College courses often require a heavy workload in terms of academic writing and research papers. Because many students are often pursuing their education while working full or part-time jobs, it puts a lot of stress on student performance. Unfortunately, one of the latest trends in academic writing is purchasing a pre-written paper from an internet source.
Plagiarism or Profiteering?
There is a huge market for well written academic papers readily available online. Current students request assistance from prior graduates or industry peers by way of offering to purchase their writing services to complete the student’s coursework. The student relays the requirements for the paper, and a deadline is agreed upon. Payment for the services is exchanged, and the student submits the final product to meet course requirements.
There is a great debate about whether the exchange and final submission is the equivalent of plagiarism. Many students simply see it is a business transaction, as they purchased the work rather than stole it. However, professors view this approach to course completion as cheating. The student has not done the work nor have they learned the material. The student has relied on someone else’s work to complete the course successfully. The long-term problem deals with the growing competition and stress that students will continue to deal with as they finish their schooling. Limited scholarship spots, increased the need for employment and financial help, and a lack of teacher presence will create an environment where students feel that taking any help available, and by whatever means, is completely acceptable. This is one major obstacle to achieving scholarly literature in higher education.
Model Resources
Finding academic information and resources usually comes by the way of the college library. Academic journals are often difficult to access, let alone be accepted for publishing, because of the profit that is taken from school subscriptions and the academic elite. Journals that attempt to make research more readily available are like Bentham Science. The specific focus of their article publications is to reach the biomedical, engineering, and pharmaceutical communities. There has been some debate concerning Bentham Science predatory practices. The complaint has been raised that the publication has moved from providing open access to requiring steep fees for publication, profiting from those who desire to earn a reputation as a published author.
The resources that are available through the university library will include scholarly materials that can be used for your assignments. Some of the problems relating to access is that students aren’t familiar with how to use the library or how to narrow down the scope of the search. Too often students rely on their Google query skills to produce results, yet the categories of information in scholarly literature is often more complex. Many university libraries are staffed with librarians whose sole job is to help students find the information they need. By relying on these resources, the student can offer a scholarly project backed by the academic materials found in the library.
Importance of Scholarly Literature
The body of literature that is amassed and labeled as credible is considered the most scholarly sources. These are designed to be of the highest quality. Publishing only occurs after a vigorous vetting process. Research journals and resources are designed to inform the academic communities within each field or discipline for both theory and practice. Without resources that are valid, the actions and assumptions made as a result of the research can cause harm, jeopardize progress, and destroy valid solutions. By training college students early on in their educational journey of the importance of credible resources, the preservation of quality research will continue. Enforcing quality and consistency with publications for the purpose of advancing scientific and theoretical information also helps establish the reliability of research materials.