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I have the definite suspicion, that a fellow PhD student in my department hired someone else on a freelance cloud working platform to do his work. I saw him/her using the website of this platform several times and even found a very specific job posting. Despite the limited details in that posting, I'm 99 % sure that it is from him/her.

How should I behave? Should I confront him/her first, or should I directly go to his/her advisor? How to substantiate my suspicion and be 100 % sure? Should I fake-apply to that posting to get more details?

As asked in the comments: The suspicious job posting is about developing new research and is not related to editing or proof-reading etc. The posting offers several tens of thousands of dollars.

EDIT: I would like to thank you for the very good answers. You've all really helped me deal with this case. All the answers are somehow correct, but I accepted the answer that suggested to me, what I finally did. Our university has confidants/obmbudspersons for unethical academic practices to whom I have reported the suspicion.

GetsWorkDone
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    I am also waiting for more info on whether we are talking about, for instance, transcribing interviews, statistical consulting, paper editing, or something else. In any case, you should most definitely not start to investigate yourself. – xLeitix Sep 09 '17 at 13:40
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    Then my next question would be in what field you can expect PhD-level original research from a crowdsourcing service. Honestly, I would not be overly concerned of this scheme working out. – xLeitix Sep 09 '17 at 13:42
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    If it's just monkey work I would not worry about it. – Herman Toothrot Sep 09 '17 at 13:45
  • I added some detail above. @xLeitix I also do not expect PhD-level work to come from such a service. But his/her project involves developing a certain device and in my opinion he/she tries to hire someone doing this for him, or at least certain parts of it. I do not know wether this is okay or not, but I do not feel good, if he/she will spend this as his/her own work. – GetsWorkDone Sep 09 '17 at 13:53
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    "Should I fake-apply to that posting to get more details?" Definitely not. – Karl Sep 09 '17 at 14:24
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    I also do not expect PhD-level work to come from such a service. -- Then what's the problem? – Mad Jack Sep 09 '17 at 15:22
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    What I want to know, how Ph.D students do you know who can afford to pay "tens of thousands of dollars" to others to have their graduate work done for them? – Fixed Point Sep 09 '17 at 20:26
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    You can definitely hire out Ph.D.-level work, but that's probably not what you're truly concerned about in the first place. – Nat Sep 10 '17 at 03:50
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    @FixedPoint Wealthy families are often more-than-happy to make large donations to universities if it means getting their kid in or obtaining special consideration. For those folks, this'd likely seem like a high-yield investment. – Nat Sep 10 '17 at 03:57
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    @Fixed Point: In addition to family wealth, there are (at least in tech fields) people who return to school for advanced degrees after making significant amounts - as in don't need to work for a living any more - of money in industry. – jamesqf Sep 10 '17 at 04:12
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    @FixedPoint: there are plenty of rich people who want a PhD not do research but because it looks good on their resume and helps them advance in a political career etc. Often enough these hire out their PhD work... and sometimes get plagiarized works for their money (which is discovered to be so, much much later). It happened to some EU politicians... – the gods from engineering Sep 10 '17 at 05:59
  • If this would be the case and the supervisor doesn't know then something is seriously going wrong in that research group. The supervisor should notice something is off within weeks. –  Sep 10 '17 at 22:01
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    It might be the case that the situation is the other way round. Like, someone sent them a link saying "Check this out, this guy wants 99% exactly what you are doing anyway." Just one other option, before you assume too much too fast. – skymningen Sep 11 '17 at 07:48
  • @xLeitix Of course, also an attempt of gross plagiarism is misconduct. – henning Sep 12 '17 at 07:40
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    @xLeitix are you going to spend a year collecting and tagging images before you can even start any actual research, or would you get e.g. Mechanical Turk to do it for you? – OrangeDog Sep 12 '17 at 13:15
  • @xLeitix You are maybe a bit too optimistic of the skills of the reviewers. Quite good stuff can get refused and quite crappy stuff can get thru. =) – mathreadler Sep 13 '17 at 14:58
  • @OrangeDog I would very much suggest that you use MT for that, and that's completely ok. OP has clarified that he suspects that his colleague wants to outsource conducting the actual research to a crowd platform, and this is what triggered my comment that I would not be too concerned about this working out. – xLeitix Sep 14 '17 at 07:11
  • Also see Honest Services Fraud and the The full indictment charging actors, CEOs and others in a nationwide college admission scheme. –  Mar 17 '19 at 10:44

13 Answers13

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First of all, I'd like to express my opinion that none of us here have the moral authority to tell you what to do, and you should be suspicious of anyone telling you that you definitely should or should not do this or that. This situation is very serious and you are the one who will be living with the consequences of your actions, not us anonymous (or not) internet strangers.

