paper mill

paper mill (plural paper mills)

1. A factory devoted to making paper from wood pulp and other ingredients.
2. An organization that unethically sells pre-written papers to students.

   Synonym: essay mill

   • 2010, Rosemarie Menager, Lyn Paulos, Quick Coach Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism, →ISBN, page 13:

     Similarly, buying papers from paper mills, or paying for someone else to write a paper, is obviously dishonest and is a clear example of plagiarizing.

3. An organization that produces large volumes of poor-quality or forged research papers.

   Coordinate term: content mill

   • 2023 May 31, Layal Liverpool, “AI intensifies fight against ‘paper mills’ that churn out fake research”, in Nature‎, →DOI:

     Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are complicating publishers’ efforts to tackle the growing problem of paper mills — companies that produce fake scientific papers to order.

• (organization churning out low-quality or fake academic work): accreditation mill, diploma mill, ordination mill