Plagiarism hits SNU head candidates
By Kang Shin-who
Staff reporter
Seoul National University (SNU) held its presidential election Monday and Oh Yeon-chun, 59, of the administration studies department was selected as the primary winner beating out two other hopefuls.
However, it could be a long path Oh has to tread before taking head office as he has to clear himself of self-plagiarism allegations. Prof. Oh is currently suspected of having reused 11 research papers, which were once published in other journals or publications, without attributing their previous use.
He has agreed to ``sincerely participate in the investigation by our school committee.''
Oh is not the only one suspected of having violated research ethics among the three presidential candidates, which has tarnished presidential election of the university. Another candidate, Sung Nak-in of the law department is also suspected of having reused 10 research papers in other publications without proper attribution, and receiving research funds inappropriately.
Although the SNU presidential election committee was aware of the allegations against the candidates, it gave the go-ahead on the election process. Asked by The Korea Times for the reason, Lee Jun-kyu, head of the committee, said, ``We didn't have time to check (ethical problems with) the candidates. The truth-finding committee will decide whether the incoming president contravened academic ethics or not.''
Many of the school faculty are critical about the committee's lukewarm attitude to the allegations. ``The (election) committee should discuss ethical problems of the candidates before voting. Who will be responsible for the waste of time, if the selected person has to resign if the allegations turn out to be true?'' said a professor of natural science at SNU.
An enrolled student, who is also a member of the student council, blasted the election committee, saying it should have screened the presidential candidates properly, before accepting their candidacy.''
Oh, and runner-up Oh Se-jung of the physical science department will be recommended by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to President Lee Myung-bak, who will select one of the two as the 25th head of the school. There have been no cases of the second-placed candidate taking office since 1991. If Oh is selected, he will head the school from July 20 and become the first chairman of the school, which is scheduled to be incorporated.
Korea has often seen figures who stepped down after being nominated for a high government post or university president, due to plagiarism scandals. Recently, the newly-elected president of Ajoue University withdrew after ethical questions were raised.
These irregularities have become common in the academic circle as many colleges and universities have introduced incentive systems for those who produce more research papers. In some cases, professors just translate their own published and copyrighted works in Korean into English and reuse them in international publications.