More than 6 out of 10 papers registered in the Korea Citation Index (KCI) that received government research funding have been found to keep their original texts private, according to data.

The ratio of unpublished papers was particularly high for top-tier academic journals and engineering research.

According to data submitted by the National Research Foundation of Korea to Representative Lee Joo-hee of the Democratic Party of Korea, who sits on the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee, out of 77,065 KCI-registered papers that acknowledged the foundation's research funding from 2022 until last month, 47,929 did not make their original texts publicly available.

The annual publication rates for original texts remained stagnant over the five-year period, recording 38.4% in 2022, 37.2% in 2023, 37.8% in 2024, and 38.2% in 2025, followed by 37.1% up to August of this year.

For papers published in outstanding journals designated among the top 10% by academic field, the publication rate was even lower at 14.9%, with only 578 out of 3,884 papers made public during this period.

By academic field, the publication rates were led by humanities at 55.5%, followed by social sciences at 48.2%, medical and health sciences at 46.4%, others at 36.2%, natural sciences at 24.1%, and engineering at 18.4%.

In the engineering field, which accounted for the highest number of papers, only 3,699 out of 20,077 papers were made public.

Under the current National Research and Development Innovation Act and its enforcement decree, research institutions and researchers are required to make final reports and lists of research and development outcomes registered and deposited with dedicated institutions publicly available upon completion of a project.

However, Representative Lee pointed out that while the lists of research outcomes funded by taxpayer money are disclosed, there are no grounds or regulations mandating the publication of the actual research papers' original texts.

In response, the National Research Foundation stated, "We are making efforts to encourage academic societies to make the original texts of their papers public by incorporating online accessibility factors into the evaluation when certifying KCI-registered journals."

(Photo: Yonhap News)