Instead of telling you what to do, I thought it may be helpful to list the choices you have and each one's pros and cons. Here they are as I see them:

1. Continue to investigate by sending a fake application to the job posting.

Pros: through such an investigation you will be helping (if your suspicions prove correct) to expose a very serious ethical breach (bordering on a criminal offense of conspiring to commit fraud) by the student in question, and helping to rid your department, university, and the academic world of someone who clearly has no business being there.

Cons:

  • You will likely incur the wrath and hatred of the student you will be investigating (and possibly his family members, friends, and even other grad students in the program) later on when he finds out you were the one who sent the fake application that helped expose him.

  • You may very possibly be suspected of sending in a real application, which would implicate you in unethical behavior yourself and cause you to get in serious trouble. Make sure to document your activities in a way that clearly establishes your honorable intentions. Even then, you could end up being accused in some unexpected way of causing harm or even doing something illegal by your meddling.

  • By choosing such a high level of involvement in what sounds like a very messy affair, you may cause yourself a lot of wasted time and emotional entanglement later on (e.g., being debriefed or interviewed by university officials and administrative investigation committee, even having to testify in court some day).

The bottom line is that this course of action carries a significant amount of risk and potential for trouble for you.

2. Continue to investigate by asking the student about his activities as one of the answers suggests.

Pros: can't think of any. Someone so immoral would almost certainly just lie and you will gain no information.

Cons: by asking him what he's doing you will alert him to the fact that his current deception scheme is too easily detectable, making it likely that he will come up with a better, less transparent scheme, and ultimately helping him to defraud the university.

3. Do nothing, just ignore what the student is doing and mind your own business.

Pros: no work for you, no wasted time and emotional entanglement in a messy scandal, no colleagues who hate you for getting them expelled from school, etc.

Cons: you will have to live with the knowledge and potential guilt and shame associated with having known about the student's possible unethical and maybe illegal behavior and done nothing. The student will go on to fraudulently receive his PhD and your university'a reputation may suffer as a result. Your own degree may be worth a little less as a result. In a small but real way, all of society will suffer.

4. Report your suspicions to the chair of your department and/or the student's advisor and/or other appropriate university officials.

Pros: you don't become involved in the affair in a messy, major way, but will likely lead to the student being exposed if he is in fact guilty. You will also know that you did the morally right thing by reporting the student and won't have to live with the guilt and shame of having done nothing.

Cons:

  • you may still eventually become known as the person who helped expose the student (you can try an anonymous complaint if you want to keep yourself completely out of the story, but I think that will be less effective and would make it harder to prove the student's guilt), with the possible animosity and other negative consequences I described above. However, the level of animosity would likely be less great than in the scenario where you submit a fake application.

  • you won't get the satisfaction, excitement, and superhero feeling that you might get by becoming actively involved in the investigation and playing private detective as in the suggestion to submit a fake application.

To summarize, you probably want a recommendation about which action to choose, but as I said, I don't think it's right to offer one. You will have to make your own decision, but hopefully the analysis above may still be helpful. Good luck!

