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. Research projects and studies in medicine and health sciences which fall within the scope of Medical Research Act and are carried out at the University of Eastern Finland are reviewed by the Medical Research Ethics Committee of Wellbeing Services County of North 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.

The ethics committee doesn´t conduct ethical review for master’s theses. The ethical review is intended for research work after the basic degree. Master´s theses can only be evaluated as part of a wider project, for which a statement is requested if necessary.

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.

Video recording: Ethical review in human sciences, and how to request for an ethics statement (25 min)

• Request for Statement form (updated 30.7.2024)
• Instructions for filling out the Request for Statement form (PDF, updated 14.3.2024)
• Template: Participant Information Sheet and its Appendix: Processing of personal data in the study (updated 18.10.2022)
• Template: Consent form
• Appendix 7. of the Request: Privacy notice for scientific research (updated 15.3.2024)

Please also apply, if necessary:

• Data protection advance assessment (PIA) (24.10.2022)
• Template for Data Protection Impact Assessment, DPIA(24.10.2022)

Other instructions

• The Ethics Committee recommends that at least one week before submitting the request for a statement, the applicant sends the data management plan to UEF's Data Support for comments: datasupport@uef.fi 
• The Ethics Committee recommends that at least one week before submitting the request for a statement, the applicant sends the Privacy Notice for Scientific Research and the Participant Info Sheet to UEF's data protection officer for comments: tietosuoja@uef.fi 
• Data management plan
• Additional instructions for planning the management of sensitive and confidential data
• Personal data processing in scientific research (UEF)
• Instructions for processing datasets and other information security rules (UEF)
   
• Research Integrity
• Ethical guidelines for responsible academic partnerships with the Global South

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.

Changes to a research plan which has received a positive ethical review statement from the ethics committee

An amendment request for a new statement needs to be presented to the ethics committee when:

• the research plan is changed in such a way that the change may weaken the rights of the research participants or increase the risks, damages or harm caused by the research.
• if a research design, sub-study or data is added to the research plan, which was not mentioned in the original plan and which has an impact on the ethics of the research.

Notification of change must be made to the ethics committee when:

• changes occur in the members of the research team
• there will be changes to the schedules (e.g. regarding data collection)
• some individual section of the study is not carried out
• the study is interrupted so that the participants may feel uncertainty about their status or the use of research data
• there will be other essential changes to the implementation of the study

If you are planning to send an amendment, please contact first the secretary of the Committee Mika Saikkonen for instructions.