In China, paper mills have become a new shortcut for graduate students to enter higher education. An intermediary claims, “If your budget is sufficient, we can have your article published in a Q1 journal.” Q1 refers to the top 25% of academic publications.
This year, a record 12.22 million university graduates in China have entered a sluggish job market. More and more young people are delaying job hunting and opting to further their education to enhance their future competitiveness.
Twenty-one-year-old Chinese student, Mr. Huang, who completed his studies in Australia, plans to continue his education overseas. He signed a contract with a Beijing intermediary agency that promised to assist him in publishing a research paper in a top academic journal after a three-month online professional training.
For this service, he paid nearly 20,000 yuan (2800 USD).
Mr. Huang believes that a high-quality paper can help him stand out among the many graduate applicants.
In an interview with the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, he said, “I think it would be best to have some additional academic knowledge and a solid paper as a template for future applications.”
Thesis guidance and publication services, commonly known as paper mills, are part of the rapidly growing education consulting industry in China. Some institutions promise to assist students in improving their postgraduate course or overseas school application materials.
One agency targeting Chinese overseas students advertised on social media, offering a full-service cycle from topic planning, research design, paper writing and layout optimization, to submission follow-up, review response, and index inclusion.
“Whether you are a current student preparing to pursue a master’s or doctoral degree, a research scientist facing professional title assessments, or a workplace elite needing to enhance international academic influence, this project will support your success on the global engineering and technology stage with professional technical support and intimate stewardship services,” the ad read.
In response to this demand, some training institutions have introduced new services promising to help customers complete independent learning and publish in academic journals through themed courses, lectures, and one-on-one guidance. The higher the impact factor of the target journal, the higher the fee.
An employee surnamed Qiu at a thesis guidance and publication institution in Shenzhen revealed that the total fee for humanities counseling and paper publication exceeds 50,000 yuan, with higher fees in the STEM field.
Her team handles about 80 clients at a time.
“We have orders almost every day throughout the year. During the peak summer period, we receive up to five new clients a day,” she said.
“If your budget is sufficient, we can have your article published in a Q1 journal,” she added.
Mr. Huang said that after attending a counseling session, he found the course content to be “superficial and irrelevant to the research topic.”
“The instructor just reads some vague theories off the slides. I am very dissatisfied with the teaching quality. Considering the teaching method and post-class assignments, you can see how poor the quality of the final paper would be,” he said.
As a result, he withdrew from the three-month course in the third week and received a partial refund.
“I don’t want to waste time, nor do I want this paper to become a burden in my academic applications,” he added.
Xiong Bingqi, director of the Beijing-based 21st Century Education Research Institute, said the rise of these thesis guidance institutions reflects a result-oriented mindset in Chinese society.
He believes that very few undergraduate students truly possess research capabilities.
“These educational institutions cater to this demand, treating research as a business, which further distorts the original purpose of research,” he said.
Additionally, intense competition in China’s education system has led parents and students to seek various “shortcuts.”
“They engage in research out of a desire to directly pursue postgraduate studies, rather than a genuine passion for academia,” Xiong Bingqi said.