mattdm
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Dan Romik
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    Re #1, why would sending in a real application to do certain work, especially if it's in a field you have some expertise in, be considered unethical? The OP specifically states that since this is on-line, s/he does not know for sure that the job is posted by her fellow student. From what's in the question, it could equally well be the fellow student using that website because s/he is looking for work. – jamesqf Sep 09 '17 at 17:50
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    @jamesqf good point, but it depends on how the job posting is formulated - it might be obvious that it's a shady posting from someone who wants to have others do their academic work, even if it's not clear who posted it. In any case, the important thing is for OP not to act in a way that gives anyone the impression they are acting unethically. – Dan Romik Sep 09 '17 at 17:56
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    You will likely incur the wrath and hatred of the student...you were the one who sent the fake application that helped expose him. — So what? Why should anyone care what unethical people think of them? – JeffE Sep 09 '17 at 20:07
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    @JeffE: so what? That's up to OP to decide, but surely this effect deserves to be noted; some people don't like to be hated. Also the part of my quote you left out in your "..." is potentially more significant. There could be very real consequences for OP for "incurring the wrath and hatred" of others, and it would be foolish to ignore that possibility. – Dan Romik Sep 09 '17 at 20:14
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    If it were me, I would have added another con to the last option: there is a possibility that the student is not doing anything wrong, but the adviser may not be so careful and he/she may overreact and soon come to a conclusion that ruins the student's life. – polfosol Sep 10 '17 at 15:27
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    @polfosol thank you for the suggestion. The plausibility of this scenario depends on facts known to OP and not to us, and I suppose it's theoretically possible, but right now this seems to me like an exceedingly unlikely turn of events. Yes, there could be some unpleasantness initially (and I agree that's a "con"), but if the accused student is innocent I can't see a realistic scenario in which his innocence would not be established fairly quickly and easily. – Dan Romik Sep 10 '17 at 15:33
  • @JeffE: That's almost begging to be Godwin'ed. – Daniel R. Collins Sep 10 '17 at 17:21
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    All of your pros and cons are predicated on the assumption that the other student is, indeed, attempting fraud. Your answer would be much more balanced (and less likely to lead to disaster) if you included the pros and cons for each option if the OP turns out to be wrong about this. – 1006a Sep 11 '17 at 02:40
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    @1006a the imbalance in my answer reflects the imbalance in OP's beliefs, which seem to lean heavily in the direction of thinking the student is in fact trying to pay someone to do his thesis work. But yes, I agree the alternative scenario should be taken into account. In particular, OP should definitely leave room for doubt when relaying his suspicions about the student and not overstate his level of confidence, to minimize any fallout and to make it possible to clear the air later if it turns out the suspicion was unwarranted. – Dan Romik Sep 11 '17 at 05:13
  • You could weight such pros and cons in your answer, e.g. for scenario 1 Cons something like "In the [extremely?] unlikely event that the job listing was posted by someone completely unrelated to your classmate, you may be offered a job you don't want and have to find a way to wiggle out of it." – 1006a Sep 11 '17 at 14:33
  • @JeffE Last time I checked, unethical people can still be a major pain in the... neck... – corsiKa Sep 11 '17 at 15:03
  • @corsiKa : Be careful to make sure you know how to steer before you try to go for a ride... – mathreadler Sep 11 '17 at 20:15
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    @JeffE - Because after having ruined this guy's reputation, cost him his job and destroyed his life, he may just hold a grudge. And people with grudges and nothing to lose can get stabby. – Valorum Sep 11 '17 at 20:34
  • @mathreadler I'll keep that in mind. Mind cluing me in on the relevance to my statement because I think I missed it... – corsiKa Sep 11 '17 at 21:04
  • @JeffE Also worth noting that if this is a "plagiarised PhD" situation with a rich wannabe politician from a powerful family it's probably not a good idea to make an enemy of them - especially in certain countries... – mcottle Sep 12 '17 at 08:52
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    @DanRomik There is also the "con" that by letting somebody get a PhD they don't deserve and could not get without cheating, they go on to actually harm people or even kill them. In mathematics, engineering and computer science (all my fields, and I am a PhD) we deal with issues of life and death. Some of my work is used by the FAA in judging commercial aircraft safety; I've done CS work in pharmaceutical drug safety, a fellow PhD developed code for an embedded defibrillator. It depends on the PhD, but letting an incompetent fraud into some fields could cause real harm and real deaths. – Amadeus Sep 12 '17 at 17:31
  • @Amadeus very true. Not to mention the harm that a con man can cause when he gets into politics... – Dan Romik Sep 12 '17 at 19:09
  • @Amadeus I would tentatively suggest that every field, at some point, can deal with life and death, and someone with a PhD they don't deserve could very easily end up having to deal with that (due to perceived expertise), doing it improperly, and being responsible for some deaths. Sure, in some fields it's more likely than others, but to me, it's far more important to keep someone from potentially dying than it is to let an arrogant idiot stroke his ego with a degree he doesn't deserve. (Note: I'm assuming that OP's suspicions are correct in this comment.) –  Sep 12 '17 at 21:06
  • Could submitting the fake application (basically attempting to set up a "sting") be against the law anywhere? Or something the other student could sue over? Oh, maybe some risk of a defamation suit or something if the OP makes an accusation? Also some risk of uninvolved colleagues disliking the OP as a "snitch" regardless of the outcome. – jpmc26 Sep 13 '17 at 00:54
  • @QPaysTaxes Well, certainly more true in most sciences or health care (including mental health care). But a long stretch for me to see how a cheater's PhD in astronomy, art or history is going to cause a death. Well, maybe if that's their ticket to a command position in the military... – Amadeus Sep 13 '17 at 00:58
  • @Amadeus oh, absolutely it's more common in some fields. An astronomer might end up working at NASA on a manned mission (...maybe. Honestly, I know very little about astronomy). My point isn't that it's common in every discipline, just that there is a very real probability in every one that someone who doesn't know their shit could get someone killed. Heck, even bad research could do it -- we spent m(b?)illions proving no connection between vaccines and autism which could have been spent searching for cures of other things. One false, sensational study could do the same to another industry. –  Sep 13 '17 at 18:23
  • ...anyway, this is getting way too involved for comments. I'd be happy to keep chatting in, well, chat. (Maybe we should get a mod to see if the whole discussion should be moved there...) –  Sep 13 '17 at 18:24
  • @QPaysTaxes No need; I've got nothing to add. – Amadeus Sep 13 '17 at 18:40
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All universities have a Research, Grants, & Contracts office that is staffed with trained personnel to respond directly to reports of unethical / illegal conduct, and fraudulent or wasteful activities. Research facilities should have notices posted that explain how to contact them, including how to submit an anonymous report. You can also look up the contact information in your school's directory website.

