Research Ethics

Research Ethics Policies
for the Korean Society of Mission Studies

Article 1. Purpose

These regulations aim to prevent research misconduct and to foster research ethics and integrity for researchers in carrying out their activities in the Korean Society of Mission Studies (hereafter “the Society”) including manuscript submission, presentation, and contribution to journals. These regulations also intend to establish ethical guidelines to provide a fair procedural framework to verify integrity upon occurrence of research misconduct in an impartial and systematic manner.

Article 2. Scope of Application

These regulations are applied to persons who are either directly or indirectly associated with research activities performed by (a) member(s) of the Society and to those who submit manuscripts to the “Theology of Mission.”

Article 3. Role and Responsibility of Researchers

Researchers may have autonomy in conducting research but must follow the following rules:
1) Respect research subjects’ character and rights and treat impartially
2) Protect personal information and privacy
3) Practice honest and transparent research, based on facts
4) Maintain academic conscience as an expert in contributing specialized knowledge to society
5) Contribute to academic development by publishing new academic results
6) Respect the earlier researchers and acknowledge their achieve- ments by offering appropriate references and citations in using his/her own and their academic materials
7) Maintain ethical responsibility in making a research contract, receiving research fund and spending it
8) Not be influenced by private interests of a funding organization and specify the whole conflict of interests related to research on research outputs
9) Continually participate in research ethics education

Article 4. Scope of Research Misconduct

Research misconduct (hereafter “misconduct”) includes the following items committed in any or all stages of proposal, conduct, result presentation, and publication of research.
1) Fabrication: making up nonexistent research raw data, research data or results
2) Falsification: distorting research content or results by artificially manipulating materials, facilities and procedures, changing or deleting research raw data, research data or results
3) Plagiarism: steading or copying others’ original idea or research work without proper citation or acknowledgement and making people recognize that it is as one’s own

① Using all or a part of others’ research work or its content without properly citing the sources
② Modifying and using the words and the sentence structures of others’ writings without properly citing the sources
③ Using others’ original ideas without properly citing the sources
④ Translating and using others’ research work without properly citing the sources

4) Invalid authorship: Not giving authorship to those who contribute to research activities or results without legitimate reasons, and attributing authorship to those who did not or less contributed to research activities or results

① Attributing authorship to those who did not contribute to research contents or results
② Not giving authorship to those who have contributed to research contents or results
③ Publishing a student’s research paper or degree thesis under his/her professor’s name only

5) Unjust Duplicate Publication: publishing again his/her own previous research work itself or its modification substantially similar to the original version and gaining unjust profits such as more research funds or additional academic assessment scores
6) Interruption of research misconduct investigation: Interrupting the investigation process of one’s own or others’ research intentionally or harming the complainants
7) Behavior beyond commonly tolerable scope of each research field

Article 5. Affiliate Co-Authors (Revised April 17, 2021)

1) The affiliate co-authors should submit a report including each author's role and academic activity for investigation of invaild authorship.

2) If the invalid authorship of the affiliate co-authors is confirmed, the Committee should notify the result of misconduct to the institutions (e.g., school and affiliation) from which the author(s) received any benefits.

Article 6. Bioethics (Revised Feb. 24, 2018)

1) Human subject research should be reviewed by IRB(Institutional Review Board)

2) If the paper containing human behavioral research is a summary of dissertation, it may be passed without IRB via the examination of the research ethics board.

Article 7. Establishment and Operation

1) In order to prevent misconduct and evaluate allegations of research misconduct as outlined in Article 4, the Society has formed the Research Ethics Committee as the regulatory body.
2) The committee shall deliberate on and determine each of the following matters:

① Matters related to establishment of and education concerning research ethics
② Matters related to prevention of possible misconduct and launch of investigation
③ Matters related to protection of informer and obligation of confidentiality
④ Matters related to verification of research misconduct, results and follow-up measures
⑤ Matters related to restore honor of examinee
⑥ Matters presented by the chairperson for consideration.

Article 8. Composition, Conflict of Interests

1) The committee consists of seven members who are appointed as the chairperson and committee members by the president of the Society, and one of the committee members administrate the tasks of the committee.
2) The president and chief editor should become committee members.
3) To prevent conflict of interests, committee members who are in the same institution with the object of investigation should be excluded from the case, and the president could appoint alternative members under the agreement of the chairperson and the administration board of the Society.

Article 9. Duration

1) The duration of chairperson appointment is for two years and cannot be reappointed.
2) The duration of committee members’ appointment is initially for one year and can be reappointed.

Article 10. Tasks

The Committee shall deliberate on and determine each of the following matters:

① Matters related to establishment and operation of systems for research ethics
② Matters related to receiving and handling information on misconduct
③ Matters related to launch of investigations, judgment of the alleged cases, approval of investigation results and reexamination
④ Matters related to protection of informer and examinee
⑤ Matters related to handling of research ethics verification results and follow-up measures
⑥ Matters regarding operation of the Committee.

