Responsible research

Responsible conduct of research and procedures for handling allegations of misconduct in Finland (Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity)

The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities)

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainability and responsibility theses of the UNIFI (Universities Finland)

Bonn Declaration on Freedom of Scientific Research

Gender Equality (Responsible Research and Innovation Tools)

Promotion of equality and non-discrimination at the Academy of Finland

Vademecum on Gender Equality in Horizon 2020

Declaration for open science and research

DORA Declaration

EOSC Declaration

Open science means, in particular, making research data, methods and research results openly available. Openness promotes transparency, reproducibility, impact and collaboration of research and saves time and resources. Responsibility is a key element of openness, i.e. science and research are as open as possible and as closed as necessary.

1. The University’s Open Science practices follow both national and European Union guidelines.
2. Publicly funded research outputs, such as publications and research data
   are, in principle, open and accessible for joint use.
3. Level of openness is influenced by agreements, commercial interests, benefit to the university community, interests of those involved in the study, sensitivity of the data, research ethical principles, security and data protection and other legislation.
4. Actions to promote open science are part of a researcher's merit and are taken into account in recruitment and career development.
5. The University supports the openness of science by creating incentives and evaluating its progress.
6. Operating models that embrace openness in corporate co-operation are supported. The University recommends researchers to utilize the national checklist when collaboration with companies.
7. Citizen science is integral to our approach. The University recognizes the value of involving diverse communities in e.g. data collection, analysis, and problem-solving.
8. Each researcher is recommended to create and maintain an ORCID identifier.
9. The University recommends licensing open research outputs under the Creative Commons - CCBY 4.0 license. The license ensures recognition of the author while allowing others to reuse and build upon the work.
10. The University actively contributes to the global open science community.

Accepted 31.8.2018, updated 29.4.2024.

For information and guidance please contact: openscience@oulu.fi.

The principles of open access publishing of the University of Oulu describe the general principles and prerequisites for the publishing activity of the university personnel and publications of the university based on the Recommendations to research organizations from the National Coordination Group for Open Science (in Finnish).

For instructions and support for scholarly publishing see the Open access publishing guide of Oulu University Library.

1. The research outputs are published following good scientific practice.
2. The University requires, in the disciplines where it is possible, researchers to choose channels that allow either CC-BY licensing for their publications or immediate self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of the article with a CC-BY licence.
3. The University requires that the publications of researchers are self-archived into the University’s open access repository, according to the terms of the publisher. The prerequisite also applies to open access articles.
4. Theses and dissertations as well as other publications published by the University are published open access in electronic form and they are licensed with a CC-BY licence when possible.

Accepted 31.8.2018, updated 18.2.2024.

For information and guidance please contact: openpublishing@oulu.fi

This policy is based on the FAIR principle for publicly funded research and its outputs, according to which research outputs and their descriptive metadata are made Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. In addition, this policy aims to ensure the reproducibility of research results and methods, which is a core value of scientific integrity and quality.

1. Every member of the University community shares responsibility for good data management throughout the research lifecycle.
2. The researcher draws up a data management plan (DMP) at the planning stage of the research. The DMP is to be updated as the research proceeds. The DMP should include information on how the data is collected, stored, shared and preserved, as well as how the reproducibility of the research is ensured.
3. The University requires metadata for research data to be stored in a national or international data repository or archive that provides a persistent identifier (e.g., DOI or URN) and allows the data to be citable.
4. The research data are to be stored and opened in a trusted national or international storage service or data archive whenever possible. The University secures research data creators the sufficient right to the primary use of the data to be opened.
5. The University requires that research data authorship, ownership, access rights, terms and conditions, as well as long-term preservation, will be agreed as early and clearly as possible.
6. Support is offered to researchers for legal and ethical issues related to research data.
7. When using other researchers' data, the appropriate laws, ethical principles and regulations must be followed.
8. The University provides a research data infrastructure that supports management, sharing and reproducibility of data.

Accepted 31.8.2018, updated 29.4.2024.

For information and guidance please contact: researchdata@oulu.fi

Research infrastructures are an integral part of a high-quality, high-impact and internationally attractive research and innovation environment. State-of-the-art and competitive research infrastructures create a platform where research, education and innovation can cross paths and develop. University of Oulu has a number of high-quality, interdisciplinary infrastructures which support research but also serve business life and companies.

