FAQ

Each order that we receive is wholly unique to the client. For this reason there is a wide variation both in the fees charged and the corresponding amount we are able to pay our writers per order. Fees and payments are fixed according to word-count, academic level, grade requirements, and turnaround time, and can range from as little as £15 for a short proofreading job to well in excess of £1,500 for a longer research and writing assignment. The amount you earn will therefore depend entirely upon the nature and number of the projects you undertake, and whether you work for us on a full-time or part-time basis.

Platinum Research has three principal goals.

Firstly, we aim to provide high-quality, individually customised learning resources for students in order to help them to realise their academic potential. By providing model academic essays, along with subject-specific advice and critical feedback, we aim to provide the kind of expert supervision and guidance that universities all too often fail to provide for their students.

Secondly, at a time when talented university graduates all too often find themselves having to take jobs for which they are vastly overqualified, we aim to provide employment opportunities whereby such individuals can make the most of their academic qualifications.

Finally, by providing a responsible, affordable and high quality service that truly delivers on its promises, we also hope to discredit prevalent media stereotypes which tar each and every research and writing company with the same brush.

If you want to learn more about the ethics of the services we provide, please click here.

The work we have available predominately involves academic writing, proofreading, editing, and marking, and includes essays, reports, dissertations, proposals, statistical analyses, personal statements, and coursework. We are also occasionally contracted to provide research papers for non-governmental organisations, charities and businesses.

If you wish to join Platinum Research you will need to fill in the online application form, which can be found on the Platinum Research website here . Once received, we will assess your application to see if you would be a suitable candidate. We may give you a call for a quick chat as part of the process, so be sure to include the correct telephone number. If you are applying to be a quality assessor or proofreader, you still have to complete the same form.

Once we have received all of your information it typically takes approximately forty-eight hours for a decision to be made (though in peak season this may take a little longer). We will need to see evidence of your qualifications, your ID, proof of your address, and examples of your academic writing. Please make sure you have all of these items ready before applying. If you are successful, we will activate your login account and you will receive an email from us welcoming you to Platinum Research and providing further information about how to proceed.

Whenever you log in to the system you will be able to see all of the work that is available. In most cases you will also be told how much you would receive for completing the work.* If you would like to take on a particular project you simply click ‘Add interest’ at the top of the page, which informs us that you would like to be considered for that particular piece or project. If you add interest, this means that you are happy with ALL of the details relating to that order, including the fee, the delivery date, the standard ordered, and the word-count. If you need a little more information about any particular project then please give us a call and we will do all we can to advise you. Once you have added interest (or ‘made a bid’) this is registered in our project database.

At a suitable time each day (usually between 6.00 p.m. and 10.00 p.m.), our office team goes through the process of assessing each order and selecting the best available writers to be assigned. Since we typically have more than one writer adding interest to any given job, we have to make decisions based on a variety of factors. However, we always try to be as fair as possible. We have to make sure that most suitable writer is assigned, which means taking into account the level of the order, the writers’ qualifications and experience, as well as their past performance on previous projects (including quality and adherence to deadlines) where relevant. It is very important to remember that you are not to start working on the brief until you receive an email which states that you have been selected. Simply adding interest does not mean that you have automatically been assigned the work.

*Some work requires a quote as we are unable to value it by word-count (e.g. an order without a specified word-count, or a statistical analysis). In such cases you would also add your quote when adding interest. We will then be able to see all writers’ quotes and continue the selection process as we do with priced orders.

Absolutely not. No work will ever be made obligatory without you having first added your interest (i.e. made a bid for the project: see 6 above) and accepted the job. The only work that will be assigned to you is work that you have added interest to. If you add interest this indicates to us that you are happy to accept the work if assigned and that you are able to meet the standard, the word-count, and (very importantly) the delivery date. It also means that you are happy with the fee which has been added to the work. The only exception to the latter is where you have been asked to provide a quote. In these instances, if you add a quote to a piece of work and it is assigned to you, we will pay you the amount quoted. However, we do ask that you only add interest to work which you are sure you can complete. If you are unsure of anything, it might be worth making a quick call to the office before adding interest.

Generally speaking, no. As we guarantee that work will be completed by a suitable expert, work to which you are assigned would generally remain within your own are of specialisation, and at or below the level to which you are qualified.

