In a recent event of academic dishonesty, a KAIST doctorate candidate has been found guilty of plagiarizing a paper written by a professor from the National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) in Taiwan. The names of the parties involved have as of yet not been disclosed.

On July 16, 2009, the guidance professor of the doctorate candidate was requested to review a paper submitted by the NCTU professor for publication. Although the request was made to him, the KAIST professor gave the task to the student under his guidance under the belief that the student would be better suited to the task considering that the subject matter was outside of the professor’s own expertise. For this purpose, the professor provided the student with the ID and password to his email so that the student could submit the results of the review.

While the initial evaluation of the paper was approved by the professor, the student later modified the results to the author’s disadvantage without the professor’s knowledge. The details of the evaluation as disclosed by the journal revealed that the paper had been given a zero in all evaluation criteria, making it unfit for publication and citing that the content was too similar to the NCTU professor’s previous works.

In December 2009, the student plagiarized the NCTU professor’s paper and submitted it for publication, listing his guidance professor’s name as a co-author, who at the time was unaware of both events. In April of the following year, the student submitted another plagiarized paper, once again discreetly listing his advisor as a co-author. In July, the student informed his research advisor of the submission of the first paper and requested that he revise it. The professor agreed to revise the paper and accepted the position of co-author.

The guidance professor has refused to take responsibility for any infringements on academic honesty, stating that he had no knowledge that the papers were plagiarized works while the contents of the papers are far removed from his field of study.

In response to this event, KAIST has requested that the journal cancel the publication of the plagiarized papers and has also sent letters of apology to the affected professor and his institution. KAIST has yet to disclose what punitive measures have been taken concerning the student.