Google has been paying academics to write about Google.

And no one seems to mention this in their research papers.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Google has been willing to pay thousands to various members of the academic community to write papers on the business interests of the company. Google seeks out these researchers sometimes, or vice versa, and proposes the paper, then funds the individual--all while the academic seemingly forgets to mention this hazy ethical middle ground in their finished work. Around 100 papers have developed and been published through this funding.

The Journal caught up with one such professor:


"University of Illinois law professor Paul Heald pitched an idea on copyrights he thought would be useful to Google, and he received $18,830 to fund the work. The paper, published in 2012, didn’t mention his sponsor. "Oh, wow. No, I didn’t. That’s really bad," he said in an interview. "That’s purely oversight." The money didn’t influence his work, Mr. Heald said, and Google issued no conditions: “They said, ‘If you take this $20,000 and open up a doughnut shop with it — we’ll never give you any more money — but that’s fine.'"


"Oh, wow. No, I didn't. That's really bad."

Nah, professor, it's not really bad. Bad implies there could be good as an alternative.

This is just unethical.

This is just shady.