If you write for Platinum Research you do so as a freelance researcher. This means that you must declare your earnings by completing a self-assessment tax return each year. As such, you would not be an employee of Thoughtbridge Consulting Ltd but rather a self-employed freelancer.

We will send details of all available work directly to your email inbox. This email will contain all the details about the brief, including the word-count, the standard required (i.e., 2:1, 2:2 etc.,), the deadline, and the fee. This enables you to quickly survey each brief and then decide whether or not you wish to log in and add interest. The benefit of a smartphone is that this can be done anywhere and at anytime. We may occasionally send you an email directly if we feel that you are especially well-suited for a particular piece of work. For especially urgent pieces we may decide to call you by phone. Whenever you want to be considered for a piece of work, simply log in to the system and add your interest.

Whenever you are selected for a project we will immediately notify you via email. It is also advisable to log in to the system as regularly as possible to ensure that nothing is missed. If an order has been paid for it will say ‘Immediate Start’ next to it; these jobs are likely to be assigned very quickly. Where it says ‘Awaiting Client Payment’, on the other hand, it may be a few days until it is assigned (in such cases the deadline will be put back once the order is assigned). If the brief is cancelled or assigned to another writer, you will receive an email letting you know. The average turnaround for an order is five days, but may be as soon as the next day, or even eighteen hours, so please always make sure that you are happy to accept the deadline terms before adding interest. The best way to keep on top of job orders is to keep logging in to the system and checking your emails regularly.

Once you have received the email informing you that you have been assigned to a job, it is crucial that you confirm acceptance of the work ASAP by following the link in the email (see below).

When you are sent an email informing you that you have been assigned to a project, you will find a link within the email. You need to click that link in order to notify us that you accept the work ASAP. This is a very important part of the process as it automatically updates our database, thereby letting us know that you have received the email and have started the work. If after receiving this you realise that you can no longer complete the brief, you must call the office immediately and send a message to us at project@platinumresearch.co.uk. Please do not ignore the confirmation request. If we are not aware of your inability to complete the brief we will not be able to re-assign the work. We do not accept email confirmation requests being ignored. If you ignore the email and fail to submit the work, this is likely to result in termination of your contract with Platinum Research.

This is really simple. For each project to which you are assigned there will be an online job board that only you and our consultants in the office can log in to. This enables you to upload and download files and leave messages for the attention of our consultants, and vice versa. Once you are ready to submit the final draft you simply navigate to the top of the screen and click ‘Finish’. You will then be able to attach the file(s) and leave any accompanying messages for the attention of the consultants or Quality Assurance (QA) department.

Since each order is different, and each piece of work must go through certain necessary stages prior to delivery, it is crucial that you pay close attention to exact delivery times. For example, a five-day order from the client would need to be completed within three to four days by the writer so that Quality Assurance (QA) have time to perform all the necessary checks and ensure that any problems are resolved before the work is sent on to the client. Similarly, a seven-day order would require a five or six day delivery from the writer, and a three-day order approximately two days. If your work contains spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors, we may also need to forward the work to one of our proofreaders. Since we guarantee that work is delivered to clients on time or they receive a full refund, it is absolutely crucial that you deliver the work by the time stated on the job board.

Generally speaking, we expect work to be delivered by 1.00 p.m. on the day of the deadline. However, sometimes we may ask for work to be delivered by 11.00 p.m., and at others by 10.00 a.m. This all depends upon the specificities of the orders and the clients’ requests. The best advice, therefore, is to always keep a close eye on all your projects and the times shown in your control panel. Some orders will have very short deadlines, such as the next day. This would mean that work would have to be delivered to us in the morning to allow for QA checks. Again, make sure you are aware of the deadlines. For deadlines with a very short turnaround we may also call you before we assign the work to make sure you are able to meet all the criteria by the deadline. It is worth remembering that the quicker the work is required, the higher is the fee for the writer.

Quite simply: work must not be submitted late. We are tightly constrained by a specific set of deadlines to allow proofreaders and quality assessors to be able to complete their job before the client receives their work. In most cases there is little or no scope for negotiating deadlines once an order has been placed. If you see an order you are interested in but are not sure you can submit the work in time, please DO NOT bid. If you think you could complete an order with a little extra time, let us know and we will speak to the client and find out if this is feasible.

