Good scientific practice

The RCF is committed to following the guidelines of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity, The Finnish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and Procedures for Handling Alleged Violations of Research Integrity in Finland (PDF), and requires compliance with them also by RCF-funded researchers and other actors.

We require that good scientific practice be observed in all research and activities we fund. Applicants must always describe in their research plans under ‘Responsible science’ (or in some cases with a separate appendix) how the funded research or activity complies with good scientific practice. If good scientific practice is not described in the application, the application will not be considered (processed). The description of the compliance with good scientific practice is among the criteria used in the review of applications.

Describing good scientific practice means, for example:

• how the research or activities are planned and carried out so that they comply with the principles of reliability, honesty, appreciation and responsibility
• how authorship, responsibilities and obligations are agreed upon in the research team
• how proper referencing and respect for the work of other researchers are ensured
• how possible conflicts, ambiguities or risks are identified and prevented
• if there are issues regarding research ethics in the research or activity, how will they be taken into account.

In international cooperation and when applying for EU funding, we also require compliance with ALLEA’s European Code of Conduct for Research integrity (PDF). Finnish guidelines for good scientific practice also oblige researchers in their work abroad.

In addition, we recommend that RCF-funded researchers follow the following guidelines:

• UniPID’s (Finnish University Partnership for International Development) ethical guidelines for international research cooperation
• ethical guidelines for research involving the Sámi people in Finland in all fields of science
• other ethical guidelines and recommendations of the National Board on Research Integrity, for example those concerning agreeing on authorship in scientific publications (PDF).