. Getting my graduation and ultimately my PhD degree are some of the most fulfilling things I’ve done in my life. I think you deprive yourself of this feeling when you obtain any of this by this type of scientific misconduct. Raising awareness is I guess the most important thing ‘we’ can do in this matter.

Best regards.

PS. See for a related discussion this highly interesting post on Retraction Watch https://retractionwatch.com/2025/09/24/math-has-publication-fraud-too Especially the link to the second paper it refers to is interesting since it contains recommendations Preprint How to Fight Fraudulent Publishing in the Mathematical Scien...

Prof Dr Rob Keller

Thank you for your response. Yes, this is what I was referring to. We watched about half of the programme we recorded yesterday and really enjoyed it, but time ran out!

We are looking forward to picking up where we left off.

Dr Wolfgang R. Dick

Thank you so much for your contributions to this thread; I am going to look at the links you sent me, this evening.

Thanks again.

We have just watched the rest of the Channel 4 programme that we recorded last night: 'The Shadow Scholars: Fake Essay Scandal'. It was well worth watching and I have just saved it on 'my list' on the Channel 4 app on my laptop, to re-watch it later.

I don't remember the exact detail of this or whether I am correct, but some years ago, a ResearchGate member claimed part or the whole of an article as his own, when it wasn't. And another member spotted this and - I seem to remember - that the errant member and anything he had put his name to was removed from ResearchGate, but the discussion continued. I had recommended the errant member's work and would like to have had another look, But everything of his was removed.