KU Setting Research Ethics Guidelines

In the midst of Korea University’s ongoing plagiarism controversy involving school president Lee Phil-sang, the university had decided to create guidelines regarding research ethics, including plagiarism.

Korea University announced on December 29 that, "We are in the process of creating a book of regulations regarding research ethics such as plagiarism and embezzlement of research funds. This book will be completed by March, when the winter vacations ends, and will be distributed in August."

Korea University enacted faculty ethics regulations and principles last March, and following the recent stream of plagiarism controversy, began working on providing standards regarding research ethics in July of this year.

Korea University put together a task force of six professors from various academic fields including the Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Engineering, by accepting recommendations for two professors each from the Professor`s Association, Faculty Ethics Committee, and the Office of Academic Affairs.

Chairman Kim Byeong-ho of the Faculty Ethics Committee said, "We are planning on collecting cases and related regulations from domestic academic societies and international universities and adapting them to create regulations that are appropriate for the situation in Korea. After collecting the opinions of professors in a public hearing we are planning to hold later on, we will officially announce the regulations and use them as the standard for plagiarism controversies."

Although the Ministry of Science and Technology has provided guidelines to ensure research ethics and authority, this is the first time for an individual university to create specific guidelines regarding plagiarism that are to be applied widely in all academic fields.

Head Park Jong-min of the task force said, "We will specify the types, definition, and range of plagiarism in order to provide specific standards that will help judge whether a case is plagiarism or not. The guidelines will also include copyright issues, citation methods of other articles, and examples of specific acts of plagiarism."