In the group of 300 writers, intermediary paper orders pop up from time to time.

An undergraduate thesis with 12000 words and the title of "Research on xxx Consumption Tax Reform" was offered 450 yuan by the intermediary, and was "snatched" by the writers in the group.

There is a huge "customer group" for the paper. Some college graduates who are unwilling to spend energy or are unable to complete their dissertations and speculate on "shortcuts" have become "fish in the pond" for intermediaries to make money.

In April this year, a studio focusing on "ghostwriting" received more than 600 papers, including ghostwriting, programming, drawing, modification, weight reduction (reducing the repetition rate of papers), etc. For graduates, difficult papers are easily won by the writers with "technology and hard work". "Never mind the quality, write with AI, and the 10000 word paper will be finished in the afternoon." said one writer.

The Beijing News reporter found that there were ghostwriters on several e-commerce and social networking platforms. The intermediary posts, solicits customers to negotiate prices, and the writer takes orders, which seems to form a complete gray industrial chain. The intermediary claims that "the teacher writes on behalf of", and the graduates consider that "the professional writer" is just a paper plagiarist who knows how to reduce weight, or a layman who uses AI to write.

In fact, students who speculate on shortcuts also face double risks. The students are in the open and the writers are in the dark. Once there is a dispute between the two parties, the students have no place to complain, and dare not make a public statement everywhere. In April this year, the National People's Congress deliberated and passed the Academic Degrees Law, which stipulates that if academic misconduct such as ghosting, plagiarism and forgery exists in academic dissertations, the degree awarding unit will not grant or revoke the degree. The Measures for Handling the Falsification of Dissertations, implemented as early as 2013, also clearly stipulates that if the dissertations are fraudulent, the degree awarding unit can cancel the degree application qualification of students.

A business needs to write the paper information published in the writer group, and indicate the price. The reporter found that most orders were snatched by writers. Chat screenshot

　　 Cheap ghostwritten papers: use AI to fabricate or skim articles to reduce weight

It will take weeks or even months for an undergraduate thesis to complete the first draft from the determination of the topic. In the meantime, it is not only necessary to collect materials and write the opening report, but also to complete the paper through their own understanding and analysis, and reference a large number of literature, books and data to support the arguments in the paper.

For writers, most of these essential basic information is omitted.

"Who has time to pick up literature, find data, and study how to write this question? Just leave it to AI," said one writer.

In mid April, Beijing News reporters received orders from intermediaries from undercover writers. The undergraduate of a sports college took the tactical application of a well-known domestic athlete as the research object.

The reporter of the Beijing News noticed that the student's outline of the paper listed in detail the frequency of the attack, defense and other movements of the athletes in the game, as well as the statistical analysis items of the score, but in his 15000 word first draft of the paper, the data that can support these analysis is very few.

"The client's first draft was too watery, so only the outline was kept, and the rest was rewritten." At 11:00 a.m., when the reporter received the revision form of the paper, the intermediary asked, "At 12:00 p.m., the manuscript must be handed in, and the tutor is urging the client (student) to hand in the manuscript."

It's not easy to finish a ten thousand word paper in 12 hours. It is obviously impossible to count the number of times that the athlete uses skills and gains and losses in the competition by observing the game video.

An experienced writer told reporters that they can write in AI. For the data statistics in the paper, let AI compile some data reasonably first, and then let AI analyze chapter by chapter according to the compiled data, "it will be done in the afternoon".

As the author in the original text failed to provide statistical data, he had to fabricate data to make tables. Meanwhile, the reporter told the intermediary about the use of false data in the article, and the intermediary replied with a "smile" expression, noncommittal.

"Papers like this must be supported by data, but the author has not provided it, so you can only compile data." Experienced writers told reporters that whether they are part-time writers or full-time writers, they are all to earn money. Everyone is thinking about how to complete more orders and earn more money in the shortest time

The reporter of the Beijing News found that the dissertations that should be used to test the learning achievements of undergraduates and take a lot of time to complete are extremely cheap among the writers. The intermediary usually offers 300 yuan to 500 yuan for papers with more than 10000 words in liberal arts majors. Only some science majors who need to draw drawings, do programs, designs, and model papers will offer more than 500 yuan. The price of some academic and correspondence papers is usually about 200 yuan.

Xiao Guo, who has three years of experience in writing essays, said that from the price, it is impossible for the writer to write essays seriously. Seriously write, earn 3000 yuan a month, what will you do? "All of them are written in AI, or pick up others' papers to reduce the weight, and do two papers a day."

