Yes, I saw the study when it was first published. I think I even tweeted about it.

It’s hard to know how to respond to your comment. The paper is very interesting, but draws upon a different set of sources to ones I would have considered essential background. This is not just all of my work, but that of other academic integrity researchers who have looked at the business models behind contract cheating providers.

With that said, our two sets of pricing data are not comparing like-with-like. If I understand your study correctly, this is looking much more at ghostwriting of published research papers, which I would expect to carry a premium over student work. I haven’t directly conducted research in that area.

The challenge with pricing is that advertised rates on large contract cheating provider websites (often referred to as essay mills) are usually just starting points for discussion. There are a lot of discounts available. As soon as a student gives their email or engages with a chatbot, they’ll be offered a sizeable discount. The figures I tend to refer to are generally those students obtain going directly to a writer, through small ads, using micro-outsourcing, putting their request to tender on agency sites, social media advertising and the like. Not all students will do this, but some will. I imagine that similar discounts exist for research paper writing as well.

AI is a game changer for academic integrity for dishonest students, and, I suspect, for dishonest researchers as well. The impact this has on the contract cheating industry will be interesting. Maybe the billions will go OpenAI instead?

AI is majing the game !better’ for dishonest cheaters and the honest looking to survey the discipline quickly.