Seoul Nat`l Univ. stops plagiarism probe into candidate Ahn

Seoul National University on Friday said it has stopped an investigation into whether independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo committed plagiarism in writing research papers, saying a preliminary probe found no evidence of wrongdoing.

The university’s research authenticity committee said, “We`ve decided not to have the case subject to a main inspection because the preliminary inspection into suspicions of research paper plagiarism found the papers were okay.”

The committee formed a preliminary inspection committee Oct. 31 to review five of Ahn’s research papers alleged to be involved in plagiarism and overlapping publication. Ahn graduated from the university’s medical school.

The English-language abstract of his research paper published by the Korean Physiological Society in 1993 was suspected of plagiarizing that of another paper carried the same year by the Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. The abstracts of the two papers suggested different figures in results from experiments, but were found quite similar overall in contents, including test flow. The committee said, “We judged that the paper was partially plagiarized because the English abstracts were similar, but the main responsibility for that problem was borne by the lead author. Ahn, the tertiary author, should not be held accountable.”

The committee said, however, that it did not investigate who the real author of the English abstract was. If Ahn plagiarized the abstract and submitted it to the lead author to finalize the overall English abstract, this could constitute plagiarism. Whether the abstract was written by the lead author or drafted jointly is something that can be easily confirmed. So critics cried foul over the investigation, saying the committee failed to confirm how the abstracts were written even after concluding that partial plagiarism was committed.

Seong Noh-hyeon, dean of research affairs at the university, said, “Since the inspection of the lead author of the paper, which has been found to be partially plagiarized, is an issue separate from candidate Ahn, it hasn`t been discussed yet.”

Ahn also allegedly used without citation in his dissertation for his medicine and physiology Ph.D. submitted in 1991 descriptions about Boltzmann`s distribution equation written in a 1989 dissertation by Seo In-seok, a medical professor at the university. “Since it is general practice to allow authors to use similar expressions to a limited extent in describing research methodologies that are commonly used, that part is not problematic,” the committee said.

On the suspicion that Ahn republished his master`s thesis that he originally presented in 1988 in the academic journal of the university`s medical school, the committee said, “This isn`t a problem because it is common practice to get a master`s thesis published again in an academic journal after its first publishing.”

All nine members of the research authenticity committee are known to have unanimously accepted these findings by the preliminary inspection committee.

ramblas@donga.com