Free access to scholarly databases for writers? And some other questions.

Having never worked for a large essay writing site, I am curious if most sites provide their writers with free access to scholarly journal databases that they subscribe to on their dime?

Also, I was wondering how the grade guarantees work?....seems like students could easily take advantage of writers.

Also, while there seems to be an underlying debate as to which sites are credible and which aren't, can't we all agree that the more writers the site has, the greater chance that an unfortunate situation will occur. I mean, academic writing is hard work and some of the deadline requests are unrealistic. Plus, if you factor in the absence of face-to-face accountability, which works both ways, then that's always going to increase the overall risk. It seems like most of us work in the industry, which does creates a bias, but the fact people are taking an active interest in their reputation leads me to believe that one of two things is going on.

1. There are more writers than prospective clients (honestly not my case...in fact, I am interested in contracting a good writer to handle my overflow).

2. There is more to this forum than the title suggests...maybe it was created as a way to respond to site bashing

Not really sure why there is so much commotion on here. If people truly want to help out others, they should be able to recommend their own services, or at least explain them, or point them in the write direction. Prospective clients should have the wherewithal to prod suggestions with their own questions. Anyhow, just the thoughts of someone passing through.

Maybe it's worth letting everyone know which site you represent, or otherwise.

As far as I know writers use their own tools (including subscriptions to online databases) and companies usually don't provide anything extra.


That is true. ALL sites have at least one unsatisfied client (in reality many more than one ;).

The problem is most 'business owners' have multiple websites (sometimes as many as 200 or more) and many hired 'promoters.' If they were to 'recommend their own services' the site would become garbage.

Exactly.

sometimes the customer supplies a username and password, which gives access to university websites with EBSCO, Lexis-Nexis, etc. I have never received access directly from an employer-- those databases charge a lot.

braiden992
If we're allowed to recommend our services, this forum will become a free-for-all. Everyone of us will go about promoting ourselves at the expense of other companies/writers. Besides (speaking as both a company owner and writer), how would we maintain objectivity? Where both my company and my own research/writing skills are concerned, I am very subjective. Should I (or anybody connected to the company) be asked about our quality of service? No - at best, we will be `selectively' truthful. Should customers be asked and allowed to post recommendations? No, if only because it is extremely easy for site owners/managers to pose as satisfied customers.

As Major wrote above.

I work with several large sites and none of them give us access to academic databases, way too expensive. Try to get athens access from your clients.


yeah. it gives clients the upper hand. they can have us rewriting over and over till admin steps in.

How can I reach sources and other materials for academic research?

I can't complete tons and tons of orders because they require sources. Usually required books are not available for free. Many people say that there are free online libraries. But I want big ones.

I don't think saying a library will be an advertisement, i really need help.

hmmm

This depends on a number of factors.
If you are dealing directly with the client. Ask for their university's online library access. If the online library can not be accessed remotely, ask your client to search and send you the needed information.

You could by Questia. Its membership is for 100USD a year (the last time I checked).
There is NetLibrary. It is paid.
if you are into this business then it is good to invest some on getting access to libraries.

You could use google books. (free)
And there are plenty of sources you could find for free such as online articles at b-net, websites of specific organizations (companies, government, NGOs).

I use questia and its good. I usually find about 10% of the sources there. If I use 8-10 sources in a paper, it is very likely that one of them would be from questia.

50% sources would come from Google.
I also ask my clients for access to their university's online library.
Text books and Google help a lot.
I recommend keeping a good text book of the relevant subject as well.

Happy Writing

was it useful? :S

Having worked for numerous essay writing companies over the past 30 years, I have had various experiences with a few of them who actually try to help the writers by acquiring accounts at places like Questia and JSTOR.

The only problem I had with their accounts was that it wasn't really helpful to the writers. Only one writer at a time could access the site because the company did not purchase multiple accounts. In some instances, we had to contact the point person for the scholarly site, tell him what books or references we needed, then we had to wait for him to get the book, upload it to a specific access site, and only then, could the writer use the article, journal, or whatever. Due to the time consuming method of scholarly journal access, I decided to skip the website sponsored access and just get my own accounts at the same websites. Since the access to the sites were plagued with problems and complaints, the websites eventually decided to end the practice of site sponsored scholarly journal articles.

During the infancy of the academic writing business, the academic outsourcing companies would subscribe to online libraries and journals (in their most primitive state) and then allow their writers to check out one book at a time. This was all done through the company writer interface and took forever to accomplish. These were the days when the company paid for the access and allowed the writers to use it for free. Times have changed and now, either the writing company does not provide any e-library sources to their writers or, when they do, the company charges the writer a premium price of $30 a month, to be deducted from their monthly earnings, for the privilege of accessing the e-libraries through the company interface.

There is no such thing as free access for the writers. The companies have seen the need for access to accredited information as another way to make money for the company and take money from the writers in a seemingly "legal" manner since they have had to hold back on applying penalties due to the lack of orders these companies tend to experience these days. Their reason for the high price? "We don't know if you are writing for other companies and will be using our facilities to complete your others for competitor companies." Sheesh!

This is why I tell my writers, I will not pay for access to these online libraries and journals for you. Source your information your own way. That way you have the freedom to use your memberships any way you want, without any supervision from my company. When it comes to sources, my writers are on their own.

Yeah, there is. You can have completely free access to all of the journals in the world, with no limitations. You just have to look, and it doesn't even require a university/library card. I found it online and has done wonders for me, I offloaded nearly $150 per month in fees and memberships. Academic work should never be paid for, since the authors don't get paid to write it. I understand that money has to be made, but if they charge $30 per article read, then they should pay the writer at least 20% of every reading. Until they do, I opt to circumvent paid journals.

I am not sure if you know this as well, but most 'one search' (software used by universities to allow easier access to journals) are publically accessible. All you have to do is take the DOI number of the journal under more details and paste it on that magic site of yours.

Of course students have access to free scholarly databases. They can access it anytime they want during the time that they are working on a specific order. All they need to be able to access that database is the online library url for the school of the client, the client's username, and the password to be able to enter the site. One caveat though, if the IP scanner of the university notices an out of state or out of country url, it could lock up the system and trigger an inquiry into the student's activities, which could lead to the discovery that he hired a writing service. No worries though, using a VPN can help delay the search of the actual IP in a manner that will allow the writer to get the information he needs and then log out of the system before he is found out.