Case study: Korea University

Why Pure has become the go-to solution
for one of Korea’s most influential
researchers

Research Intelligence

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Prof. Yong Sik Ok
Professor and Global Research Director at Korea University,
Korea“I don’t spend any budget or time managing
my personal website anymore - my Pureprofile explains everything about me. Most
importantly, this wonderful software enables
me to build and maintain the international
network that has increased the reach, volume
and impact of my publications.”
At Korea University, Prof. Yong Sik Ok is
working at the vanguard of global efforts
to develop sustainable waste management
strategies and technologies. Together withhis team, he is addressing the rising crises inelectronic and plastic waste, and the pollutionof soil and air with particulate matter.

For Prof. Ok, this impact has only been possible thanks to his
broad and international network, spanning almost 50 countries
and nearly 400 universities, institutes and industries.

To date, his wide-ranging achievements have delivered lasting
impact and won him global renown. For example, in 2019, he
was the first Korean to be named a Clarivate Analytics Highly
Cited Researcher (HCR) in the field of Environment and Ecology,
while, in 2021, he became the first Korean to be recognized as an
HCR in two separate fields (Engineering, and Environment andEcology). In 2019, analysis by the Chinese Academy of Sciences
saw him named the top Environmental Science researcher in theworld. He is also one of his university’s leading contributors to
the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

Use case #1: Build your collaboration network

In this case study, Prof. Ok explains how Pure has helped him
develop and maintain that global network. He also highlights
how Pure supports many other aspects of his work as a
researcher and Professor. And he reveals how he leverages
Pure data to help shape university strategy in his role as Korea
University’s Global Research Director.

As of January 2022, almost 95 percent of Prof. Ok’s 740+
publications involved international collaboration. And almost
90 percent were in the top 10 percent of articles in their field.
He says: “These figures make it clear that articles based oninternational collaboration with renowned universities in othercountries usually have higher impact, particularly in the field ofEnvironmental Sciences.”

PureYour brilliance, organized for action2For Prof. Ok, international collaboration is essential given the
global significance of his research interests. He explains: “While
I’m pretty good at looking at plastic pollution in soil, there areother researchers at Stanford University in the US who lookat the same issue in water, while others in Europe focus on
sediment. It’s like a puzzle – if we combine our expert areas,
eventually we make a bigger picture and achieve broader reachand impact.”
And Pure has played a vital role in helping him locate thosecollaborators.
• Finding research partners at Korea University: Prof. Ok uses
the “fingerprint” section in his Pure profile, which draws on
smart technology to identify the topics in which he is mostactive. He explains: “When I click on a topic label, I can view
the profiles of other researchers at my university in that field.”• Identifying potential international collaborators: He visits thePure sites of universities he’s interested in working with anduses the same fingerprint technology to review the profiles ofresearchers and research units. According to Prof. Ok: “Thissystem has helped me build strong collaborations with coauthors and principal investigators worldwide.”

61 leading universities, including KU. APRU works with thought
leaders and policy makers to seek solutions to our 21st century
challenges.
Stanford University’s Professor William Mitch, who is
co-Director of the Sustainable Waste Management Program,notes: “Prof. Ok has been a leader in raising the profile ofenvironmental research beyond academia into the echelonsof government and industry, and in generating transnational
collaborations. He has been a particular leader in promoting
collaborations among Pacific Rim universities. As the focus of
the world economy increasingly shifts to the Pacific Rim, thetypes of collaborations he is building with the help of Pure will
be key to addressing the resulting environmental challenges.”

Raising international recognition andreputation with Pure: KU’s story

In fact, when Prof. Ok moved to Korea University (KU) aroundfive years ago, Pure proved invaluable in helping him identify key
stakeholders among the university’s 5,000 faculty. “Using thefingerprint option, I was able to figure out which departments/
faculties had mutual interests. I then invited them to a weekly
group meeting, where we discussed common ground, andestablished new projects.”
Importantly, Pure also helps Prof. Ok identify where there
are gaps in his existing collaboration network. “I can look at
visualizations of my collaborations and filter by year. If my work
has been cited, for example, 50,000 times, I want those citations
to be evenly distributed over 100 countries. Along with my Purecollaboration map, the visualizations help me understand who
I’m working with and where I need to diversify.”
Prof. Ok also draws on Pure data to support collaborations in hisrole as Director of the Sustainable Waste Management Programfor APRU (Association of Pacific Rim Universities), a network ofInterested in finding out how
institutions can leverage Pure
to increase their global profileand networks? In our casestudy, “Building international
collaboration and recognition
with Pure”, Korea University’s
Executive Vice President for
Research, Prof. Kwan-Young
Lee, shares the many benefits
that KU has reaped since Pure’s
introduction.