This University of Oulu's policy for Open Research Infrastructures describes the general principles for the responsible use and development of university-level research infrastructures. The Policy can also be used, where applicable, for the research infrastructures of the Faculties and Separate Units.

This policy takes into account national (Strategy for National Research Infrastructures in Finland 2020–2030) and EU-level guidelines (European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures: Principles and Guidelines for Access and Related Services; The European code of conduct for research integrity drafted by the European Science Foundation (ESF) and the European Federation of National Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA).

1. Research Infrastructures are continually developed, taking into account the requirements of sustainable development, innovation and responsible research. Infrastructures support the University's research activities and also take into account external users.
2. The development of Research Infrastructures and related investments are carried out systematically and services are integrated into both national and international processes where possible.
3. Research Infrastructures comply with national and international law and agreements (such as intellectual property rights and the protection of privacy, research ethical considerations, data security and accessibility).
4. Users are treated equally without discrimination. The activities follow the equality and non-discrimination plan of the University of Oulu.
5. Research Infrastructures and their Users are required to adhere to good scientific practice, ethical behaviour and research integrity.
6. Research Infrastructures have clear practices that promote openness and sharing of resources.
7. The administration connected to requesting and granting access to Infrastructures is straightforward and kept to a minimum.
8. Research Infrastructures have persistent unique identifiers and easy-to-find guidance on referencing practices. Users should acknowledge the contribution of the Infrastructure in any output (i.e. publication, thesis, patent, data, etc.) deriving from research conducted within its realms.
9. The obtained research outputs are subject to University's Responsible Research guidelines unless a separate agreement has been made (e.g. commercial users).
10. Research Infrastructures have a Data Management Policy that instructs and encourages users to make their data FAIR compliant (discoverable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable). Infrastructures and Users should have an agreement on how to use the data.
11. Users are instructed in the efficient and appropriate use of services and equipment.
12. The services are easy to find, well described and their quality, price and accessibility are ensured.
13. Quality assurance systems for the Infrastructures are described in a transparent manner.
14. The impact and relevance of the Infrastructures are regularly assessed.

Accepted 31.8.2018, updated 13.1.2021.

For information and guidance please contact: RI@oulu.fi

The University recommends that researchers use open source, open standards and interfaces in software development. When using open source code, one must become acquainted with a separate instruction given by the university. The use of the open source code also requires the commitment to its licence conditions. In these licence conditions there are often binding regulations, among others, from the division of the code and from the use of the result material. The use of open source code has to be always thought about on the basis of the conditions of the project agreement and, among others, on the basis of the commercialising of the software. The choice must be discussed according to the situation with a project manager, supervisor, innovation services and/or lawyer.

Accepted 31.8.2018.

The University of Oulu is committed to the national policy on Open education and educational resources and the UNESCO recommendation on open educational resources.

Open learning extends access to learning by lowering barriers and increasing accessibility. In the context of open learning, key concepts are: Open Educational Resources, which are teaching, learning and research materials made available free of charge or with limited restrictions. Open Educational Practices, on the other hand, refer to practices that make learning and teaching transparent, shareable and further refined.

1. We recommend that teachers make use of open educational resources, publish their own educational resources and also organise open online education in cooperation. We use strategic actions to support teaching that aims for full openness.
2. We value the development of the openness of learning and educational materials in merit criteria and work assignment planning.
3. We recommend taking into account the requirements and opportunities related to copyright, accessibility and artificial intelligence already in the curriculum planning phase.
4. We recommend to publish educational resources using a Creative Commons - CC BY SA license. If necessary, a non-commercial use or share-alike element can be added. The recommended format for the license is: © [Author name], University of Oulu 2024 CC BY SA.
5. We require that all those who have made a significant contribution to the educational resources, including students, must be properly acknowledged.
6. We recommend using the national Library of Open Educational Resources for opening educational resources.
7. We recommend that video based educational resources should be published in the University’s YuJa service.
8. We encourage our staff to share their expertise in the planning, organisation and pedagogy of open education.

Accepted 26.2.2020, updated 22.5.2024.

For information and guidance please contact: openlearning@oulu.fi