That is the correct way to follow up. Doing anything yourself would only jeopardize or compromise their ability to conduct a legitimate investigation.

Matt
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    A thousand times this. You wouldn't investigate gunshots and screams outside your house. You bolt the door and call the police. Let the experts handle it so 1) you don't get hurt and 2) you don't contaminate the scene – corsiKa Sep 11 '17 at 21:06
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Assume good faith (while being aware that this is not always actually given).

If the job posting is indeed quite close to what that PhD student is doing, then sent an email to the student and their supervisor with a link to that posting. Just something brief, like "I just saw this posting, and it reminded me of your project. Maybe you want to check it out?". If the posting is not from the student, they might want to get in contact with the actual poster. You have helped.[1] If the posting is from the student, but is legitimate, then no harm is done. If the posting is an attempt by the student to pass off others work as their own, their supervisor will not be caught unaware, but you are not involving yourself in any drama directly[2].

If the posting itself does not relate to the project, and it is only in conjunction with you seeing the student using that website that you got suspicious, then the evidence is sufficiently weak that I would recommend forgetting about it. Trying to investigate is more likely to cause a mess that to improve the situation.

Footnote: [1] Contrary to what some of the commenters mentioned, I would not discount this case. I can perfectly well imagine a situation where the job posting itself is very similar to a PhD project, yet surrounding circumstances make the poster absolutely sure that it is not from the PhD student. Maybe some technology being developed by a PhD student is of interest to some start-up? "Write a short note to student and advisor." would be my recommendation, then, too. Thus, jumping to conclusions is avoidable for both sender and receiver (and should be avoided).

[2] Just to clarify: Of course there is significant risk that the student or others will blame you somehow. However, this is others involving you in the drama, rather than you jumping in head-first.

Arno
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    I agree with every part of this post -- especially the "assume good faith" part -- except for your assertion that ...you are not involving yourself in any drama directly. Your name is on that email -- at that point, you're involved no matter what, and I would fully expect that (in the worst case) that student could seek retribution. But it's still IMO the right thing to do, and the way you propose is probably the best way to do it. – tonysdg Sep 09 '17 at 18:59
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    The email you are suggesting is very transparently disingenuous. OP may as well write "I just saw this posting and I am pretty sure that [name of student] is trying to pay someone to do his thesis work for him. [name of adviser], maybe you want to check it out, and come talk to me for more details on why I am suspicious?" If you're going to send such an email, it's a bad idea to copy the student on it... – Dan Romik Sep 09 '17 at 19:12
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    If you send such an email to your advisor, prepare for them to ask you why you're cruising a website for freelance work. Don't you already have enough work of your own? – JeffE Sep 09 '17 at 20:05
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    CC'ing the adviser is basically an attack. I don't think a professor or a Ph.D. student will be dumb enough to assume innocent intentions on your part. You might as well come out and say it directly instead of beating around the bush. – user541686 Sep 09 '17 at 21:11
  • @tonysdg I'm not claiming that sending such an email will have no consequences for the OP. The stress in that sentence is on "directly", no promises for "indirectly". – Arno Sep 10 '17 at 08:05
  • @DanRomik Are you sure that your reading of such an email is not coloured by the allegations made by the OP? As said in the edit to my answer, such an email makes sense to me no matter what hypothesis on the originator of the job posting I have. – Arno Sep 10 '17 at 08:06
  • @Arno I'm not 100% sure, but pretty close. Anyway, I see where you're coming from, but in any case OP knows more of the details and can interpret this advice based on his/her actual situation. – Dan Romik Sep 10 '17 at 15:22
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tl;dr: Ask your own adviser.

Describe the situation (keep the person anonymous) and let your adviser suggest what to do.