From Left: Prof. Jintaek Jung (President, Korea University), Prof. Hye-sook Lim (Ministerof Science and Information and Communication Technologies), Prof. OK and Mr. Lee
Bang-soo (President, LG Energy Solution)

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“Pure isn’t just a platform for research
outputs, it also graphically elaborates on
networks worldwide, activities per year,
and many other useful data. That makes
it suitable for managing and showcasing
my research and my connections, and it
helps other researchers find me and view
my research in seconds - I use the network
map and visualizations almost every day.”– Prof. Yong Sik Ok

Use case #2: Increase your visibility – andopportunities
According to Prof. Ok, his Pure profile often enhances his
research work. “For example, when applying for grants, I havebeen able to use the data and visualizations in Pure to showcase
my research and collaboration.”
Importantly, he also believes Pure has increased thediscoverability of his work, resulting in new partnerships,

avenues of research, funding opportunities and networks. A
prime example is his growing interaction with Australia.
• When the Australian government established that Prof. Ok was
the Korean scientist with the highest number of collaborations
with their country, he was invited to present his work to VIPs at
the Australian embassy. He says: “I showed them my network
visualization in Pure and that I had a strong collaboration with
the University of Queensland, one of their top universities.”• Prof. Ok then received an honorary professorship from
University of Queensland (UQ), and his information – and alink to his Pure profile – were added to the UQ website.
• He was also listed on a website the Australian embassy in
Korea launched to showcase international collaboration.
• Now universities in Australia frequently invite him to apply
for funding together, as “having someone in the application
with a strong collaboration record improves your chances ofsuccess.”
Prof. Ok adds: “This was all possible, in part, due to Pure.
Now I have my Pure profile, I don’t spend any budget or time
managing my personal website anymore. Without Pure, I would
survive, but I would have to spend a lot of time building my
network and it would suffer. Pure has become a key part of myscientific life.”

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“These days I receive many invitations
from countries I regularly collaborate
with and I always ask how they heard
about me and my research. Typically,
they mention either Pure or Scopus.
That’s why I link to my Pure profile
on my website, in my email andeverywhere. It is simply the best toolfor improving my scientific career.”– Prof. Yong Sik Ok

For Prof. Ok, Pure not only increases his own visibility andconnections, it also enables him to help others in his network
raise theirs. He reveals: “In every presentation or student
lecture, I include a slide showing my network map in Pure. I tellpeople that if they click on that map, they can see the name ofevery country and university I’ve collaborated with. If they wantto build a relationship with Stanford University, or Harvard, I canarrange for them to meet my contacts there.”Prof. Ok also encourages new PhD students to use the map toidentify short-term study opportunities, and advises them toconsult Pure when searching for PhD topics and supervisors.

Use case #3: Track your research performance,
including against the UN SDGs
With its strong focus on sustainability, Prof. Ok’s research
has close links to several of the 17 United Nations Sustainable

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Development Goals. In fact, he has the largest number of SDGlinked publications at his university.
In 2021, Pure introduced banners showcasing the SDGs each
institution is working on, along with badges on researcher
profiles showing the SDGs they are associated with, and links toother researchers active in that SDG area.
Reflecting on the new features, Prof. Ok comments: “I can now
see which people are working towards the same goals as me
and review their profiles. They can also see me! This is proving
extremely helpful, especially with collaborations, and I usuallycheck for updates at least once a week.”
He adds: “I recently chaired a Nature conference on sustainablewaste management, which was attended by Lim Hye-sook,
Korea’s Minister of Science and ICT, and Lee Bang-soo, the CEO
of LG Inc. The UN SDGs were widely discussed, and I was able
to use Pure to explain our university’s contribution to them. In
fact, nowadays, whenever I talk about the SDGs, I use Pure – it’s
so helpful.”“The kind of research analysis that
Pure provides is unique – it’s really notcomparable to any other software.”– Prof. Yong Sik Ok
For Prof. Ok, another big draw is the range of research metrics
available in Pure. “Other databases and Google don’t provide acomprehensive data set of indicators, but Pure keeps me up todate on how my research is being viewed and used; for example,
appearances in the media, or mentions on social media. I canalways see up-to-date data on who is reading my paper andwhere. And instead of waiting one year for citation data, I haveaccess to real-time information on my impact.”

