Ethical principles of publishing at the University of Jyväskylä

The Rector has approved these Ethical principles of publishing at the University of Jyväskylä 12 June 2020. These principles replace the Ethical principles of publishing signed by the Rector on 15 May 2014

Introduction and application

Ethical principles and legislation are followed in all research activities of the University of Jyväskylä. These principles guide publishing activities at the University of Jyväskylä from an ethical point of view. They are followed throughout the University's scientific community, regardless of discipline.

The Universities Act (24.7.2009/558 2§) obliges that “the universities shall arrange their activities so as to ensure a high international standard in research, artistic activities, education and tuition in conformity with research integrity”.

University of Jyväskylä is committed to the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity’s (TENK) guidelines Responsible conduct of research and procedures for handling allegations of misconduct in Finland (2012, the so called RCR-guidelines) and the supplementary recommendation Agreeing on authorship. Recommendation for research publications (2019), and to promote good scientific practice in all its research activities. “Each individual researcher and research group member is primarily responsible for complying with the principles of the responsible conduct of research. Nonetheless, the responsibility also rests on the whole research community: research groups and their principal investigators, the directors of research units in accordance with the management system."

According to the University of Jyväskylä Regulations, 48§: “In addition to the University staff and students, the University community comprises grant researchers, emerita and emeritus professors or other persons with similar contracts, the staff of the group companies of the University and other persons working for the benefit of the University.”

TENK obliges universities to ensure that members of the university community have sufficient expertise in matters related to good scientific practice: “In order to guarantee the practice of the responsible conduct of research, universities should offer continuing education in research integrity to their teachers, to supervisors of theses, researchers, heads of research programmes and to other experts.”

General principles of research integrity

According to TENK, the premises for the responsible conduct of research are the following:

  1. The research follows the principles that are endorsed by the research community, that is, integrity, meticulousness, and accuracy in conducting research, and in recording, presenting, and evaluating the research results.
  2. The methods applied for data acquisition as well as for research and evaluation, conform to scientific criteria and are ethically sustainable. When publishing the research results, the results are communicated in an open and responsible fashion that is intrinsic to the dissemination of scientific knowledge.
  3. The researcher takes due account of the work and achievements of other researchers by respecting their work, citing their publications appropriately, and by giving their achievements the credit and weight they deserve in carrying out the researcher’s own research and publishing its results.
  4. The researcher complies with the standards set for scientific knowledge in planning and conducting the research, in reporting the research results and in recording the data obtained during the research.
  5. The necessary research permits have been acquired and the preliminary ethical review that is required for certain fields of research has been conducted.
  6. Before beginning the research or recruiting the researchers, all parties within the research project or team (the employer, the principal investigator, and the team members) agree on the researchers’ rights, responsibilities, and obligations, principles concerning authorship, and questions concerning archiving and accessing the data. These agreements may be further specified during the course of the research.
  7. Sources of financing, conflicts of interest or other commitments relevant to the conduct of research are announced to all members of the research project and reported when publishing the research results.
  8. Researchers refrain from all research-related evaluation and decision-making situations, when there is reason to suspect a conflict of interest.
  9. The research organisation adheres to good personnel and financial administration practices and takes into account the data protection legislation.

Ethical principles of publishing

Good scientific practice for publication

The principles of good scientific practice presented in the RCR guidelines of TENK, apply also to publishing activities that “must also be complied with integrity, meticulousness, and accuracy in conducting research, and in recording, presenting, and evaluating the research results must be observed, in the name of responsible science communication”.

According to the RCR-guidelines of TENK, “before beginning the research or recruiting the researchers, all parties within the research project or team (the employer, the principal investigator, and the team members) agree on the researchers’ rights, responsibilities, and obligations, principles concerning authorship, and questions concerning archiving and accessing the data in a manner acceptable to all parties.”

It is a violation of good scientific practice, according to TENK’s guidelines, “denigrating the role of other researchers in publications, such as neglecting to mention them, and referring to earlier research results inadequately or inappropriately, as well as manipulating authorship, for example, by including in the list of authors persons who have not participated in the research, or by taking credit for work produced by what is referred to as ghost authors.”

Alleged violations are investigated in accordance with TENK guidelines.

Determination of authorship and authorship in research publications

TENK has defined the principles related to authorship in its recommendation Agreeing on authorship of scientific publications (2018).

According to these recommendation, “the rights, responsibilities and obligations of the participants in a research project must be agreed upon in a way that all parties approve of immediately at the start of the project”.

Any questions regarding the authorship of a PhD dissertation must be agreed upon well in advance, and the result recorded in the supervision document of the doctoral student.

It is good to be aware of the differences between the disciplines involved, and to negotiate at an early stage how these differences can be reconciled.

“When the authorship of an individual publication is decided, it is important that the practice agreed upon is generally accepted in the discipline in question and that everyone involved is aware of the decision. Especially in multi-disciplinary and international projects it is essential to be aware of the differences between the disciplines involved.”

Furthermore, “in connection with collective work, it is agreed which criteria will be used to define the editor, editor-in-chief or member of the Editorial Board, or to take into account the contribution, for example in the acknowledgements of the publication.”

The disputes are resolved in accordance with the procedure presented in RCR guidelines of TENK.

TENK's definition of authorship

According to TENK, “author refers to someone who has made such a substantial contribution to the creation of a scientific article or similar publication that they should be included in the list of authors and contributors”.

“Discipline-specific practices vary regarding who is entitled to be included in the list of authors. In addition to writing the text of the published article, the following are all contributions: conceptualising and planning the research, production, analysis or interpretation of the research data, development of data or methods used in the work, editing a collective work, and (for example) creating images to illustrate the research. How these contributions are acknowledged in the publication must be discussed and agreed upon.”

“When the authorship of an individual publication is decided, it is important that the practice agreed upon is generally accepted in the discipline in question and that everyone involved is aware of the decision”.

Definition of authorship of Vancouver recommendations

In its recommendation, TENK refers to the ICMJE guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors, or the so-called Vancouver recommendations.

The ICMJE guidelines recommend basing authorship on the following four criteria:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work AND
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content AND
  3. Final approval of the version to be published AND
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

References