In my opinion, it is very ok to pay some proofreader to read out thesis or articles especially if someone is not a native speaker of the proofread language. It is ethical and in Poland appreciated that thesis is consulted with language editor or editor who can help with proper citation and literature formatting.

Hi, Moyra:

Perhaps before reflecting on whether 'outsourcers' are ethical or acceptable, I invite Ph.D. candidates to review the following and decide for themselves the 'right' approach to getting the doctoral degree:

"So, you have decided to do a Ph.D.. Now what? In this essay, the author provides some advice for beginning Ph.D. students, basically sharing what he would tell his younger self. Doing a Ph.D. is a transformative experience, but the process is challenging, not merely on an intellectual level but also psychologically. To overcome these challenges, one needs a certain mindset and a bag of tricks. The author offers some help for getting in the right mindset, and shares some of his tricks for studying, research, and productivity in general".

· Deconinck, K. (2015). Trust Me; I’m a Doctor: A Ph.D. Survival Guide — Journal of Economic Education, 46(4), 360–375.

Indeed, its all about the mindset and the reasons why they want to pursue a doctoral degree! I hope you find this information useful...

Kind Regards,

Nadeem

In my opinion, it is legitimate to use the technical possibilities of our time. This ranges from spell-checking to online tools for research projects. The actual research work cannot be outsourced. The only exception is research cooperations declared by definition.

Thanks for this useful resource. Yes: a key question is: Why are you doing a PhD? It would seem that the more that is outsourced the less learning happens.

I think most researchers would agree with Adam Sulich that having work edited is not only acceptable but necessary.

The question remains ....

Hi Moyra,

For me, there must be as little outsourcing as possible. It is editing and proofreading that i believe should be outsourced, all other milestones and critical stages are what PhD is about. I agree learning happens during these times, outsourcing MIGHT compromise the tag 'academic' or 'expert'.

Thanks for the question.....

Dear all,

Please find enclosed a wonderful paper once submitted to AoM. It provides a partial answer on what is going on in different countries regarding the support to Ph.D. students.

bests,

Igor

Going back to my own Ph.D experience (1998 - 2002), I outsourced the transcription of interview tapes - but I did all the interviews. I used 'tools' within MS Word (spellcheck; grammar; thesaurus), but I wrote everything, and collected and analyzed all the primary data and ran all the SPSS stuff myself (My thesis was mainly qualitative, with some quant's triangulation).

My view is that if you are doing a Ph.D - and particularly if you are following the 'traditional' model (i.e. not DBA or similar), then you should do ALL of the intellectual stuff, and that includes ALL the data collection and analysis. I conducted over 100 hours of interviews, but would not have gained the insights I did if I had 'outsourced' any of this.

I agree with others - think about 'why' you want to do a Ph.D. I wanted to be an academic, and the P.D is the 'badge of credible entry' to HE in reputable universities. It worked for me because I knew what I was trying to achieve.

A very good answer. My Ph.D. was related to archival sources and I spent three months sitting daily 8-10 hours in the archive looking into real documents and taking notes (there was no permission to copy the documents). Finally I discovered a set of unique documents that became the core empirical evidence for my Ph.D. work.

How much of a PhD can be 'outsourced'?

Typical PhD thesis have the following sections:

Finding technical or operational / low level tasks can be outsourced e.g. data collection e.g. using questionnaire survey, data analyses techniques with certain statistical software (quantitative research), interview, voice-to-text transcription (qualitative research), thesis write up, proof read, grammar correction etc.

However, higher level / subject matter or content related areas / tasks like research problem, objective, questions, literature review, conceptual framework, interpretation of result findings, discussion & conclusion should handle by the PhD student him / herself. Reason being s/he should be the subject matter expert in specific content / research area so that s/he can understand & be able to answer all the tough queries from examiners during the viva. Sometimes, the examiners might ask detailed questions about those technical / low level tasks in which the PhD student might lost his / her credential if s/he can't answer those questions as a result of his / her outsourcing. Hence my recommendation is always handle everything yourself within the PhD syllabus so that you will not graduate as a handicapped PhD holder.

Frankly speaking, None. If you are a serious researcher and not just looking forward to a doctoral degree (PhD or any other) but to develop research capabilities then right from the word go, you should be doing everything yourself. Literature review, identifying gaps in the literature, formulating a research problem, putting up a model or models/hypotheses, designing method, collection of data, processing the data, interpretation of results, developing discussion, outlining contribution and finally writing down everything in the form of a thesis/dissertation. If you are fortunate enough then you may get support from your research supervisor on every stage or selectively otherwise you should be to do everything on your own.

If you outsource any of the above activities then that may remain as a deficiency in your research capability which one will have to work on eventually. If you outsource your research project fully then first, it is unethical, second, you will never be able to understand what research all about is.

Apart from this a researcher goes through different phases of mental capabilities and learn to live through difficult and depressing times. Also collects happy memory of small successes and breaks which come your way from time to time.

This is possible but there are ethical concerns once the work is done and ofcourse the issues on ownership.

In as much as PhD students seek assistance from consultants, in my view it should not be more than 20% of the whole work. I assume areas that would require consultancy are mainly to do with statistical analysis especially if someone is not well verse with statistical software packages or statistics...beyond that, the other work should come from the student.

can we outsource census taker for Phd research for a large number of sample size in primary study? Does anyone have any reference in this matter?

You can have the survey with the help of enumerators, where you are unable to do in person. You may take some technical assistance or training for the advanced analytical testing, where needed to make the study best. Typing and office work is another area, where you may take assistance. But the core Idea, Efforts and approach to the findings should be your own.

I have just come across your question. What a good one!!

My take on it, for what it's worth, is that anyone undertaking a research degree should remember that it will involve;

a) regular supervision - a process of support, encouragement and challenge that's likely to spot and question anything that looks like "outsourcing" of the work required

b) a 'viva' interview at which you'll need to explain and defend your research in some detail to seasoned academics with experience related to your field of work. They are quite likely to detect candidates who don't appear to have sufficient grip of the detail, when questioned.

If the supervision process is any good, preparation for the viva will be thought about during much of the research process - no supervisor wants their researcher to be 'found out' at the viva, surely?!!