If you care, make it a case to him that you think it will devalue your degree as well as the department's reputation to have the department award the same Ph.D. degree to someone who is not putting in an honest effort like you, especially if this later comes out as a scandal. This should make it clear that you don't view silence as an option, but that you also don't know how to proceed.

If you are sure he can't guess whom the student would be, bring examples of the work and the post online, showing their similarities and asking him to make a judgment.

If internal politics (e.g. between your adviser and his) might prevent your adviser from acting on this, then maybe go to another (ideally, tenured) faculty member in the department whom you trust.

In any case, what I would NOT do is to go to anyone in the student's reporting chain.
This could be seen as an attack on everyone below and may make things worse for yourself.

Community
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user541686
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Oh my goodness, I'm startled by the tone of so many of the responses here.

You have a duty to report what you've seen to the Graduate Chair or the Department Chair. Investigating is not your job but it is theirs.

Sort of Damocles
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  • I'm surprised this isn't the most upvoted response. It's succinct and really the only right answer, I think. +1. – MPW Sep 12 '17 at 21:41
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Just innocently ask him about it. If he's evasive or incoherent, you know there is something fishy going on, and you can tell him he's stupid, endangering his own, your profs and thereby also your reputation etc. If you find he still tries to afterwards, you can still turn him in.

Or you find what he's trying to outsource is totally legit, and that's it.

Karl
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First of all, make sure before you act on reporting potential academic dishonesty to some seniors whether the adviser or the departmental chair since the false accusations often create negative perception on the person who is accused, and it also creates distrust and disarray within the environment. Both are harmful to a research lab or group of colleagues.

I have witnessed similar situations where a friend or a colleague hired an undergrad or ms researcher, or used outside freelancer experts in small parts of a project to expedite the progress of the project. They resorted freelancer way when the job requires certain expertise that noone in the office has, or the job is some drudgery AND outsourced job does not violate the confidentiality if the project is funded by a private party.

Moreover, I believe a person who plans to commit academic dishonesty would not use office or school's network to do that. Or I would call that, excuse my language, a dumb move.

Instead of directly confronting and accusing him of whatever you think based on what you see on his computer's screen, I suggest just casually open the topic asking him whether he is doing freelance work or looking for a freelancer that you noticed while you had a glance at his computer. I think his behavior will give the answer whether he is hiding something or not.

Also, I like to point out that as an engineering PhD with many international students from different nations I noticed that the perception of plagiarism or academic dishonesty is different and mostly they have not faced or witnessed with a situation with harsh consequences such as being dismissed or expelled from the school. That's why sometimes they don't really think. Maybe the person is not aware of that he is committing academic dishonesty.

Remember, who starts up in anger sits down with a loss, so make sure of what's going on before taking actions.

kukushkin
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    "Maybe the person is not aware of that he is committing academic dishonesty" ... by offering to pay someone several tens of thousands of dollars to do their thesis work? Are you serious? – Dan Romik Sep 09 '17 at 23:12
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    @DanRomik Yes, I am serious. As I served in international student advocacy boards, and helped settle them down, and be a bridge between academic institutions and student to adapt to new environment, even if you don't believe, there is a difference of the definition of and what is considered as cheating, plagiarism, or academic dishonesty or misconduct across culture. And easy google with an easy case is here: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/05/24/cheating – kukushkin Sep 10 '17 at 01:22
  • @DanRomik I don't think the money sum has anything to do with it. Some people just are stupid. ... I got such two such "offers" in the past (as someone without any particular reason why I'm the target) Both times, the person had trouble understanding why I became pissed. Reaction summary: "But ... but ... everyone is doing it...?? whine". Yeah lol. – deviantfan Sep 10 '17 at 01:23
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Only proceed with your investigation if you understand how anonymity works in the Internet. Don't use your regular Internet connection, or an e-mail account that you have connected to using your regular Internet connection, at any point in this. Learn how to use Tor, or do everything using a public Internet connection which couldn't be traced back to you geographically. That is, don't just go to McDonald's next to the campus (or even worse, next to your house). If you have a chance, ask someone completely unrelated to your university to reformulate whatever messages you're planning to send in their own words, or use Google Translate to translate your own writing to a different language and back, then edit the result into a reasonable form while keeping as much structure and vocabulary as you can.

If you do obtain evidence, keep in mind that the plagiarism occurs only when the student actually submits their work for review or publication, so alert your institution only when (or if) it actually happens.

Dmitry Grigoryev
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I would suggest you to spend your time working on your PhD. A PhD is not a competition, and generally there is no need to look over your peer's shoulders for suspicious activity, nor is it your responsibility. As another answer puts it, assume good faith.