A writer claimed to help others write papers and modify the format of papers in April, earning 30000 yuan. Chat screenshot

　　 The beginner has no threshold: vocational high school students write doctoral theses on behalf

Intermediaries with mature operation usually leave the price of the received single clear code in the writer group, "first come, first served".

However, there is no threshold and review for entering these writers to receive orders in groups.

"What education background and what are you good at?" The intermediary asked simply, and then pulled the reporter to the group that issued the order. Some businesses that have just started intermediary business and are not rich in writers' resources, even don't ask anything, they just dump the order to the writers.

Many writers said that they had junior high school diploma writers nearby. On this topic, another writer's answer is even more surprising: I have vocational high school graduates around me who are writing doctoral dissertations. Can you believe it?

In the group of writers, many writers said that they were using AI to help college students complete their graduation papers. Chat screenshot

A writer with a junior high school degree introduced to the Beijing News that he had been in the ghostwriting industry for seven years. At the beginning, it is to find published papers to piece together, and then use some software or manually change the word order and words to reduce the weight. After AI appears, it is mainly AI assisted to complete the paper.

The writer joked that although he had never been to college, he could complete all the papers that college students could not write, "as long as students can check duplicates, this paper will be OK".

The Beijing News reporter learned that in addition to the writers with low academic qualifications, there are also some college students and social figures who regard ghostwriting as a part-time job.

Li He (not his real name), 24, started writing essays as a junior. In 2023, she began to sell "AI Writer Realization Class" in WeChat groups, and recruited more than 100 students. The publicity poster shows that the course content includes how to enter the group of writers to receive orders, writing short and long articles, and special training in writing papers.

"Students' money is best earned." In the course, Li He introduced his experience of ghosting and was very proud. "They (students) begged me every day to write for them."

Li He's way of writing is to let AI generate the outline of the paper, and then send the titles of each section of the outline to AI in turn to enrich the content. In the course, Li He took a title paper entitled "Research on the Strategy of XXX Family School Co education" just received as an example. He completed the title paper requiring 5500 words in less than 40 minutes while practicing and explaining.

The reporter of the Beijing News noticed that because AI could not access the websites of academic papers such as HowNet, it could not list which references were used in the papers. However, Li He asked AI to simulate the format of references and randomly compiled some references, which were listed at the end of the paper. "80% of people will not check the authenticity of references in such water comparison papers."

In this paper, Li He received an order from an intermediary at a price of more than 200 yuan. After he finished, he joked, "You can earn money by playing. After you learn it, you can practice quickly and earn money quickly."

A student who took part in Li He's live broadcast course told the reporter that most of the students were interested in writing essays. Some students with low educational level just finished their classes and went to pick up speeches, essays and other proxy lists. Students like him who have some basic writing skills began to directly talk about the proxy list, "I earned more than 5000 yuan in my first month".

　　 Behind the Industrial Chain: Intermediaries Solicit Half Price Subcontracting Writers

In Li He's opinion, there is a huge customer base for the essay writing.

In the training class, Li He told the students that at present, some colleges and universities have announced that they will carry out AI testing on their dissertations, but most colleges and universities have not tested whether the dissertations are completed by AI. "Even a few years later, all undergraduate colleges and universities will carry out AI testing on their papers. There are also papers from junior colleges and correspondence schools that can be accepted."

According to statistics from the Beijing News reporter, in April this year, a studio focusing on "ghostwriting" received more than 600 papers, among which undergraduate papers, specialist papers and correspondence papers accounted for a high proportion.

According to the Measures for Handling the Falsification of Academic Dissertations implemented in 2013, if the academic dissertations of degree applicants are purchased, written by others, plagiarized or forged data, the degree awarding unit may cancel their qualification for academic degree application; If a person has already obtained a degree, the degree conferring unit may revoke his degree and cancel his degree certificate according to law.

In 2018, the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on Strictly Investigating and Dealing with the Business and Writing of Dissertations in Colleges and Universities. The Notice points out that students who participate in purchasing and writing dissertations will be expelled from school. Instructors who fail to perform their duties and who sell or write on behalf of their students' dissertations shall also be investigated for their dereliction of duty.

After that, several e-commerce platforms also issued "passenger order" to the merchants who "write papers for others", and blocked relevant keywords. However, the Beijing News reporter found that only a slight change of keywords is needed to search, and a large number of ghostwriters are still visible on multiple e-commerce platforms and social networking platforms.

