Nothing But Publishing: The Effect of Paid Service in Academic Publishing for Graduates With Weak Academic Ability

Abstract

Paid services in academic publishing provide easy access to those graduates with weak academic ability. This essay aims at investigating the underlying causes of paid services in academic publishing and their effects. The main data were obtained from semi-structured interviews and were quantitative analysed. A group of 76 graduates who were believed to ne of weak academic ability were invited to the interview. The results show that graduates benefit from paid services, making graduation, promotion and further education possible. Because core journals cannot accept their low-quality essays, they have to ask help from literary agents at a high cost which is the result of lacking regulations on illegal ways of charging. A published paper was all that graduates needed to succeed and such an irrational requirement expedited the wild development of irresponsible literary agents. Marketisation of academic journals adds false value to the graduates. The university should review its assessment system and reduce paid services in academic publishing at the root.