We offer clients a guarantee which states that their work will be delivered on time or they are entitled to a full refund. If at any point you think that you will need more time, you must let us know immediately. We may be able to speak to the client and arrange a short extension. If this procedure is not followed you risk losing part or all of your fee for the work.

Since most of our clients are students, the amount of work that is available can vary at different times of the year (the summer typically being the period during which we receive the fewest orders). However, the frequency with which you will be assigned to projects will also depend on such factors as your adherence to deadlines, the quality of work you submit, how easy you are to contact, and your willingness to help clients with amendments. When you are assigned your first piece of work, we ask for it twenty-four hours earlier than a regular writer. This is so that if the work is not completed to an acceptable standard we can either work with you to resolve the issue or else find another researcher to complete it instead. We always aim to be as fair as possible, but it must be emphasised that poor performance will not go unnoticed.

The number of orders to which you are assigned will depend upon both your academic background and your ability to successfully complete high quality projects to strict deadlines. Assuming that there are sufficiently many orders for which you will be suitably qualified, the number of projects to which you will be assigned will depend upon such factors as the quality of the work you submit, your track record in meeting deadlines, your willingness to help the client, and the extent to which you are able to access the most relevant academic sources. You will typically start with smaller pieces and slowly work your way up towards larger pieces over time. This allows you and the team at Platinum Research to get to know one another and develop a constructive working relationship. We treat our writers with the same level of respect that we expect to receive in return. Our top (and highest earning) researchers and writers have a deep understanding of their areas of specialisation, are able to cite the most relevant and up-to-date journal articles and other sources, are available at all times (via email and phone), and work with us to make sure all that all Platinum Research clients leave feeling happy with their orders – and more importantly, that they come back again!

Platinum Research does have a handful of writers who work for us on a full-time basis. However, the majority of writers work on a part-time basis alongside other source of employment, to supplement their income from their principal job, or because they have to work around childcare commitments (the great thing about being part-time and freelance is that you can work when the children are in bed!). Given that the vast majority of our clients are students, there are of course some periods that are much busier than others. Thus, while there may be months during which you have so much work that you could classify yourself as working for us full time, you may also find periods when there is very little for you to do. The type of writing we do is most definitely seasonal and reliance upon a seasonal market for your sole source of income may not be advisable.

The vast majority of our clients are students, from school (GCSE) and college (A Level) through to undergraduate (BSc/BA) and postgraduate (MA/MSc/MBA and PhD) level. We also occasionally provide research papers and documents for NGOs, charities, and businesses.

Simply put: the best you can produce. Minimally, the work you submit must meet the level that the client has ordered (e.g. undergraduate 2.1, MSc merit, etc.). You must also rigorously adhere to the word-count, writing no less than 1% under and 10% over (e.g., 2,000-word briefs must be between 1,980 words and 2,200 words). If the client has specified any further criteria, these must be strictly adhered to. Each piece must also referenced following the requested citation style (e.g., Harvard, APA, Chicago, etc.). Likewise, if the client has requested that specific sources be used, these must be cited and critically discussed. All such points will be checked by Quality Assurance before the work is sent to the client, so if they are not adhered to, the work will be returned to you to be amended. If you submit work with great content but consistently poor grammar and spelling mistakes, you will be subject to a proofreading fee. Your work must also always be free of plagiarism. This is something we take very seriously. All work is scanned before it is released to the client and if there are similarities you will be asked to amend the work as soon as possible. You must write each and every brief from scratch, and this includes NOT reusing material from similar briefs you may have completed in the past.

So long as you strictly follow the guidelines set out within the brief, we would not expect clients to come back to us with any complaints. However, we are all human and we do receive amendment requests from time to time. If amendments are required, you will receive an email and all the details will be added to the brief on the job board. If amendments are required to fulfil the requirements of the client’s initial order, these are mandatory. This means that if you decide not to complete them, we will assign another writer to do it and their fee will be deducted from yours. On the other hand, if the requested changes fall outside the remit of the original brief, you are entitled to request an additional fee.

