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renata101
Community Member

It's Academic Silly Season Again -- Got a Favourite Story to Share?

It's almost December, and seasonal invitations to do other people's homework are starting to flood in! I think it's a great time to share stories and swap tips on how to spot school assignments when someone sends you one. 

Got a favourite story to share?

 

One of the red flags that showed up for me this morning was a cllient's reticence to actually send me the "academic article" I was being asked to "edit." I had to ask at least three times, each time emphasizing that I couldn't discuss a contract or confirm a budget without first seeing the document.   

3 REPLIES 3
kinector
Community Member

Renata,

 

Winter is coming, brace yourselves. 🙂

 

One related story here.

 

I've had a couple of requests from Ph.D. students who eventually, after LOOOONG discussions when they finally understand by academic background (which is explained in the profile in enough detail I'm sure), end up basically asking me to:

- design the experiment

- build the research tool

- help running the experiment (or even better if I could conduct it on my own)

- analyze all results

- draft a science paper

- iterate the science paper toward the submittable version

- support in publishing

- help in editing the related chapter of the thesis

 

Budget: $1,000 or something. 😉

 

This has not happened only once but several times.

 

And once I got the same request from the same person about 1 year after the first one! That one was hilarious... The person had already forgotten whom all were asked in the first round. And of course, the starting point for the project was exactly the same as last year. As you might have guessed, haha. 😄


Mikko R wrote:

 

This has not happened only once but several times.

 

And once I got the same request from the same person about 1 year after the first one! That one was hilarious... The person had already forgotten whom all were asked in the first round. And of course, the starting point for the project was exactly the same as last year. As you might have guessed, haha. 😄


Hi Mikko, 

The budgets are ridiculous, but at least the stories are priceless. Smiley Very Happy 

I don't know if I should feel bad. The one from yesterday only seemed to be offering me $50, but he wasn't expecting me to design or build anything. You seem to be attracting a higher caliber of academic fraud than I am. Smiley Sad

The ones that I find really disturbing are the postings for nursing, architecture and aeronautic engineering homework. Presumably these people are in school so they can land better jobs. 

I once had one (not on Upwork) who had not read my profile and who sent me a copy of a degree from an Australian university, and asked me to change the name on the document to his. He told me it was above board because the (presumed) holder of the degree had been paid.  

 

What I did goes without saying ... 

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