When a platform retrieves the "paper", it can be seen that the order receiving post issued by the merchants can be seen, and many merchants have indicated that they can provide proxy services. Webpage Screenshot

These merchants, under the signboard of "thesis guidance" and "copywriting", hide in various platforms and solicit customers everywhere.

On an e-commerce platform, a link of "paper consultation" shows that 2000 people have paid. After the reporter sent the demand to the customer service, the dialogue window popped up the reply set by the merchant, "The platform prohibits consulting about papers and academic content, please leave your phone or WeChat, and professional teachers will communicate one-on-one for you".

The reporter asked the other party to write a legal degree paper for consultation, and the business as an intermediary said that the undergraduate thesis can be written in full, 100 yuan per thousand words. In addition, the quotations of many other businesses are from 80 yuan to 120 yuan per thousand words. "There are professional writers who can modify them if they are not satisfied," said one businessman.

However, in many groups of writers under the cover of journalists, most intermediaries will clearly mark the price after receiving the order. The unit price of a legal thesis is usually less than 500 yuan. The intermediary receives the undergraduate theses of junior college and correspondence courses with a unit price of 600 yuan to 800 yuan, and subcontracts them to the writer. Most of the prices are below 300 yuan.

An experienced writer told the reporter that due to the cost of promotion and communication, many intermediaries subcontract to the writer at half price after receiving the order, and the writer is responsible for the end. Now some writers will release their own information to receive orders through channels such as Xianyu, Xiaohongshu, and Weibo.

　　 Superimposed risk: fear of being written for others, and more afraid of being checked

Due to the low price of receiving orders, writers who are busy making money in the graduation season are unwilling to spend too much energy on a certain paper.

Li He also mentioned in the training class that you can buy the finished paper through some websites. An undergraduate paper costs only 20 or 30 yuan, and you can hand it over with a little modification. "You can save time and earn the price difference."

During the undercover investigation, the reporter of the Beijing News noticed that there were still people selling the finished papers of nearly two years in the group of writers for 89 yuan each. A writer who once bought finished papers said that these papers were completed by writers in previous years. If the duplicate checking website was not updated, they could be bought directly to customers.

In Wu Te's (pseudonym) opinion, there are a lot of people in the ghostwriting industry. Because many college students have no experience in writing papers, they think that the writers plagiarized or used AI to complete the papers, which were written for them by professionals. "In essence, most of them are 'mud legs'."

Wu Te has appealed to college students on Weibo for seven consecutive years not to look for ghostwriting, and released some tutorials to guide college students to complete their own papers. There are more than 800 people in the communication group on paper writing created by him. He said that every year, there are students who report that they have been cheated by looking for ghostwriters. Some papers, although after several adjustments, the teacher also thought that there was nothing wrong with them, but they could not stand the examination at all.

At the beginning of May this year, a senior student of a university fed back to Wu Te that he had asked a ghostwriter to write (computer) codes. After getting the first draft, he found that these codes were directly plagiarized from the network and refused to pay the balance. He was threatened by the intermediary to complain to the school. In the end, although he rewrote the code, he had to pay part of the fees to the intermediary because he was afraid that the school would find that he had used ghostwriting.

A reporter from the Beijing News found that some students wrote their names and colleges in the opening report or the first draft of their papers sent to the intermediary.

Wute said that the students were in the open and the writers were in the dark. Once there was a dispute between the two sides, the students neither complained nor dared to make a public statement. Before receiving the order, the intermediary who guarantees to "modify to the satisfaction" will often delay the modification after receiving the payment and delivering the first draft. In the process of undercover reporters, similar situations often occur. After the delivery of the first draft, if the students put forward suggestions for revision later, many intermediaries will no longer urge the writers to complete it in time, and students who can't wait will have to revise it themselves.

Wute himself is a victim. He said that in 2017, he paid 850 yuan to find a proxy writer to complete the paper. After receiving the first draft, he found that the duplicate checking rate was as high as 80%, which caused the intermediary to revise the paper again and again. Because the teacher had been urging him, he finally spent a whole night revising the paper. According to his understanding, there were more than 20 students in his college who had the same experience with him.

"It was at that time that I began to appeal to graduates on the Internet not to look for ghostwriters," Wu said.