Once we have paid you for the work, Platinum Research owns the copyright. Once the work is sold to the client, the copyright thereby passes on to them. However, we make it clear to clients that the essays we provide are to be used as model answers only, and that in no case are they to simply submit it as their own work (for further details see here. ). If for any reason the work is published online (e.g. because an essay is purchased using a stolen credit card ) we will always be happy to credit the author should he or she request that we do so.

The great news is that we calculate your invoice on your behalf each and every month. This means that there will be no need for you to try to remember everything you have done and make up invoices yourself. On the last Friday of each month, we work out what has been signed off by that point, create the invoice and make the payment. In the vast majority of cases, this payment will go through the same day. The invoicing month runs from ten days prior to the last Friday of the month, to the following ten days prior to the next month. This is to allow all complications or issues to be addressed before the job is classed as complete. This means that in order to be paid in one particular month, the job would need to be closed ten days prior to the payment date. Details can be found with the payments section of your control panel. Throughout the month we send emails asking you to simply check that the amount sent to accounts for authorisation is correct. We do this to make sure everything is as it should be, and it also allows time for you to let us know of any problems. Payment is made directly into your bank (BACS) or via PayPal. Make sure you choose the best option for you. Remember that PayPal charge commission, so will you will lose some of your pay through their system.

Simply navigate to the ‘View Profile’ section of your online account. We have two options for payment: BACS and PayPal. Which one you use is down to personal preference. There is also a checkbox for you to choose your first and second choice. This enables you to switch from one to another in cases in which (for example) you go on holiday and would prefer to be paid via PayPal on that occasion. Just make sure that you update us if you change your regular method of payment. Please also note that if you are paid via PayPal they will deduct a percentage as part of their own fee system.

Without a shadow of a doubt. Platinum Research is part of Thoughtbridge Consulting Ltd, registered in England and Wales at Companies House under Company No. 8589154. Our Registered Office address is Turner House, 9–10 Mill Lane, Alton, Hants, GU34 2QG. The services we provide are entirely legitimate, legal, and above board. We simply provide expert academic research and editing services. If a client were to purchase work from us and then claim that work as their own (by e.g. putting it on a webpage or publishing it), that would be plagiarism and we would be in a position to take further action.

If you want to learn more about the ethics of the services we provide, please click here.

All of the representatives within our sales team adhere to a strict set of regulations regarding how to handle clients whom they suspect may be planning to submit the work we provide as their own. Quite simply, such individuals will be refused access to our services. All of the work we provide is there to help individuals to increase their understanding of a subject and acquire the skills they need for composing better academic essays. Unfortunately, we cannot say for certain that none of our clients will try to pass off the work as their own. However, in this regard we run the same risk as any organisation that makes its written work available to others. Just as the threat of plagiarism does not prevent organisations from publishing books, journals, pamphlets and magazines, or individuals from writing blogs or publishing essays online, so we will not allow it to dissuade us from continuing to provide first-rate academic services to the honest majority of our clients who use them responsibly.

If you want to learn more about the ethics of the services we provide, please click here.

As long as you have regular access to your email and maybe your mobile phone (though this is not compulsory: we understand how much roaming charges can be), then yes, this is fine. The modern world allows writers to work from a variety of locations, as most of the time an internet connection provides them with access to all the information they need. If you are travelling (e.g. will be on a twelve-hour flight when amendments may come in), please do let us know as soon as possible. Likewise, if you are not going to be contactable for a long period of time, we would prefer it that you let us know in advance so that we can plan things around your schedule.

If you are jetting off to get some sun please do let us know a good two weeks in advance if possible, and preferably a month if you can. This allows us to make sure that work is signed off before you go if you are not planning to work while you are away. We will also know not to waste time trying to contact you during that period should work come in for which we believe you to be suited.

Yes, this is absolutely fine and to be encouraged.

If you are a current researcher or a potential writer looking to work for us, the Platinum Research team are ready to answer any of your queries. If you have any questions, concerns or worries, please do get in touch. If you are a current researcher, please email project@platinumresearch.co.uk If you are a potential writer please email info@platinumresearch.co.uk. If you would rather speak to us by phone please call the office on 0203 011 1980.

It’s really simple to apply to be a freelancer with Platinum Research. Just fill in our online application form here