Korea University will investigate the thesis of Yoo Seong-min's daughter, Yoo Dam, 31, who faces allegations of preferential hiring.
Korea University said on the 29th that it recently decided to launch a full investigation by the Research Integrity Committee into allegations raised about Yoo's thesis. Korea University plans to form a main investigation committee with more than 50% outside experts.
The allegations surrounding Yoo's thesis are "salami publication" and "self-plagiarism." From Aug. last year to Dec. this year, Yoo published seven papers over five months. Critics said the research topics, data, and analytical frameworks were similar and questioned whether one study was "split up." There are also allegations that the similarity between Yoo's 2019 master's thesis and a 2020 paper in a KCI journal was 29% without source attribution.
According to the office of Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Jin Sun-mi, Yoo submitted 10 papers as research achievements when applying for a faculty position at the University of Incheon. Born in 1994, Yoo passed the recruiting for new full-time faculty for the second semester of the 2025 academic year and is currently teaching in the Department of International Trade.
Yoo's hiring process drew allegations of favoritism at the National Assembly Education Committee audit for being unusually fast. In response, the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency assigned the complaint regarding the University of Incheon faculty hiring to the anti-corruption and economic crimes investigation unit and began an investigation. The University of Incheon, however, maintains that the review process was fair.