What you have here is a suspicion of academic dishonesty based on (what I hope) a chance and unintentional glimpse of their computer screen. Let us ask this hypothetical question: how would you feel if someone saw you browsing the same sites and suspected you of academic dishonesty? And what if they went to speak to your advisor or department head about it? Or if they started shadowing your web browsing or postings to find dirt on you?

The reason I give this answer is because suspicion is potentially harmful to the suspected individual and detrimental to the work environment. I've made these clarifications in light of the downvotes.

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    So if you see a crime happening (or reasonably expect a crime to be happening), you should just ignore it? – Muschkopp Sep 09 '17 at 14:23
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    ‘To be blunt, what does it matter to you?’ Firstly, if widespread fraud is tolerated for a qualification, that qualification becomes meaningless. A PhD demonstrates that you're able to do research in your chosen field, which is important for employers looking for researchers; if we let people buy PhDs, they become useless for this purpose. Secondly, some degrees qualify people for jobs with serious, real-world consequences. What did it matter that Gerald Shirtcliff faked his engineering degree? It mattered when he designed a building that collapsed, killing 115 people. – Pont Sep 09 '17 at 15:11
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    Downvoters are missing an important point; there is only the suspicion of academic dishonesty by one student of another. And what a jump of logic to go from a suspicion of plagiarism to "crime" to faking degrees and causing deaths. Are we to overlook the potential effects of wrongly suspecting someone based on suspicion alone? Frankly I find the behavior of the OP suspecting someone (not even from the same group I'm assuming) of fraud, watching his web browsing, and going so far as fake-applying a suspicious posting to be ridiculous. –  Sep 09 '17 at 16:17
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    “And what a jump of logic to go from a suspicion of plagiarism to "crime" to faking degrees…” Perhaps we have a misunderstanding as to the term ‘fake’. When I stated that Shirtcliff ‘faked his engineering degree’, I meant that he got someone else to do his Master’s for him, as is the suspected case here for a PhD. I’m not arguing for any verdict of guilt or innocence, or any course of action (which would merit an answer, not a comment). I’m just answering your question: “What does it matter?”. – Pont Sep 09 '17 at 17:10
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    He didn't fake-apply and it was rightfully pointet out in the comments that it would be a very bad idea to do so. Also, nobody is saying that the person should be expelled/convicted or anything based on suspicion of fraud, but to suggest to ignore a potential problem just because it does not (directly) affect the OP is (IMO) bad advice. – Muschkopp Sep 09 '17 at 17:30
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    "Downvoters are missing an important point; there is only the suspicion of academic dishonesty ..." Yeah, and it is only that suspicion that would get reported. What's your point? If people cannot act on suspicions, when should they act? Should the police not arrest people when they are suspected of crimes? Should airport security allow suspected terrorists on flights? Should workers not report a suspected embezzler because they could end up being wrong and suspicion is "detrimental to the work environment"? Your logic contradicts all known ways in which our society actually operates. – Dan Romik Sep 09 '17 at 23:25
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    @DanRomik In your analogy, people act on suspicions because of the imminent danger it may cause if unreported. Yes, if you believe a murder is being committed, then by all means report it. But again and again I see this particular academic example being equated to serious life-threatening crimes. This is simply not the case, and quite misguided. Nor is OP a "superhero" whose job is trying to crack down on academic crime. –  Sep 09 '17 at 23:39
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    -1 for implying that OP is not focused enough on his PhD work. Focus/concentration != myopia. – einpoklum Sep 10 '17 at 19:06
  • I agree with @Pont, but there are also other people who want a PhD not for professional reasons but as a status marker that will boost their career in some other area ( maybe marketing, politics, educational and motivational media figures ). People who are good maybe not at any particular field but at boosting other peoples morale and making the kids of tomorrow interested to pursue a career maybe culminating in a PhD in the future. – mathreadler Sep 11 '17 at 07:21
  • @Dan Romik : What I meant to convey was that some people are much better at inspiring others than they are at actually learning and doing and many people who are knowledgeable and skilled are rather crappy at inspiring and motivating others. – mathreadler Sep 11 '17 at 17:54
  • @mathreadler ok thanks, I'm sure that's true, but don't see what relevance it has for the current discussion. – Dan Romik Sep 11 '17 at 19:07
  • Not relevant to the question but relevant to helping get kids interested in science and engineering. – mathreadler Sep 11 '17 at 19:24
  • @DanRomik Also: the comparison to law enforcement is not really relevant as the police in general have no self interest in hiding generic crimes. A university or institution or research group where this could be reported to could well have an own interest to hide it away, as I am sure you understand if you have been working in academia for at least a few years. – mathreadler Sep 13 '17 at 14:47
  • @DanRomik : A better comparison would be what behaviour you would expect of a police department if complaints about one of their employees came in. You think it would be very independently and professionally handled? Probably not... – mathreadler Sep 13 '17 at 15:01
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Have you considered the possibility that the person is on the other side of the transaction... may be using the platform to try and make a little extra money helping others for example bachelors or masters students?

