Ethical review in Finland depends on whether the research is medical or in the scope of human sciences.

Medical research

The Medical Research Act and Decree (488/1999) regulate medical research involving human beings.

The roots of the State Award for Public Information stretch back to 1865, when the Senate decided to grant Finland’s first state awards. At the initiative of Senator J. V. Snellman, the decision was taken to grant three literary awards: non-fiction, fiction and popular publications.

Following heated literary debate, the award for fiction was granted to Aleksis Kivi’s Heath Cobblers (Nummisuutarit), and the non-fiction award was granted to Hans Wilhelm Rothsten’s Latin–Finnish Dictionary.

Alleged violations of research integrity (so-called RI violations) are investigated in the research organisation where the alleged violation has taken place. The process of handling alleged violations of research integrity, or the RI process, must be followed in all organisations committed to the RI Guidelines (PDF).

Awards are granted for major information publication work in the field of scientific, artistic and technological information dissemination that has increased citizens’ knowledge and stimulated societal debate. The award is granted for currently relevant information publication work, which may include high-level non-fiction works or other information products. The award can also be granted for exemplary, long-term, multifaceted public information work.

Guidelines for the responsible conduct of research and for handling allegations of misconduct (the RCR guidelines) have been published by the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK, which is appointed by the Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland. The RCR guidelines have been drafted in co-operation with the Finnish research community. (In the 2023 guideline, the term responsible conduct of research (RCR) has been changed into research integrity (RI).)

Chair

Chancellor
Kaarle Hämeri
University of Helsinki

Secretary General

Sanna-Kaisa Spoof

Tel. +358 50 594 1909
Email: sanna-kaisa.spoof(at)tenk.fi

Here you will find short videos produced by TENK for teaching purposes. In addition to Finnish and Swedish, the videos are available in English, French and Russian.

On this page you will find TENK's guidelines and other publications in PDF format. Text-only versions of central publications are available on separate pages. All material published after 1.1.2021 is licensed with a CC BY 4.0 license unless otherwise stated. 

If there are any discrepancies or inconsistencies between the Finnish versions and the English translations, the Finnish versions shall prevail. 

Ethical review means advance scrutiny and evaluation of a research plan in the light of the ethical practices generally followed in that particular discipline of science, with special emphasis on preventing any harm that the research or its results might cause to the research subject.

In Finland, the Medical Research Act (488/1999) regulates medical research involving human beings.

This page contains links to the key Finnish grants and awards in the field of public information, as well as other useful bodies. As these pages contain information subject to changes, we request that readers inform us of any changes, errors or omissions they may notice. See our contact details.