A student at a university of applied sciences has to know the principles of Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) and follow them throughout the studies. A guide to Responsible Conduct of Research can be found on the pages of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK). TENK is an advisory board appointed by the Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland giving instructions on how good scientific practice is followed. It also ensures proper processing of alleged violation cases. The board provides expert opinions in dealing with alleged violation cases if the person in question complains about the treatment and asks TENK for an expert opinion. The board does not take a stand in cases of criminal suspicion or professional ethics.
According to the guide from the Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity (link), the starting points of Responsible Conduct of Research are reliability, honesty, respect and accountability in conducting research, and in recording, presenting, and evaluating the research results. The methods used in data acquisition as well as in research and evaluation, conform to scientific criteria and are ethically sustainable. When publishing the research results, the results are communicated in an open and responsible way.
The researchers take due account of the work of other researchers and respect their work, referring to their publications appropriately. The researchers comply with the standards set for scientific knowledge in planning and conducting the research, in reporting the research results and in recording the data obtained during the research.
The necessary research permits have been acquired before starting the thesis work and the preliminary ethical review that is required for certain fields of research has been conducted. If the thesis is written in a group, all parties within the research project or team have agreed beforehand on rights, responsibilities, and obligations, as well as authorship, regarding the thesis. Questions concerning archiving and accessing the data later have also been settled.
Sources of financing and possible other commitments relevant to the conduct of research are announced to all parties involved. These are also reported when publishing the research results.
Here you can find presentation material from the Rectors’ Conference of Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences (ARENE) on the ethical recommendations for writing a thesis.
At Centria University of Applied Sciences, the support persons for research ethics is Hanna-Riina Aho with whom issues on Responsible Conduct of Research can be discussed.
Fraud in science not only distorts scientific information, but also misleads the scientific and research community, decision-makers or the public. It also undermines the value and prestige of scientific work, its results or outputs, and harms other scientists and research subjects.
There are three sub-categories of scientific fraud: fabrication, falsification (or misrepresentation) and plagiarism.
Fabrication means that the reported observations are not made in the manner or by the methods described in the research process. Similarly, it is forging if you report results that were not generated by the research.
Falsification is the unjustified alteration of research data. Falsification of findings is the modification or presentation of original findings in such a way as to distort the result based on them. Distortion of results means the scientifically unjustified alteration or selection of research results. It is also misrepresentation to omit something from the results of a study. Plagiarism, on the other hand, is unauthorised quotation. It is both direct and imitation copying.
Gross negligence or disregard for the responsible conduct of research is for example:
Finnish National Board on Research Integrity. 2023. The Finnish code of conduct for research integrity and procedures of handling alleged violations of research integrity in Finland. Helsinki: Finnish National Board on Research Integrity. Available at: https://tenk.fi/sites/default/files/2023-05/RI_Guidelines_2023.pdf. Referenced 19 February 2024.