Academic Integrity Policy

Last updated

Good work belongs to the person who did it. This policy covers every part of Pen of Wonder: Marketing, Writing, Research, Publishing and Dev. It sets out what we do, what we don’t, and why.

The short version

  • Academic work lives only in our Research team. It is offered as coaching, editing for researchers and publication support, where the client writes the work.
  • We don’t write or edit academic or assessed work. That applies to Writing, Marketing, Publishing and Dev without exception.
  • We teach students. We don’t do their work. Students write their own assignments and dissertations and run their own analysis.
  • Your institution’s rules come first. If a university or journal rule says no, the answer is no.

Which part of Pen of Wonder does what

Research offers publication support and editing to researchers preparing manuscripts for journals, freelance editing to editing firms and research teams, and coaching and tutoring to postgraduate students. The rules below for students and researchers apply to all of it.

Writing writes and edits CVs, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles, grant applications, business plans, proposals and other professional documents. We don’t write or edit academic or assessed work. For research support, see our Research team.

Marketing, Publishing and Dev sell no academic work of any kind. Publishing’s editing and ghostwriting services are for books, not for anything submitted for a grade or a degree.

Students

Our Research team offers dissertation coaching and SPSS and NVivo tutoring to postgraduate students.

We do:

  • teach and explain research methods, statistics and software;
  • check your understanding with questions and practice exercises;
  • give feedback on drafts you have written, where your university allows it.

We don’t:

  • write assignments, dissertations, proposals or any part of them for you;
  • run analysis for you to submit as your own;
  • rewrite, paraphrase or edit your work so it can be handed in;
  • sit exams, tests or quizzes, or help during them;
  • offer proofreading or editing to students.

In England, it is a criminal offence to provide, or to advertise, a service that completes all or part of an assignment for a student in a way that could not reasonably be considered the student’s own work (Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, sections 26 to 28). We follow that law for every student, wherever they study.

Some universities limit the feedback anyone other than your supervisor can give on a draft. Check your handbook before we start, and tell us what it says. If your university does not allow a kind of help, we won’t give it.

Researchers

For researchers preparing manuscripts for journals, we edit, check reporting and analysis, and help with journal choice, submission and responses to reviewers.

  • You remain the author and approve every change. Edits come as tracked changes with comments, so you can see and decide on each one.
  • Where a journal asks authors to acknowledge writing or editing support, we’ll help you word the acknowledgement.
  • We don’t add authorship, invent or alter data, fabricate references, or help anyone submit work that isn’t theirs.
  • We don’t name clients or share manuscripts.

AI tools

We follow your university’s or journal’s policy on AI tools. If we use an AI tool for anything on your work, we’ll tell you what for. We don’t offer “humanising”, AI-detector checks or any service meant to hide how a piece of work was produced.

Work we turn down

We decline any request that would break a university’s or journal’s rules, including requests to write or complete assessed work, to sit an assessment, or to disguise authorship. That holds whichever part of Pen of Wonder the request reaches. If we’re unsure whether something is allowed, we’ll ask you to check with your supervisor or the journal first.

Questions

If you’re a student, supervisor or editor and you have a question about how we work, contact us. We’re happy to explain.