Research Ethics

For a project thesis, make a cooperation agreement in Pulmu. The cooperation agreement clarifies matters concerning data protection, publication and confidentiality of the results, as well as user rights.

Find out if you need a research permission for your thesis.

If you need to examine secret documents for your thesis, draw up a separate non-disclosure agreement as required. In its entirety, the thesis is public. If your thesis contains business secrets or other information classified as secret in the Act on the Openness of Government Activities, you must write out the thesis report without breaching the data confidentiality. Where necessary, the secret information must be included in the background materials of the thesis.

Find out from the thesis supervisor how the plagiarism check is carried out.

Theses are protected under the Finnish Copyright Act (404/1961) on the same grounds as literary and other works.

Copyright applies to several different forms of works. In practice, a thesis is always a work, regardless of whether it is a written presentation, coded computer program, performed presentation, or a composition. This means that the thesis report is not a work on its own, but instead, the copyright may also cover the functional part of the thesis. The Copyright Act gives a more detailed list of the forms of works.

There are also other copyright-related rights. These refer to rights that are dependent on the copyright of the original work. For example, a performance, arrangement, translation or recording falls under rights that are linked to the original work.

It will be assessed case-by-case whether the work meets the characteristics of an independent and original work. Thoughts, topics, methods, principles, scientific discoveries, theories, or research results and data cannot be protected.

As theses are usually protected under the Copyright Act, the different parties should agree upon their rights at the start of the thesis process, as well as how to protect them. An individual student or a group of students may own the copyright. Copyright enters into force once the work is done. The copyright is automatic on the basis of the Copyright Act, and it requires no registration or notification.

Copying a thesis without the original author’s permission is forbidden, as well as altering the work in a manner that violates the author’s rights. The author(s) of a thesis may transfer the copyright to someone else, either entirely or in part. The transfer can be made informally, but we recommend that it is done in writing. A thesis is usually an assignment for a company or community. If the thesis is an assignment, the parties should agree upon its copyright.

If you want, you can test your knowledge about copyright and earn the Copyright Expert badge issued by Kopiosto ry.