Dubious or decisive? Digging deeper into the unchartered path of academic ghostwriting
Journal of Organizational Change Management
ISSN: 0953-4814
Article publication date: 13 September 2021
Issue publication date: 24 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to investigate the journey of academic professors who have engaged in ghostwriting.
Design/methodology/approach
This 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.
Findings
This 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/value
Given the dispersed and sensitive nature of the topic, this is one of the few studies to investigate ghostwriting and offer implications.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors like to thank the Editor in Chief, and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. The authors also like to thank the EMIB (Emerging Markets International Business Group) member Dr. Anne Marie Zwerg from Universidad de la Sabana, Columbia for connecting us to get into the project of Academic Ghostwriting. Finally, the authors wish to personally thank the members of the “Reviewer 2 Must be Stopped” Facebook group, who have offered valuable suggestions and comments in finishing up this paper.
Citation
Svirina, A. and Anand, A. (2022), "Dubious or decisive? Digging deeper into the unchartered path of academic ghostwriting", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 38-58. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-12-2020-0398
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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