Ethical issues and research data management

Springtail (Entomobrya nivalis) on top of a fungus cap. Sten Anslan.

Ethical issues and research data management

Good scientific conduct and research ethics are inherent in all science. It is therefore important to take them into account at the research design stage and when planning research data management.

The Ģ��ֱ�� is committed to following good scientific practice and the guidelines established by in its research activities. The researcher has the primary responsibility for research ethics. To achieve this, guide responsible research data management from the planning stage onwards. Ethical and legal considerations are at the heart of good scientific practice. These are also at the heart of responsible science at the Ģ��ֱ��. They always affect data management, i.e. how research data is collected and handled, what rights are attached to the data, where the data can be stored, how and to whom the data can be shared and how it can be opened. If necessary, an ethical review must be carried out, and this is always done before the research starts. An application for an ethical review is made to the JYU Human Sciences Ethics Committee, or, in case of clinical research, to the ethical committee of .

In addition to an ethical review, the research may also require a research authorisation. Research authorisation procedures vary depending on the discipline and type of research. Research authorisation may be required from the organisation whose data will be used in the research.

Scientific research is governed by a number of laws and regulations that set freedom and limits to the conduct of research. Freedom of research is guaranteed by , and . This means that in scientific research, the researcher is free to choose his or her research subject and research method.

According to the , scientific research may use as research material material material and information that is otherwise classified as secret or protected. For example, confidential documents of public authorities may be made available for research purposes. On the other hand, research-related documents are classified as confidential per se when they are part of the activities of a public authority and are subject to the principle of publicity that defines it (Publicity Act § 24.21). In this case, for example, a research plan is confidential when it is part of the university's operational documents.

General information on the main legal provisions and their impact on the management of research data, in particular with regard to data protection:

is a fundamental right of the individual and aims to protect the privacy of personal data when it is processed (read more about and JYU's privacy policy for researchers). Personal data is any information from which an individual can be identified and which must be processed and collected without compromising the privacy of the individual. Data security is one means of implementing data protection and aims to protect personal data, health data, and other important information from unauthorised access by technical and possibly other measures, including security training, firewalls and anti-virus software.
The main legal instruments affecting the protection of personal data are the Data Protection Act and , which allow the processing of personal data for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest (Article 4 of the Data Protection Act; Article 6.1(e) of the GDPR). However, the GDPR does not apply to personal data of deceased persons. provides more information on . &�Բ��;

More on data protection as an element in research data management

Medical and health science research is regulated by several statutes.

The (488/1999), aka so-called Research Act applies to medical research including human movement sciences and nutritional sciences involving intervention in the integrity of a person for the purpose of increasing knowledge of health, the causes, treatment and prevention of diseases.

The (983/2021) applies to medical products.

The Secondary Use Act (552/2019) or the Act on the Secondary Use of Social and Health Data. The objective of the Act is to ensure the secure secondary use of personal-level customer data generated in social welfare and health care service activities. Secondary use of data refers to its use for other purposes, such as teaching and research, for which it was originally stored. operates as a data permit authority under the Secondary Use Act. Read more, the .

acts as the Finnish data licensing authority under the Secondary Data Protection Act.

The information in the research datasets can be public, limited in some way or even secret. Confidential or secret can be classified in addition to personal data based on, for example, information about (Act on the Openness of Government Activities, § 24.14) when the species is protected, endangered or sensitive to local disturbances. Similarly, access to information on a species may be restricted for reasons of biosafety, for example when a plant or animal disease threatens the health of other organisms.

Confidential data are also information related to national defence, trade secrets and information that may cause financial damage to the trader (Act on the Openness of Government Activities, § 24.10 and 20).