A South Korean professor, known for her prolific academic work, has come under the suspicion of plagiarism, prompting an internal probe, school authorities said Tuesday.

The 45-year-old professor, who teaches at the humanities and arts department of Sunchon National University, has published about 70 articles in local academic journals since 2009, with 21 of the papers put out in 2012 alone.

Her academic output is far higher than the yearly average of 0.6 papers for other full-time faculty members, based on data from the National Research Foundation of Korea.

The impressive feat was thrown into question as another professor in the same department formally raised questions and claimed many of her research papers contain plagiarized and reused passages without proper citations.

The university, located in South Jeolla Province, is also under fire for its apparent inaction in response to foul play allegations that had been raised in recent years.

The embattled professor has topped the research rankings of the university faculty since 2009, snagging a large amount of performance incentives.

By Suh Ye-seul
(sys@heraldcorp.com)