Dubious or decisive? Digging deeper into the unchartered path of academic ghostwriting

Purpose The aim of this paper is to investigate the journey of academic professors who have engaged in ghostwriting. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts qualitative exploratory methods to investigate the ghostwriters' journey into academic ghostwriting. To achieve the goal, the authors interviewed academic ghostwriters, who were working for a diploma mill company, specifically focused on PhD thesis writing in the NIS setting. Findings This study revealed several interesting insights from ghostwriter perspective such as the origins and motivation of ghostwriters, ghostwriters life, ghostwriters' careers and impediments faced by them. Originality/value Given the dispersed and sensitive nature of the topic, this is one of the few studies to investigate ghostwriting and offer implications.