Use case #4: Showcase and benchmark yourachievements
When Prof. Ok joined KU, one of his first actions was to ask theuniversity’s Pure administrators for access to the system. He
explains: “We didn’t have Pure at my previous university, but
I had heard about it and could see the value of it. I think I was
one of the first faculty at KU to ask for my own Pure user ID andpassword.”Once access was granted, Prof. Ok began adding additional
information to his profile, including updates on his lab and links
to relevant websites, along with his Scopus profile and ORCID ID.
He also added links to his Pure profile to his emails and other

PureYour brilliance, organized for action
6communications. “I point people towards Pure because myprofile is freely available for everyone to access, and that’s
important – certain countries, such as China, can’t access Google
Scholar and, with other software, people often have to have alicense themselves before they can view your information.”says: “We are very competitive. If we are not the top, it gives us
motivation, and, if we are the top, we know we need to invest
more effort to maintain our performance. Either way, it’s goodfor the university.”Prof. Ok adds: “Pure researcher profiles also contain more
information than any other software’s and are constantly
updated. That gives me a lot of motivation, but it also motivatesmy students and group members, as well as my international
collaborators.”

Use case #5: Drive university research strategy

He laughs: “Every day my collaborators, all Highly Cited
Researchers, and I check our Pure profiles to see who has
the highest citation numbers and h-index – it’s become a
fun competition. And we can do that because Pure makes
achievements very visible.”
Prof. Ok and his colleagues at KU also make use of Pure’s option
to directly compare performance based on research unit. He

In his role as Korea University’s Global Research Director, Prof.
Ok has been exploring how Pure data can support strategy
development.
For example, he believes the SDG features in Pure can beused to reshape research units at KU. He explains: “At ouruniversity, we have a few Environmental Science departments,
but the faculty members are quite diverse. If we really want
to focus on Environmental Sciences, we can use the Pure UN
SDG information to identify leading scientists in the field, andthen group them together in a virtual unit.” He adds: “Thesame Pure features could be used to guide the composition of

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undergraduate and graduate classes.”He also uses Pure to highlight to senior executives the SDGs inwhich KU’s contribution should improve if they want to enhancetheir overall SDG performance. “The benefit is that Pure is reallyeasy for the senior executives and faculty to understand. It’s very
user-friendly.”

Screenshot of Prof. Yong Sik Ok on the Korean television program,
Bravo K-Scientist at YTN science, with his Pure network map visibleon the monitor beside him.

Prof. Ok also uses Pure to support strategy development in
his own lab; for example, to determine travel plans. “If Pureshows me that I have very strong collaboration with Singapore
in certain topics one year, then my colleagues and students will
make a strategic decision to organize workshops there. Because
people in Singapore recognize our research, the workshops havea much bigger impact.” He adds: “In this way, we can use Pure
to enhance our research outcomes and the reputation of ouruniversity.”“I was recently
interviewed for a
documentary on myscientific life on Korean
television – a greathonor. They asked
what the secret is tobecoming the number
one environmental
scientist in the world.
I explained that Pure
has made everything
possible.”– Prof. Yong Sik Ok

PureYour brilliance, organized for action8About Professor Yong Sik Ok

About Korea University

Prof. Ok has published more than 900 research papers andbooks, 92 of which have been ranked as Web of Science
ESI top papers (Highly Cited Papers and Hot Papers). His
global positions include honorary professor at the Universityof Queensland (Australia), visiting professor at Tsinghua
University (China), adjunct professor at the Universityof Wuppertal (Germany), and guest professor at Ghent
University (Belgium). He also serves as a Co-Editor-in-Chiefof Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology,
an Editor of Environmental Pollution, and sits on the editorial
boards and advisory boards of several leading journals, suchas Environmental Science and Technology.

Established in 1905, Korea University is one of the oldest
institutions in the country. It is one of Korea’s threeprestigious “SKY” universities; the other two are Seoul
National University and Yonsei University. Admission tothese SKY universities is extremely competitive, with Korea
University accepting fewer than 1% of early admissions.
Attendance at one of the SKY universities is widely considereda determinant of Korean students’ future career and social
status. For the past five years, Korea University has beenranked as one of the top 100 universities in the world by the
QS World University Rankings.

He currently serves as Director of the Sustainable Waste
Management Program for APRU, the Association of Pacific
Rim Universities, and as Co-President of the International
ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Association,
together with Prof. Jay Hyuk Rhee at KU School of Business.
He has also served on the Scientific Organizing Committee of
P4G Nature Forum: Climate Change and Biodiversity, and the
Nature Forum: Plastics and Sustainability.

Korea University is comprised of two campuses - in Seoul
and Sejong City - and three affiliated hospitals - Anam, Guro
and Ansan. It is a large and respected research institution,
notable in South Korean history for being the first educational
institution to offer academic programs in Korea in various
disciplines, such as law, economics and journalism. Today it
has 59 academic departments and programs organized into
17 colleges and schools. There are currently more than 37,000
students enrolled and just over 5,000 faculty.

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February 2022