Research ethics

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 of the North Savo Hospital District. 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.

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 publications require it, we would kindly ask you to make sure whether a description of the ethical review system for research in Finland would be sufficient for the publication. 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.

• Request for Statement form (Word-document, updated October 1st, 2019)
• Instructions for filling out the Request for Statement form (PDF, updated December 5th, 2019)
• Template: Participant Information Sheet and its Appendix: Processing of personal data in the study
• Template: Consent form
• Appendix 7. of the Request: Privacy notice for scientific research (updated 7.2.2019)
• To be applied, if necessary: Template for Data Protection Impact Assessment

Other instructions

• Data management plan
• Additional instructions for planning the management of sensitive and confidential data
• Instructions on information processing
• Information security rules

The request for a statement with the required appendices should be submitted by email as one PDF file (preferably in text-format, not scanned) to the address: tuetto@uef.fi. The request should be sent according to the deadlines set by the Committee.

The person in charge of the study (for a doctoral dissertation research, the supervisor acts as the person in charge of the study) has to sign:

• the request for statement (item 14.) and
• the mandatory appendix 2. (the assessment of the ethical aspects of the study by the person in charge)

If needed, the signed request for statement with appendices can also be sent by mail to the Secretary of the Committee to the address:

University of Eastern Finland / Mika Saikkonen

P.O.Box 111

80101 Joensuu

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

Further information is also 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.