Dubious or decisive? Digging deeper into the unchartered path of academic ghostwriting

Abstract

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to investigate the journey of academic professors who have engaged in ghostwriting.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts qualitative exploratory methods to investigate the ghostwriters' journey into academic ghostwriting. To achieve the goal, the authors interviewed academic ghostwriters, who were working for a diploma mill company, specifically focused on PhD thesis writing in the NIS setting.FindingsThis study revealed several interesting insights from ghostwriter perspective such as the origins and motivation of ghostwriters, ghostwriters life, ghostwriters' careers and impediments faced by them.Originality/valueGiven the dispersed and sensitive nature of the topic, this is one of the few studies to investigate ghostwriting and offer implications.

Morality: A Bulwark for Accounting Students’ Academic Cheating

“…The research was conducted using a case study method with in-depth interviews as the analytical tool, aiming to provide a deep understanding of academic dishonesty and religiosity among students, as well as the perspectives of professors on academic dishonesty. To obtain a comprehensive insight, an exploratory design was utilized in this research, which has been previously employed by Svirina and Anand [18]; Bloomfield, et al [19]; Mukasa, et al [1]. The exploratory case study design was employed to obtain in-depth information about the problem under investigation.…”