Difference between revisions of "Resource:6a4cfa90-8592-4e6f-96e6-ad4d6fb9e0fb"

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|Resource Type=Cases
 
|Resource Type=Cases
 
|Title=Criticism Swirls Around High-Profile History Book about North Korea
 
|Title=Criticism Swirls Around High-Profile History Book about North Korea
|Is About=This case is about X who got accused of citing either irrelevant or non-existent sources to support his claims in his book 'Tyranny of the Weak'. This is a factual case.
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|Is About=This case concerns the 2013 book publication of ‘’the Tyranny of the Weak’, published by a professor on the history of North Korea. In the book the author presents his historical research on how North Korea ‘survived’ the Cold War.
|Important Because=It is important to be critical of the references someone uses to support his/her claims.
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|Important For=Researchers
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In 2014 another historian noticed several irregularities in the sources of the work of the professor and started investigating these irregularities. Many of these sources referred to archives, and were written in Russian, German, Chinese or Korean. The other historian decided to visit one of the archives in person to check the original sources. He states “[I checked] the collection there to reconstruct the original archival locations (…). This way it could be fully verified that the vast majority of the Russian archival citations from 1957-60 were invalid, because the cited files could not be found either in the Seoul collection or in the (essentially identical) Wilson Center collection.”
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Upon this discovery, he also reached out to an archive in Berlin, where most sources could also not be located, or contained different information as suggested in the book. In addition, as the historian points out on Retractionwatch, several uncanny similarities appear to exist between "Tyranny of the Weak" and his own book on a similar topic.
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The pofessor and book author, replied stating that “[t]he book was reviewed by two expert external reviewers before publication. In addition, before the book was published three years ago I shared the entire manuscript with one of the scholars who is currently critical of the book and is a renowned expert on the Russian sources on North Korea. At that time, this scholar did not find any problem with my use of sources, although he made a number of other comments which I incorporated in the final version of the book.” In 2015 the book earned 52 corrections in the new publication.
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|Important Because=Accuracy in referencing is important for several reasons<ref>Santini A. (2018). The Importance of Referencing. ''Journal of critical care medicine (Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie din Targu-Mures)'', ''4''(1), 3–4. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1515/jccm-2018-0002</nowiki></ref> such as avoiding improper appropriation of others ideas, allowing readers to further research certain topics which might be only briefly touched upon in the text, embedding the text in the relevant literature on the same topic and supporting ones claims on scientific evidence which has been peer reviewed by other researchers. Reflecting on this case, for instance in a classroom setting, can support the understanding good referencing practices and help in avoiding mistakes<ref>Penders B. (2018) Ten simple rules for responsible referencing. PLOS Computational Biology 14(4): e1006036. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006036</ref>.
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|Important For=Researchers; Bachelor students
 
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{{Related To
 
{{Related To
|Related To Theme=Theme:1386bef0-81e2-4c3b-bb65-673d2baead1c
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|Related To Resource=Resource:6405cda0-87cb-42a5-8f74-eae7b933a48f
 
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{{Tags
 
{{Tags
|Involves=Charles Armstrong
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|Involves=Retraction Watch
 
|Has Timepoint=13-10-2016
 
|Has Timepoint=13-10-2016
|Has Location=USA; United States
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|Has Location=United States; Korea
 
|Has Virtue And Value=Honesty; Reliability
 
|Has Virtue And Value=Honesty; Reliability
 
|Has Good Practice And Misconduct=Fabrication; Korea Retractions; Reference Problem
 
|Has Good Practice And Misconduct=Fabrication; Korea Retractions; Reference Problem
 
|Related To Research Area=History and archaeology
 
|Related To Research Area=History and archaeology
 
}}
 
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Latest revision as of 09:45, 21 September 2021

Cases

Criticism Swirls Around High-Profile History Book about North Korea

What is this about?

This case concerns the 2013 book publication of ‘’the Tyranny of the Weak’, published by a professor on the history of North Korea. In the book the author presents his historical research on how North Korea ‘survived’ the Cold War.

In 2014 another historian noticed several irregularities in the sources of the work of the professor and started investigating these irregularities. Many of these sources referred to archives, and were written in Russian, German, Chinese or Korean. The other historian decided to visit one of the archives in person to check the original sources. He states “[I checked] the collection there to reconstruct the original archival locations (…). This way it could be fully verified that the vast majority of the Russian archival citations from 1957-60 were invalid, because the cited files could not be found either in the Seoul collection or in the (essentially identical) Wilson Center collection.”

Upon this discovery, he also reached out to an archive in Berlin, where most sources could also not be located, or contained different information as suggested in the book. In addition, as the historian points out on Retractionwatch, several uncanny similarities appear to exist between "Tyranny of the Weak" and his own book on a similar topic.

The pofessor and book author, replied stating that “[t]he book was reviewed by two expert external reviewers before publication. In addition, before the book was published three years ago I shared the entire manuscript with one of the scholars who is currently critical of the book and is a renowned expert on the Russian sources on North Korea. At that time, this scholar did not find any problem with my use of sources, although he made a number of other comments which I incorporated in the final version of the book.” In 2015 the book earned 52 corrections in the new publication.

Why is this important?

Accuracy in referencing is important for several reasons[1] such as avoiding improper appropriation of others ideas, allowing readers to further research certain topics which might be only briefly touched upon in the text, embedding the text in the relevant literature on the same topic and supporting ones claims on scientific evidence which has been peer reviewed by other researchers. Reflecting on this case, for instance in a classroom setting, can support the understanding good referencing practices and help in avoiding mistakes[2].

  1. Santini A. (2018). The Importance of Referencing. Journal of critical care medicine (Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie din Targu-Mures), 4(1), 3–4. https://doi.org/10.1515/jccm-2018-0002
  2. Penders B. (2018) Ten simple rules for responsible referencing. PLOS Computational Biology 14(4): e1006036. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006036

For whom is this important?

Other information

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