If you are indeed right then anyway there will be times in the PhD programme where (s)he will be required to present the work among peers : conferences, seminars, group meetings , collaboration seminars with other groups, the dissertation and possibly also half-time seminars.

(S)he should then be bustable on not being able to respond to questions or criticism about the work in the case that (s)he has not done it / and-or does not understand it.

mathreadler
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    Indeed, I already thought of that. But I think this is very unlikely because of the specific topic of the research project. – GetsWorkDone Sep 11 '17 at 07:53
  • @GetsWorkDone : Well then it should become obvious for anyone who who actually knows anything of the topic to ask a few well directed questions to him/her and see if (s)he knows what (s)he is talking about. If (s)he doesn't, well then that will reflect badly on the institution that supposedly would hand out that diploma. – mathreadler Sep 11 '17 at 07:59
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    You don't say it explicitly but it sounds like your advice is "do nothing, if he is guilty then he will fail anyway". Is that correct? – Dan Romik Sep 11 '17 at 17:46
  • No you are not correct. – mathreadler Sep 11 '17 at 17:53
  • @mathreadler have you also considered that the student before his presentations may study well what he needs to say, even if he was not the one who did the research? Dan seemed to ask you about your suggestion of what the OP could do. From your answer I cannot tell how you answer his question: "how should I behave". – Armfoot Sep 11 '17 at 18:44
  • @Armfoot : You mean he can foresee all possible questions and criticisms on the work if he does not even understand it? Seems quite unreasonable to me. Dan built a strawman out of what I wrote. I never wrote that he would "fail anyway". Just a few questions one on one on some details of the work should give you a hint if he knows what he's talking about. Of course I can't answer for whether the commitees or supervisors or other professors will do that on him or not. – mathreadler Sep 11 '17 at 18:52
  • @mathreadler if the poster is willing to pay tens of thousands, they could also be willing to pay a few more to be tutored in the same research, covering not all but several points that outsiders may ask with their own investigation into the research. My point is, if a one-on-one questioning is your suggestion, you may add this your answer. Details on how it could be properly done would be a plus. – Armfoot Sep 11 '17 at 19:40
  • @mathreadler I don't know what you mean about me building a straw man. I asked you a question, and you answered it, so thanks for the clarification (and sorry I misunderstood your intent). Building a straw man would mean me asserting that you said something that you didn't without bothering to ask for clarification. – Dan Romik Sep 11 '17 at 19:51
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    @DanRomik even after reading all the comments I still read the 'answer' as 'do nothing he will fail anyway'. In the comments it's suddenly about OP asking questions but in the answer itself it clearly talks about peers, conferences, seminars etc. So no strawman, just a reasonable question imho. – Stijn de Witt Sep 13 '17 at 09:17
  • @StijndeWitt I am claiming it will be possible for people who know the field well enough to detect the fraud if he is cheating. That does not say that the institutions in place or the people employed therein will have an interest to bust it which would be the meaning to claim it "would fail anyway"... – mathreadler Sep 13 '17 at 14:24
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Is what he is doing illegal or against any academic code at your institute?

I can't think of any code that prevents you from using other person's services unless you are doing plagiarism or being dishonest about the hours that you put in the work or what you actually did for research.

For example, you cannot have somebody else write a paper and put your name on it without you actually being involved in the research, but there is nothing wrong with having someone doing some experiments for you, and create a table of results under your supervision. Specially when this is related to repetitive manual work. Isn't that what post-docs or senior PhD's do all the time? Or isn't this what automation with a computer script do in many situations?

Unless you know for a fact that what he is doing is illegal, I would say it is none of your business.

Also, as others mentioned, even what he is doing is illegal, unless I was in charge, I would not start investigating it myself, but I would just report it to someone who actually is in charge.