Article 11. Meetings and Record

1) The chairperson shall convene and preside over the meeting.
2) A minimum of two thirds of the committee members are required to compose a quorum and a two thirds vote of the members present must pass in order to make a decision.
3) In principle, the meetings are held in private. If necessary, the person concerned can be present to explain his/her opinion.
4) In order to keep the transparency of the investigation steps, the committee should write the minutes in detail.

Article 12. Rights and Responsibility

1) The Committee may request the informer, examinee, witness(es), and testifier(s) to attend the investigation and to submit the materials.
2) The Committee may take measures to preserve evidence of relevant research materials.
3) If examinee declines attendance or refuses submission of evidence for investigation, it is presumed to admit suspicion of misconduct.
4) All matters related to the investigation including, but not limited to, information (report), examination, deliberation, and resolution shall be kept confidential.

Article 13. Information and Receipt of Misconduct

1) An informer may inform the Society of alleged misconduct via all possible means, including, but not limited to, oral and written statements and email. However, should the informer make a report under his/her real name, he or she shall submit the title of the research project or the title of the thesis as well as the details and evidence of the alleged misconduct via written statements.
2) Although the informer does not reveal his/her name on the misconduct information which contains approval evidence, the committee could investigate the case.

Article 14. Protection of Rights and Confidentiality of Informer

1) In any case, the identity of the informer shall not be directly or indirectly exposed so as to protect the informer.
2) Any informer who falsely reports misconduct knowingly or who reports misconduct despite being able to determine it as false shall not be subject to protection and, depending on the case, the committee may notify the institution of the informer’s identity.

Article 15. Protection of Rights and Confidentiality of Examinee

1) Until the final result of investigation is affirmed, any suspicion of misconduct shall not be disclosed to the public.
2) The committee shall take caution not to violate, discredit, or damage the honor or the rights of the examinee, and make efforts to restore the honor of an examiner for whom suspicions have been cleared.

Article 16. Guarantee of Objection and Defense Right

The committee shall guarantee the informer and the examinee equal rights and opportunities to state opinions, to make objections, and to defend him or herself.

Article 17. Launch and Duration of Investigation and Judgment, Transmission

1) The investigation, including judgment, shall be completed within six months from the date it was launched.
2) In principle, the alleged misconduct shall not be dealt with and the committee transmits the case to the affiliated institution (e.g., university or lab) if three years have elapsed from the date of the initial report of it.

Article 18. Report of Conclusion

The chairperson should submit a written conclusion of the investigation to the informer and the person being investigated within 15 days of the end of the investigation.

Article 19. Reinvestigation

Request for reexamination shall be made within 30 days after the committee notifies the examinee of the result of the initial investigation. Reexamination, including judgment, shall be completed within 90 days from the date it was requested.

Article 20. Confidentiality

All matters related to the investigation, including, but not limited to, information (report), examination, deliberation, and resolution shall be kept confidential. Those who are either directly or indirectly involved in the investigation shall not disclose any information obtained during the course of the investigation and while performing their respective duties related to the investigation.

Article 21. reservation and Disclosure of Records

1) Records of the investigations shall be kept by the Society for five years from the end of the investigation.
2) The Final Report may be disclosed after the judgment is finalized, but the information related to identities, such as a list of all participants including the informer, Committee members, witnesses, testifiers, and those who provided consultation, may be excluded from such disclosure if the information is considered a threat to pose injury to those involved.

Article 22. Sanctions on Research Misconduct

If clear evidence of misconduct is found, the Committee may respond in one of the following ways:
1) Warning - The Committee should issue a written reprimand to minor misconducts in order to prevent repeating the misconduct.
2) Retracing a publication - The Committee should take the following actions on major misconducts.

① Notice on the Homepage - The Committee should place a notice of misconduct on the Homepage of the Korean Society of Mission Studies
② Notifying the result of investigation to the institutions(e.g., NRF: National Research Foundation of Korea, affiliation, and research fund supporting institution)
③ Prohibiting submission of the manuscript to the Society for three years

Article 23. Application

Unless there are special regulations in place with regards to the establishment of research ethics and the verification of research integrity, all relevant matters shall be handled based on the policy and regulation of the Act on Academic Research Ethics.

Addendum

1. These regulations shall take effect following the approval of the Board of Directors of the Society.
2. These regulations shall enter into force on October 19, 2007.

Revision Date: October 22, 2010.

Revision Date: February 23, 2013.

Revision Date: February 25, 2017.

Revision Date: February 24, 2018.
Revision Date: April 17, 2021.