Procedures for investigating allegations

The Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity (TENK), which is appointed by The Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland, has updated the guidelines for the responsible conduct of research and for handling alleged violations of conduct (the RCR guidelines) in co-operation with the Finnish research community. The objective is to promote the responsible conduct of research while ensuring that the alleged violations are handled with competence, fairness and expediency. The RCR guidelines provide researchers with a model for the responsible conduct of research. The effectiveness of these guidelines is based on a voluntary commitment by the research community to adhere to them, and to increase awareness of the principles of research integrity. The RCR guidelines apply to all academic disciplines in Finland, and a list of the organisations committed to these guidelines can be found on the Advisory Board’s website. The objective of these guidelines is to promote the responsible conduct of research and to prevent misconduct in research in all organisations involved in research work, such as universities, research institutes and universities of applied sciences. These guidelines are also to be adhered to, whenever applicable, when co-operating with enterprises and other partners, either nationally or internationally.