Academic Groups Demand Resignation of Education Minister Nominee Over Plagiarism Allegations

A coalition of 11 academic and professor organizations, known as the 'National Verification Committee of the Academic Community,' has concluded that Lee Jin-sook, the nominee for Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, has violated research ethics in her published papers. This coalition has called for her resignation. Previously, Lee defended her work in documents submitted to the National Assembly, asserting that there were no issues with her papers, but the verification committee countered that the problems are 'serious.'

On July 14, the committee held a public report meeting to present findings from their investigation into Lee's papers, which began on July 4. The committee, which includes members from the National Union of Democratic Professors and the University Policy Association, previously identified four papers, including the doctoral thesis of Kim Geon-hee, the spouse of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, as plagiarized. They stated that the implications of Lee's alleged plagiarism are far more significant than those surrounding Kim Geon-hee, urging Lee to resign for the sake of restoring integrity in education and ensuring the success of the Lee Jae-myung administration.

The committee examined 150 of Lee's papers and found research ethics violations in 16 of them, particularly highlighting serious plagiarism issues. In academia, a plagiarism rate above 20% raises suspicions, and Lee's papers reportedly exhibit plagiarism rates as high as 50%. For instance, a paper co-authored by Lee and two of her students, published in the Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea in 2009, was found to have a 52% similarity to a thesis submitted by one of her students just a month prior. This paper included identical sentences and even grammatical errors from the student’s thesis, sparking controversy.

Additionally, two papers submitted to the Korean Color Association in 2005 and 2006 showed plagiarism rates of 35% and 40%, respectively. The committee noted that while Lee was at Chungnam National University, she published eight papers summarizing her students' master's and doctoral theses without proper citation, with six of these showing plagiarism rates exceeding 20%. They emphasized that a plagiarism rate above 10% is unacceptable for journal submissions, asserting that the content was indeed plagiarized due to the similarities in flow, methodology, and results.

The committee warned that ignoring Lee's plagiarism would lead to double standards in academic evaluations and noted that past education ministers embroiled in plagiarism controversies have resigned voluntarily. They also criticized Lee for listing herself as the first author on papers that closely resembled her students' theses, calling it a severe breach of research ethics. Lee had claimed that her student’s thesis was part of a national research project for which she was responsible, asserting her significant contribution as the first author. However, the committee argued that if a thesis advisor is considered the actual author, it implies that the student did not write the thesis, rendering them an unqualified degree holder.

The committee analyzed two papers accused of duplicate publication, concluding that they shared identical research content, environment, evaluation methods, and nearly the same conclusions. These papers were submitted by Lee to the Korean Color Association and the Korean Society of Lighting and Electrical Installation in 2018. While Lee's team argued that the papers had different results and implications, the committee maintained that they were nearly identical.

In response to the committee's findings, the Ministry of Education's personnel preparation team stated that the allegations of improper authorship and duplicate publication could be sufficiently clarified through statements from the Architectural Association and the Color Association. They distributed these statements to the press, with the recipient being Kim Young-ho, the chair of the National Assembly's Education Committee. The Architectural Association affirmed that their journal employs a rigorous blind review process, and Lee's papers underwent this process thoroughly. The Korean Color Association also stated that after reviewing Lee's two papers, they found it difficult to classify them as duplicate publications.