I ran into several other sites when looking for information on writing a disseratation. Are there any stories or links to anyone being caught using this type of service, that would be interesting to read? (or getting a list of clients).
WOW! I had no idea such a service existed. This is VERY scary. But could anyone really get away with it? If you were a PhD student at some University or other, wouldn't they KNOW that the work wasn't yours? I mean, presumably you TALK to your advisor from time to time?
Maybe I'm not a typical internet user, but as a former worker for hatewatch.org I'm not at all surprised by this. If you've got the money then you can find somebody who'll do ANYTHING that you ask. The world can be a nasty place. Faking dissertations is only AA ball. Jack
I sent it to some NCU students... If you ever became famous -- it could be a cataclysmic meltdown, if word got out that you used such a service. Not that you'd ever become famous. I bookmarked the website.
Re: I sent it to some NCU students... Perhaps you've hit on it! Perhaps it's really a not-so-elaborate blackmail scheme. Once you've bought in you pay forever, and ever, and ever... Jack
Yes. For example, students at the University of Phoenix may pay for editing by this company: Language Online The reviewers are from southern Africa. It is not clear whether or not they will work with students other than those from UoP. (Not that you'd want to do so; they seem to specialize in UoP's requirements.) I found this using Google. I imagine there are others, but it might be difficult to discern which are truly editors and which are selling dissertation-writing.
At Wash State U, and I'm sure at other schools, there are volunteers who will give you help and editing assistance on your thesis/dissertations. While I don't think they would actually write it for you, (at least not openly, or for free) they will help you brainstorm for sbject matter, and give plenty of help on editing.
http://www.phd-dissertations.com/ These are "One-of-a-kind and never resold!". "A discount of 10% applies to orders of 75+ pages!" So, now we have dissertation mills to coincide with diploma mills. I knew, to a degree, that these types of operations were going on, but it seems readily apparent that the market is exploding.
A bad idea Even if such a service can adequately meet your dissertation needs, I believe that it is not a good idea to use the service because of the following reasons: 1. You may end up being frustrated because your adviser and committee will likely change the focus of your research several times before you complete your dissertation. 2. You will never be proud of “your” (someone else’s) dissertation. 3. You will certainly miss the most exciting experience of the doctoral study. 4. It’s fraudulent 5. Your crime is graver than plagiarism. Ike Okonkwo, PhD
How could you ever pass your oral defense? What if some examiner suggests a change or asks about the statistical method you used? You'd just about have to master the entire research project so thoroughly to defend it that you COULD have done it yourself. If I were a crook offering to write dissertations, I might take the money and produce either nothing or very little. After all, what could the student do to me? Sue me and announce to the world that he was cheated by his dissertation cheating service? There's not even a commercial reputation to protect; unlike even drug dealers, the dissertation mill does not expect repeat business even if they do a good job.
Nosborne48 writes: > If I were a crook offering to write dissertations, I might take > the money and produce either nothing or very little. And that, apparently, is pretty close to what the crooks are doing. "Unlike all of our dishonest competitors, we do not employ inexperienced students or unskilled, foreign laborers. [...] We have placed anonymous orders with each of our competitors, and EVERY order contained significant portions of plagiarized material. The general quality of the writing was, at best, sophomore-level." http://www.phd-dissertations.com/ "Unlike other services with no sense of academic integrity, we do not copy-and-paste from writings that are freely available on the Internet." http://www.phd-dissertations.com/questions.html
"We are concerned about your welfare, and feel obligated to warn you about the many scams that plague our industry. [...] There are literally hundreds of low-quality 'thesis' and 'dissertation' sites on the Internet. The majority of these sites are operated by amateur teenagers sitting behind a bedroom computer. The owners of these deceptive, copycat sites steal our ideas [...]. The simple fact is that anyone can create a 'pretty' Web site and fill that site with utter lies, empty promises [...]. These sites will promise you the world in order to secure your business, but once you submit payment, you are at their mercy. [...] If you ask them where they are located, they will either refuse to tell you or blatantly lie to you. (We, on the other hand, proudly advertise our address on our FAQ page.) [It's a P.O. box. ...] Unlike the countless, dishonest sites that are designed to defraud and deceive, PhD-Dissertations.com has been the Internet's #1 source for academic research assistance since 1998. There are no surprises, no secrets, no gimmicks, and absolutely no deception—only professionalism and honesty." http://www.phd-dissertations.com/warning.html
And look at their sample dissertation on Chocolate: http://www.phd-dissertations.com/sample.html Although it has headings such as "Hypotheses", "Design of the Study", and "Results and Findings", no experiment by the author is mentioned. The entire "dissertation" is a literature survey!
The service will be of little or no help to a PhD student who intends to conduct an experimental research in any of the pure sciences.
Dorothy Sayers once described Miss Climpson, her fictional elderly detective, as being one of those people who will tell you that she is NOT the sort of person who would read the back of someone else's post card, thus warning one and all that she is EXACTLY that sort of person. The disclaimer serves the same purpose as a rattlesnake's rattle...
1) Buying your dissertation is worse than buying a degree from a diploma mill because of its appearance of credibility from a RA school. 2) there is great risk in buying your dissertation because most schools have a requirement that you keep your research materials, including all articles, drafts, etc. for a minimum of five years so that if their is any question about your dissertation or your degree, those questions can be answered from the balance of your work. 3) How in the hell could you ever orally defend such a disseration? How could you ever get it past your chair or your committee? Buying a disseration like this forgets the real partnership and effort that exists between the chair and the student. It also fails to recognize all of the petty and not so petty changes that might be expected by the chair or the committee along the way.
