Of the 77,000 KCI papers supported by the Research Foundation, 47,929 are confidential.

Of the 77,000 KCI papers supported by the Research Foundation, 47,929 are confidential.

Lee Joo-hee “The principle of original text disclosure must be established at the project agreement stage”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Seunghan Cho = It was found that the original text of more than 6 out of 10 papers listed in the Korean Journal Citation Index (KCI) resulting from projects funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea has not been made public. The ratio was higher for excellent academic journals and engineering papers.

According to data submitted by the National Research Foundation of Korea on the 27th by Rep. Lee Joo-hee of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting and Communications Committee of the National Assembly, 47,929 of the 77,065 papers registered in KCI that revealed research funding from the National Research Foundation from 2022 to August of this year have not disclosed the original text.

The rate of original text disclosure by year was 38.4% in 2022, 37.2% in 2023, 37.8% in 2024, and 38.2% in 2025, remaining unchanged for 5 years at 37.1% as of August this year.

Among academic journals, only 578 papers out of 3,884 papers were published during this period, resulting in a lower publication rate of 14.9%.

By field, the order was ▲ humanities 55.5% ▲ social sciences 48.2% ▲ medicine and pharmacy 46.4% ▲ other 36.2% ▲ natural sciences 24.1% ▲ engineering 18.4%.

In the engineering field, which has the most papers, only 3,699 out of 20,077 papers were made public.

According to enforcement ordinances such as the current National Research, Development and Innovation Act, research and development institutions and researchers are required to disclose the final report and the list of research and development achievements registered and deposited with the dedicated organization after completing the project.

However, Rep. Lee pointed out that even if the list of research results funded by taxpayers' money is disclosed, there is no basis for disclosing the original text of the paper.

Rep. Lee Joo-hee pointed out that “papers written with tax money are being made public by the academic society’s arbitrary judgment due to the lack of basis regulations,” and emphasized, “We need to establish the principle of disclosure of the original text at the project agreement stage by revising laws and regulations, and increase the paper disclosure rate to ensure public accessibility as taxes are spent.”

The research foundation said, "We are making efforts to encourage the disclosure of the original papers of academic societies by reflecting online accessibility factors in the evaluation when certifying KCI-listed academic journals."