On the e-commerce platform, businesses guide customers to communicate with WeChat about the details of the paper. Screenshot of e-commerce customer service chat

In fact, since most of the papers written on behalf of others are reduced in weight by plagiarizing others' papers, or completed by AI, even if they finally pass the defense, there is still a risk of being checked, with more serious consequences.

In May this year, a student majoring in finance in a university complained on the Internet that he spent 900 yuan to find someone to write the paper for him. There was nothing wrong with the duplicate checking twice, and the teacher also thought it was OK. However, he found that the AI rate of this paper reached more than 80% through the query of HowNet. "Even if this paper passes the defense, there is still a risk of being spot checked," said the student.

In December 2020, the Measures for Sampling Examination of Undergraduate Graduation Thesis (Design) (Trial) formulated and issued by the Ministry of Education stipulates that the sampling examination of undergraduate graduation theses shall be conducted once a year, covering all undergraduate level ordinary universities and all undergraduate majors, and the sampling proportion shall not be less than 2%.

In recent years, a number of colleges and universities have reported that they found academic misconduct in graduate dissertations in spot checks, and have made a decision to revoke graduate degrees and diplomas. In 2023, a graduate student of the Graduate School of Jiangxi Agricultural University who has graduated for 10 years was revoked of his master's degree due to the fraudulent act of "plagiarizing other people's works and academic achievements" in his thesis.

　　 Expert: Integrated governance and punishment can curb the chaos of proxy writing

In response to the problem of fraudulent papers, the Beijing News reporter found that the Ministry of Education had issued relevant "Notices" and "Measures" for many times, requiring the standardization of the management of academic theses, and clarifying the punishment measures for acts such as ghostwriting, plagiarism, and data fraud.

In addition, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued Several Opinions on Further Strengthening the Construction of Scientific Research Integrity for intermediary service institutions engaged in illegal activities such as buying and selling academic papers, writing and investing on behalf of others, forging, fabricating, and tampering with research data, which explicitly required market supervision and administration, public security and other departments to take the initiative to carry out investigations, Serious punishment.

Tan Mintao, a lawyer from Beijing Zhongwen (Xi'an) Law Firm, said that the Internet is also illegal outside. In view of the act of soliciting proxy business through online business platforms, the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions clearly stipulates that the goods sold or services provided by online transaction operators should meet the requirements for personal and property safety and environmental protection, It is not allowed to sell or provide goods or services that are prohibited by laws and administrative regulations from trading, that damage the national interests and social and public interests, and that violate public order and good customs. According to the regulations and Article 41, the market supervision and administration department ordered the agency to correct its illegal acts within a time limit and imposed a fine of not less than 5000 yuan but not more than 30000 yuan.

Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, believes that the existence of the ghostwriting paper market is rooted in the paper only evaluation system, which emphasizes the number of papers, the evaluation of results, and the evaluation of quality and process. To some extent, it has led to academic misconduct such as plagiarism, forgery, and ghostwriting. At present, the popular practice in colleges and universities in China is to check the duplication of papers submitted by students to see if they are original. As long as the papers submitted by students pass the duplication check, they can be handed over, and the duplication check can be reduced by means of manuscript washing, word order adjustment, etc. Due to the development and popularity of AI, many students have begun to use AI to complete their papers. However, whether they use AI or pay someone to write by hand, the essence is the same, which belongs to academic misconduct.

Xiong Bingqi said that in order to deal with the problem of ghostwriting, China has carried out targeted special actions, including cleaning up small advertisements for ghostwriting papers, shielding search for ghostwriting papers, etc., but the ghostwriting paper market is still active. The reason is that although public opinion believes that this is an illegal service, which seriously affects the academic order, there are omissions in the treatment of both parties involved. Even if disputes occur, most of them are refunded, which connives at the growth of the ghostwriting paper market. For example, in the special action to control ghostwriting, the relevant departments investigated and dealt with the institutions that illegally provided ghostwriting, but did not hold accountable the personnel who purchased ghostwriting services. On the other hand, the relevant units dealt with the personnel who purchased the ghostwriting service, but did not hand over the clues to the regulatory authorities, and the institutions and individuals who provided the ghostwriting service papers did not receive the due punishment.

Xiong Bingqi believes that in order to curb the chaos of proxy writing, it is necessary to carry out integrated governance, form the joint force of different subjects, and investigate the responsibilities of both parties involved in the proxy writing, so that there is no room for the proxy writing to grow savagely.

Beijing News reporter Cheng Yalong

Editor in charge: Liu Debin