The ethical principles of research with human participants and ethical review in the human sciences in Finland. Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK guidelines 2019 (plain-text version)

These guidelines are applied from 10 October, 2019. A research organisation may commit itself to following these guidelines by signing the commitment form that is available on the TENK web page, www.tenk.fi.

Publications of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity 3/2019

2nd, revised edition.

Violations of good research practices breach the principles of research integrity. They damage the quality and credibility of research and undermine research collaboration and authorship.

These actions may also be against the law, in which case they are investigated also in official or judicial procedures. Differences of opinion and disagreements over theories, methods or interpretations of results are part of academic discourse and generally not RI violations.

An RI violation meets one of the following criteria:

In Europe, there are several different national approaches available for investigating violations of research integrity. There are also countries which still do not have any national framework. There are basically two courses of action in determining scientific misconduct, investigating allegations and imposing sanctions: a model based on legislation and a self-regulation model by the scientific community.

Annual reports of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK. All files are in PDF-format.

The Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK: office term 1.2.2025–31.12.2027

The Ministry of Education and Culture has appointed the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK for the term 1.2.2025–31.12.2027.

Chair:
Chancellor Kaarle Hämeri, University of Helsinki

Here you will find information on other national advisory boards on research ethics in Finland and a list of international actors and guidelines in the field of research ethics and research integrity.

The Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK launched the research integrity adviser system in 2017. Research integrity advisers provide personal and confidential advice on research integrity to members of their organisation, and there are currently more than 150 advisers in more than 70 research organisations. The purpose of this system is to strengthen knowledge of research integrity and good research practices in the research community in Finland.

Due to the high volume of requests for statements, TENK’s processing times for statements may temporarily exceed the five-month deadline. (27 May 2026)