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Practical instructions

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Research ethics

Good scientific practice entails, among other things, that researchers and scientific experts:

  • follow modes of action endorsed by the research community, that is, integrity, meticulousness and accuracy in conducting research, in recording and presenting results, and in judging research and its results,
  • apply ethically sustainable data-collection, research and evaluation methods conforming to scientific criteria, and practise openness intrinsic to scientific knowledge in publishing their findings, and
  • take due account of other researchers' work and achievements.

Further, it is in keeping of good scientific practice that:

  • Research is planned, conducted and reported in detail and according to the standards set for scientific knowledge.
  • Questions relating to the status, rights, co-authorship, liabilities and obligations of the members of a research team are determined before the research project starts of a researcher is recruited to the team.
  • The source of financing and other associations relevant to the conduct of research are made known.
  • Good administrative practice and good personnel and financial management practices are observed.

UEF Committee on Research Ethics

The tasks of the UEF Committee on Research Ethics shall be to:

  • evaluate the ethicality of non-medical research projects conducted on humans and issue statements pertaining to them,
  • evaluate the ethicality of also other research projects when necessary, unless this evaluation has been assigned to some other party by law,
  • promote training pertaining to research ethics and issue guidelines relating to research ethics at the university,
  • act as an expert organ in problematic situations relating to research ethics encountered at the university,
  • maintain discussion relating to research ethics at the university,
  • monitor and participate in the preparation of national guidelines on research ethics and ensure adherence to these guidelines at the University of Eastern Finland.

Composition of the Committee

Composition of the Committee January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2025:

  • Chair, University teacher Mia Kilpeläinen,  Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies
  • Secretary: Research funding specialist Mika Saikkonen, University services
  • Permanent expert: Data protection officer Helena Eronen, University Services

Members:

  • Professor Vesa Hirvonen and Professor Marianna Virtanen, Philosophical Faculty
  • Professor Teppo Hujala and Professor Pasi Karjalainen, Faculty of Science and Forestry
  • University lecturer Sari Hantunen and Professor Tarja Kvist, Faculty of Health Sciences
  • University lecturer Outi Hakola  and University teacher Mia Kilpeläinen, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies
  • Doctoral researcher Ari Räisänen, Philosophical Faculty and Doctoral Researcher Sari Tillonen, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies.

Meeting schedules

The UEF Committee on Research Ethics has meetings once a month, excluding July.

Meetings of the UEF Committee on Research Ethics (in parentheses the deadline date at 3 p.m. for requests for statements and their appendices):

Spring semester 2023:

  • 19.1.2023 (requests for statement by 2.1.2023)
  • 16.2.2023 (requests for statement by 31.1.2023)
  • 16.3.2023 (requests for statement by 28.2.2023)
  • 20.4.2023 (requests for statement by 3.4.2023)
  • 12.5.2023 (requests for statement by 25.4.2023)
  • 15.6.2023 (requests for statement by 30.5.2023)

Instructions and forms

Committees on research ethics carry out reviews of the ethical aspects of research projects and studies and issue statements on their ethical acceptability. An ethical review by an ethics committee does not transfer the responsibility for the study and its ethicality from the researcher to the committee.

Research projects and studies in medicine and health sciences

When medical research involving intervention in the integrity of a person, human embryo or human foetus for the purpose of increasing knowledge of health, the causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases or the nature of diseases in general, the project or study is required by law to undergo an ethical review by the ethics committee of the hospital district concerned. Research projects and studies in medicine and health sciences carried out at the University of Eastern Finland are reviewed by the Ethics Committee, Hospital District of Northern Savo. The review of the committee adheres to the Medical Research Act (1999/488).

Research projects and studies in the humanities and social and behavioural sciences

The Committee on Research Ethics of the University of Eastern Finland carries out reviews and issues statements on research projects and studies in the humanities and social and behavioural sciences. The Committee adheres to the guidelines of the National Advisory Board on Research Ethics relating to research in the humanities and social and behavioural sciences. The applicant should familiarise herself/himself with with the guidelines.

