Guide to Project Data Management

The basis of research ethics and integrity

Research ethics is part of the project's data management and good academic practice.

• The Finnish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and Procedures for Handling Alleged Violations of Research Integrity in Finland 2023 (PDF)

• The ethical principles of research with human participants and ethical review in the human sciences in Finland. Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK guidelines 2019 (PDF).

From these guidelines emerge a set of practices that bind the projects.

Informing research participants and consent to participate

Informed consent to participate in research is a central ethical principle in research with human participants. People participating in research have the right to participate voluntarily but also to refuse to participate without fear of negative consequences.

The research participant must be aware that they are participating in research, especially in situations where the researcher also has another role in relation to the participant, for example the participant’s superior or teacher.

The starting point of consent is that the person giving their consent knows and understands what they are consenting to. The research participant must be informed in a clear and understandable way of the purpose of research, its authors, possible risks or harms to research participants, voluntary participation and provision of data, data processing, confidentiality, duration of storage, disclosures and possible archiving and opening of research data.

Based on being informed, the research participant can give their consent to:

1. participating in the research
2. the processing of their personal data as a part of implementing the research
3. he reuse and archiving of research data concerning them