TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Ministry of Education said universities should immediately carry out an investigation of thesis plagiarism, following accusations that texts and data in two the theses of Hsinchu City Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) are identical to another thesis and research report.

On Tuesday (July 5), Lin gave a press conference and rejected accusations of plagiarism as a "smear campaign" waged by his opponent's camp. Lin was recently nominated by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to run for Taoyuan mayor in the Nov. 26 local elections.

Kuomintang (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) alleged that Lin's master's thesis submitted in 2008 to Chung Hua University heavily cited a research report conducted by the school for the Hsinchu Science Park (HSC) without proper attribution. The research applied the "technology commercialization success index (TCSI) model" to discuss the satisfaction and trust of residents within the park.

"The arguments, infographics, citations are identical to the commissioned study," Wang said.

The other thesis Lin submitted to National Taiwan University in 2017 was said to have the same issue of dishonesty, according to media personality Pokii Huang (黃揚明). Huang suspected that Lin's NTU thesis might have copied data and analysis by another NTU graduate who submitted his thesis six months ahead of Lin.

"Ironically, the two theses even shared the same typos," Huang added.

In response to the plagiarism claims, the education ministry said the two schools should start investigations and submit their results to the MOE within four months. "The degrees shall be revoked if violations are confirmed," the official added.