“Not Research Misconduct” Han Dong-hoon’s Niece Named Her Aunt-in-Law, a Yonsei Medical School Professor, as Co-author of Research Paper

Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon. Joint press photographers

The Research Ethics Reliability Committee at Yonsei University reviewing the allegation of research misconduct by a professor in the College of Medicine, who co-authored a research paper with the niece of Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon, concluded that they could not confirm any misconduct. However, they added, “There is a need to take particular caution so that proper research ethics is understood and observed.”

According to the coverage by The Hankyoreh, Yonsei University sent an official letter notifying the results of the investigation by the Research Ethics Reliability Committee to Mijumom, a community of Korean parents in the United States.

Yonsei University’s probe into research misconduct involved Professor A, the corresponding author of the article in question and the wife of Minister Han’s brother-in-law. The first author of the research paper was B, Han’s niece. B stated her name in a medical research paper along with Professor A, her aunt-in-law in 2019, when she was attending a high school in the U.S.

The research paper that Yonsei University investigated was “Encapsulation of Streptococcus Salivarius in Double Emulsion Droplets as a Method for Increasing the Efficacy of Oral Topical Medications,” a medical paper published in the Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research in 2019.

According to The Hankyoreh, Yonsei University stated in the notice, “Based on B’s research plan, research notes, experiment photos, information submitted to the science fair, the e-mail from her high school teacher, the e-mails with the corresponding author (Professor A), and prize information, we confirmed that B took the initiative in designing the research and personally conducted the tests while traveling between her home and school.”

The university could not conclude that A did not play the role of a corresponding author, and the school did not recognize any improper authorship since B contributed to the research paper.

As for the allegation that the article in question was published in a predatory journal, Yonsei University judged, “It is difficult to argue that Professor A was aware that the journal was predatory when she submitted the paper.”

The research misconduct allegation was raised after Mijumom, a community of Korean parents in the U.S., informed Yonsei University of the allegation last May.