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A message very similar to the following was sent to a member who joined in order to offer a gh*st-writing service that clearly targeted undergraduate students in the USA (where class essays are often described as 'research papers').

After sending this message, the member was immediately banned from our network.

Gh*st-writing services are not invited to join the Research Cooperative. Our purpose is to support serious scholars who are able to take full responsibility for their own original research, at the graduate level and above.

Dear Sir,

I apologise for not making the purposes of the Research Cooperative more clear, but mediation for 'c*stom research paper' writing services is not one of our purposes, regardless of whether the writing is for undergraduate class papers for academic research publication.

The fact that you have provided quite sensible writing advice in our proof-reading forum also suggests that you have not grasped the intentions of our site, or that you wish to promote your own commercial interests, despite the unsuitability of our site for this.

The Research Cooperative is orientated towards supporting serious researchers (and graduate research students), editors, translators and others who wish to develop their own skills without the use of unacknowledged gh*st writers, and who are honestly able to take full responsibility for what they have written.

There is a role for the delegation of tasks in society, but personally, I believe this should be done with full transparency. I have a similar view of steroids in sports: by all means let us have a Steroid Olympics, if it is not lethal to the participants, but let it be advertised as such! If teachers would like to grade students on their ability to find, negotiate, and pay for professional gh*st writers, then by all means let them (and the students) do so.

As founder and administrator of the Research Cooperative, I must ban your current membership.

If you or any of your colleagues would like to join the Cooperative to offer academically acceptable, above-board services to genuine, responsible scholars, I would welcome your participation.

Yours sincerely, [Admin.]

**** Addendum 15th Jan. 2013 ****

Another example was provided today by a member who apparently represents an essay-writing company in the UK. To an offer made via blogvertisement in our network I replied:

<A representative of the above-mentioned company has stated: "All our essays are original work, checked by the latest plagiarism tracking software used by the top universities so the exam boards and universities won't detect anything wrong," said Matthew Wilson, the managing director of Essaywriter.co.uk. [The Telegraph 23 November 2005]

This suggests that exam boards might see something wrong if their students are not the authors of the essays they claim to be writing.

Mr Wilson attacks one wrong with another wrong:

"Many of our customers are international students who have difficulty with coursework because universities are recruiting sub-standard students who have problems with English in order to get 10,000 a year in fees and then don't support them," he said.

Further exploitation of customers he regards as "sub-standard" does not make the practice a right. Two wrongs do not make a right, but they probably do make a profit.

What would be right is if the universities dealt with the problem by giving students the support they need to achieve as much as they can -- as authors of their own work.

The essay writers Mr Wilson directs should be employed by universities as tutors, after vetting and selection by the teachers, not by desperate students.>

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