The UEF Committee on Research Ethics carries out reviews on ethics of non-medical research involving humans which are not, by law, assigned to be reviewed by the official Ethics committee of central hospital district.

Ethical review has to be carried out before the data collection. A statement of ethical review can not be provided retrospectively.

Reviews on research ethics are intended for studies completed as postgraduate research.    

The researcher must request an ethical review statement from a human sciences ethics committee, if their research contains any of the following:

  • participation in the research deviates from the principle of informed consent,
  • the research involves intervening in the physical integrity of research participants,
  • the focus of the research is on minors under the age of 15, without separate consent from a parent or carer or without informing a parent or carer in a way that would enable them to prevent the child’s participation in the research,
  • research that exposes participants to exceptionally strong stimuli,
  • research that involves a risk of causing mental harm that exceeds the limits of normal daily life to the research participants or their family members or others closest to them or,
  • conducting the research could involve a threat to the safety of participants or researchers or their family members or others closest to them.

An ethical review statement may also be requested when a funding body, collaborative partner, research object or publisher so requests. However, it must be noted that a statement cannot be requested once the research has commenced.

The review of the ethics committee is not required for research based purely on public and published data, registry and documentary data and archive data. Research of registry data and documentary data must, however,  be evaluated,  if the research participants’ personal data is collected and combined from several different sources (several registers) so that privacy of research participants is endangered.

In case your study does not meet any of the criteria defined by the Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity but you are applying for an ethical statement because a publication or a funder requires it, we would kindly ask you to make sure whether, instead of a statement, a description of the ethical review system for research in Finland would be sufficient for the publication or the funder. The description can be obtained from the secretary of the ethics committee on request.

Ethical review particularly assesses:

  • the potential risks and harm to research participants, their families and potentially also the researcher themselves as well as their likelihood in relation to the plans drawn up to avoid them described in the request for a statement,
  • sufficiently clear information to research participants on the content of the research, their participation in the research and the processing of their personal data,
  • the data management plan, also containing a description of the processing of personal data throughout the lifespan of the research,
  • the appropriateness of the research participant’s written or electronic consent to participate,
  • the way in which the consent of participants is requested and documented if written or electronic consent is not used,
  • the significance of the new information that the research aims to obtain in relation to potential harms and risks.

The applicants must, before requesting for ethical review, read and commit to guidelines The ethical principles of research with human participants and ethical review in the human sciences in Finland . These guidelines will be in force since 1 October 2019. UEF Committee of Research Ethics follows these guidelines in the evaluation.

Please also apply, if necessary:

Other instructions

The request for a statement with the required appendices should be sent to the address: tuetto (at) uef.fi, according to the deadlines set by the Committee
The request for statement -form and its appendices should be sent as separate files, preferably in pdf-format. Please number the appendices and give them clear titles.

Please allow sufficient time for processing your application before you start your data collection. The committee may ask for further clarifications or corrections before writing the ethics statement. If the application includes significant ethical shortcomings, the Committee returns the application to the researcher for corrections. The applicant then needs to send a revised application for a re-evaluation in the next meeting of the Committee.

The UEF Committee on Research Ethics discusses all requests for statement and the related documents confidentially.

Further information is available from the Secretary of the Committee (Mika Saikkonen, mika.saikkonen@uef.fi, tel. 050 346 8118) and the Committee members.

In what kind of situations is it needed to make an amendment request for the Committee on Research Ethics, related to a study which has received a supporting statement earlier?

An amendment needs to be presented when:

  • a new sub-project will be added to the project
  • new research material will be included in the project

If the research is discontinued so that the research subjects may feel uncertainty about their status or about the use of the research data, a notification has to be made to the Ethics Committee.

An amendment is not needed, when:

  • changes to the implementation periods of the study occur (e.g. regarding the timetable of the data collection),
  • a certain part of the research will not be realised. The appropriate notifications about the changes must however be sent to the Ethics Committee.