This is the rule the whole platform rests on.
The principle
Researchor facilitates research support. It does not facilitate academic misconduct.
The difference is not the subject or the difficulty. It is whether the output is submitted by someone as their own work when it is not, or whether it misrepresents the research record.
A statistician who runs an analysis and explains the method is providing research support. The same statistician writing a dissertation chapter for a student to submit under their own name is participating in misconduct. Same skill, different use.
Allowed
Research consultation · Literature review support · Data and statistical analysis · Methodology consultation · Research design · Questionnaire development · Data cleaning · Data visualisation · Systematic review and meta-analysis support · Editing and proofreading · Referencing · Research training · Manuscript preparation support · Proposal consultation.
Prohibited
Academic cheating · Sitting or completing exams for someone · Completing assignments intended for direct submission as the requester's own work · Fabricating data, participants or results · Falsifying results · Fabricating references · Plagiarism · Manipulating findings · Buying or selling authorship · Misrepresenting qualifications · Anything breaching institutional, funder, publisher or ethics-committee rules.
If you are unsure
Read the Academic Guidelines, which work through concrete examples of requests that are fine and requests that are not. Ask us before posting if it is still unclear. Asking is free; a closed account is not.
Consequences
Breach can mean removal of the work, reversal of payment, and permanent closure of the accounts involved. See the Academic Integrity Policy.