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  • Any PhD dissertation is supposed to be the original work of the candidate; the dissertation as a whole is an "original contribution to the field". Any work in the PhD that is somebody else's work must be credited to the other person; it is then up to the committee to decide if using somebody else's work invalidates the "original contribution" requirement. If somebody else does work for the candidate, including grunt work like coding or categorizing samples or does some artwork, they must be credited. Proofreading for spelling/grammar/English does not have to be credited (at my univ anyway). – Amadeus Sep 12 '17 at 17:41
  • @Amadeus: Then he is violating the rules only if he doesn't credit that person at the end, not during. Many research projects hire interns, undergrad students etc to do some work for them. I don't see the difference here. I agree that he must credit them though if that is clearly mentioned in the rules (and it is also ethical to do so). But I would suggest to the OP not to unnecessarily fall into the nosiness trap. – Ari Sep 12 '17 at 17:49
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Tough one.

If you're right, it's dishonest, though you are then up against the problem that the advisor may not want to admit that this is going on in their group. Say anything and you may not make yourself very popular.

In fairness to yourself, this needs to be as anonymous as possible - as far as advisors are concerned. If you do anything, talk to the department chair. Most will not want this kind of academic dishonesty in their department, you certainly should not investigate yourself since it's the department's responsibility, and taking you away from your responsibilities.

Talking to the chair is far less likely to result in a nasty situation, since his advisor will have no idea if it was a student or some member of the office staff that found it.

camelccc
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  • Yep neither advisor nor institution or university or financer is likely to want to admit that happening so the naive interpretation of my response that they would be "failed" just because skilled individuals will see through them is plain... well... naiive. – mathreadler Sep 13 '17 at 14:38
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Besides Dan Romik's suggestions, which provide good details into the consequences of all actions that were raised in the question, I would also consider another approach:

  1. Instead of fake-applying to the suspicious job posting, contact the freelancer's website and explain the situation.

    Pros: with the information you provide:

    1. The website's team may consider that the job posting goes against their policies and remove it from their website.
    2. An opportunity may arise to know further details of the person who posted it in subsequent replies, e.g. they try to confirm the relation you are trying to establish (with this feedback information the suspicion may be more easily cleared out).
    3. You may remain anonymous.

    Cons:

    1. The website's team may ignore your information.
    2. Part of the information you gave may be sent to the poster in order to explain the conflict, which may lead to the poster knowing more about you.
    3. If the website considers and removes that post and if it was indeed your colleague, it may not stop him from posting in other websites (perhaps in a more obscure way).

A personal note, think carefully of what information you may disclose to anyone without having the chance to be related to you or, in the end, affecting you personally. If the poster is willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for that research, they may also be willing to generously pay others in order to keep "disturbances" out of the scope...

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  • If I were to run a freelancing website, I'd avoid doing anything that had even a remote change of getting me sued for disclosure of personal information. And in case of a backfire, keeping the OP's identity secret would not be my priority. And I certainly wouldn't remove a posting which earns me money (assuming the site gets a fee) without sufficient proof. – Dmitry Grigoryev Sep 12 '17 at 13:42
  • @DmitryGrigoryev valid points. I am not experienced in solving legal conflicts, but I presume that if the posting is proven to be related to a research that is developed by an university which holds some rights to it, the website may decide to avoid the risk of profiting with something that may end up being illegal. – Armfoot Sep 12 '17 at 14:15
  • @DmitryGrigoryev A privacy policy example: "We will disclose information about you to ... private parties as we believe ... appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including but not limited to subpoenas), at the request of ... third parties conducting an investigation, to protect the property and rights of ... a third party, ... or to prevent activity we may consider to be ... illegal, fraudulent, unethical or legally actionable activity" I needed to cut parts since I couldn't paste all of it in this comment. – Armfoot Sep 12 '17 at 14:17
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    Judging by the amount of homework related offers that can be found in some freelancing webs, preventing cheating doesn't seem to be among the site managers priorities. – Pere Sep 12 '17 at 16:53
  • @Pere homework cheating may be indeed impossible to prevent by freelancer websites, but a PhD thesis is far from being simple homework and may be seen as far more important to the interested party (i.e. university teachers, researchers and the community that will later review it and have a reputation to maintain). – Armfoot Sep 12 '17 at 18:07
  • @Armfoot So, unless the OP works in law enforcement or is entitled to legally represent their university, their chances of getting any personal information of that user are pretty slim. – Dmitry Grigoryev Sep 12 '17 at 19:18
  • @DmitryGrigoryev I assume it depends on how the website operates, i.e. ethically and morally. If you got information from a neighbor telling you that a guy sits in front of your door selling all kinds of stuff while you are out, even if that guy left a 5$ bill at your door each time he was there, you would probably want to know more about that guy... Your neighbor doesn't need to work in law enforcement or represent the neighborhood to tell you this, and the chances that you will do something about it are pretty high... – Armfoot Sep 13 '17 at 10:56