Allegations of plagiarism have been raised on the master's thesis of Kim Kun-hee, spouse of presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol, who apologized to the public for false career information.
A media company reported that the plagiarism rate reached 42% as a result of verifying Kim's master's thesis in Art Education at Sookmyung Women's University Graduate School of Education in 1999 with the plagiarism review program 'Copy Killer'.
The thesis in question is a thesis titled 'A Study on the Characteristics of Paul Klee's Painting'.
The 'copy killer' calculates the plagiarism rate by comparing and contrasting the self-constructed database (DB) and the thesis subject to verification. It was reported that the result was obtained by adding a previous study that was not included in the 'killer' DB.
In academia, if the plagiarism rate exceeds 20%, it is considered serious research fraud.
Regarding this, Choi Ji-hyeon, senior spokeswoman for the People's Power, said in a comment, "The plagiarism rate of 42% is that the 1999 master's thesis was applied to the current research ethics standard, and the 'copy killer', which is an abbreviated method, rather than a formal investigation by the university, was used to other conditions. It was calculated by putting it in," he countered, saying, "It is not accurate."
Senior Spokesperson Choi said, "This paper is a summary and analysis of previous research on the Western painter Paul Klee, and isIt was submitted in 1999, about eight years before this first enactment on January 2, 2007.”
He continued, "At the time of submission of the thesis, it was before the exact standards for footnotes were established," he said. We cannot determine plagiarism based on the current standards.”