79 All rights are reserved by UIJRT.COM. United International Journal for Research & Technology Volume 05, Issue 10, 2024 | Open Access | ISSN: 2582-6832 College Students’ Awareness and Perception Regarding the Propagation of Research Paper for Sale John Ritchie V. Reyes 1 , Selvam M. Toralde 2 , Cyron J. Mendoza 3 , and Roel John P. Entroliso 4 1 Department of Education Abstract— Research is a crucial subject yet challenging to do. It tests the student s’ perseverance to do an enormous task while developing their critical, writing, strategic, and public speaking skills. With additional errands to do, some might get overwhelmed. Hence, there are individuals or groups who offer to help them making their research in exchange for money. This study aimed to know how aware the college students and to get their stand about this issue. The study employed mixed method to analyze the collected data from an online survey. It was found out that most of the respondents knew this “research paper for sale” since they were in senior high school. They got their information from social media, schoolmates, classmates, friends, teachers, and others. Despite that, the majority of these college students did not intend to buy a research paper; but there were some who admitted that the idea crossed their mind. Almost all of the respondents were against it because it impairs the academic integrity and educational system. Nevertheless, there were few respondents who saw it as a money generating job for those who do it. Keywords— academic integrity, college students, educational system, research, research paper for sale INTRODUCTION Research is an organized way of discovering new ideas which can lead to the development of a society (Islam, 2023); hence, it is given much importance especially in schools and universities. It stimulates the learners to their professional growth and self-reliance (Gupta, 2022). In the Philippines, this subject is taught as early as Grade 10 in English subject. This continues in senior high school as it offers Practical Research 1 and 2, and Inquiries, Investigation, and Immersion. Universities and colleges teach both qualitative and quantitative research before students make their own theses. Despite these exposures, students are still struggling in this area. According to the study conducted by Briz, et al. (2022), lack of interest and knowledge to the subject, teacher- related factor, learning references, English proficiency, and sample’s accessibility hinder the students in research. The result of the study of Pangket (2023) revealed a surprising result in which even graduate students grapple in making research in terms of forming research ideas, problems, and writing related literature. On top of it, students also juggle many school tasks which make them tremendously busy. Consequently, a business venture has arisen that caters to those who need someone to write a research paper for them. According to an article made by Delos Reyes (2024), there are multiple social media pages offering a thesis or a dissertation to whoever needs it that costs about Php 20,000.00 – Php 40,000.00. This happening was also observed by the researchers that there are indeed individuals or groups who sell research paper through online. Moreover, by searching in Google, a person can scroll many websites rendering the same service that guarantees its quality and affordability. They promise that these are made by experts who can meet the deadlines and the requirements for the paper. In addition, one of the researchers is a teacher who overheard his student joking about paying someone to make a research paper for Php 3,000.00. He got concerned and asked the student where he got that notion. He replied that there were some who knew that already. Schools serve also as a moral compass of the students and teach them to adhere to right principles. They educate them about academic integrity. According to Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (2021), members of the school community are expected to be honest, trustworthy, fair, respectful, and responsible. This includes aspects of research such as the avoidance of plagiarism, data fabrication, and falsification. Plagiarism is defined by the University of Oxford (n.d.) as presenting someone’s concept and owning it without the proper citation of the original author. Based on National Science Foundation’s policy (45 CFR 689), as cited by Kroll (2020), data fabrication is manufacturing data with the intent of propagating it; while data falsification is presenting inaccurate information by altering, adding, or deleting some data. To abstain from these research misconducts, universities