[Editorial] Other Schools Need Research Supervisory Committees

Seoul National University (SNU) has decided to establish a permanent supervisory committee on truth in research, as a result of the falsifications of professor Hwang Woo Suk and his team of researchers. It will be established in early March and begin operating in April. It is a welcome development because it means the Korean academic community will be taking a good look at itself.

The shock of fictional Science article was considerable. Frankly, one thinks, "Who would've known this is what Korean scholarship is made of?" Objectively speaking, responsibility should not be placed entirely with Hwang and collaborators. SNU is not entirely free from blame. Even of more concern is that the country could see the spread of doubts about how much of what other scholars are doing is really worthwhile. There have been many accusations of plagiarism at Korea's universities, but in most cases there are never any sure answers. That is why universities besides SNU should not look at the situation as if it is a fire on the far side of the river. They need to see the affair as a crisis of confidence for the whole of Korean scholarship and set similar supervisory committees in motion.

What supervisory committees need to be particularly good at is protecting whistleblowers. In the case of Hwang's team of researchers there were many involved and so the secret was able to stay hidden for a long period of time, but in ordinary cases of data fabrication or plagiarism that is not the case. Unless someone among the extremely small number of people involved says something, the problems will not become apparent. That is why the committees' work could just be going through the motions unless whistleblowers are thoroughly protected. It would also be desirable to have even stricter rules for the humanities than for the natural sciences, as the research in the humanities is harder to verify. Committees also need researchers from outside institutions on board. We hope to see this whole affair be a time for qualitative development in Korean scholarship.

The Hankyoreh, 2 January 2006.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]