Last updated: 23 September 2026
Ethics Statement: ScholarLabz offers research mentorship and guidance only. Authors remain the sole owners of their work. We build research skills, strictly within COPE ethical guidelines.
Why this policy exists
A PhD is awarded for work a scholar has done themselves. Any service that writes on a scholar's behalf puts their degree, their publications and their reputation at risk. This policy sets out exactly where our help starts and stops, so there is never any doubt.
What we do
- Mentor you 1-on-1 on research that you design and write.
- Teach research methods, statistical tools and academic writing.
- Review your drafts and give you specific, actionable feedback.
- Guide journal selection and help you plan responses to reviewers.
- Run mock viva sessions and presentation practice.
- Keep every file and conversation confidential.
What we never do
- Write or ghostwrite theses, dissertations, papers, chapters or abstracts.
- Manipulate plagiarism scores or AI-detection results, or advise anyone on how to do so.
- Fabricate, alter or supply research data or results.
- Claim authorship, request co-authorship, or accept it if offered on work we merely mentored.
- Guarantee publication, acceptance or a degree.
- Recommend predatory or paid-to-publish journals.
- Contact a university, supervisor, examiner or journal on a scholar's behalf, or in their name.
Alignment with COPE
Our practice follows the principles set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) on authorship, contributorship and the use of third-party services. ScholarLabz is not a journal or publisher and is not a COPE member; we align our conduct with COPE's published guidance for authors and editors.
Authorship
Authorship belongs to those who make a substantial intellectual contribution to the research, who approve the final version and who can be held accountable for it. A mentor who teaches a method or reviews a draft does not meet that bar, which is why we decline authorship on your work.
Artificial intelligence
We teach scholars how to use AI tools responsibly: literature discovery, summarising material you have read, checking grammar and rehearsing viva questions. We do not support using AI to generate research text presented as your own, to invent citations, data or results, or to evade detection tools. AI tools cannot be authors, and any AI assistance must be declared where your university or journal requires it.
Plagiarism and originality
We help you understand originality, paraphrasing and citation, and we will point out passages that read as unattributed. We do not run "rewriting" services designed to defeat similarity checks.
Confidentiality
Your drafts, data and ideas stay between you and your mentor. We never reuse a scholar's research, share it with other scholars, or publish anything from it.
When we say no
We decline requests to write content for submission, to complete assignments, to supply data, to guarantee outcomes or to act in a scholar's name. If a request crosses that line mid-engagement, we stop the work and explain why.
Raising a concern
If you believe a ScholarLabz mentor has acted against this policy, write to [email protected]. We investigate every report and respond within 14 days.