Violations against the responsible conduct of research include research misconduct (fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, misappropriation) and disregard for the responsible conduct of research (e.g. denigrating the role of other researchers in publications, manipulating authorship, self-plagiarism, or careless reporting of research results).
If there is reason to suspect a violation of the responsible conduct of research, the allegations of research misconduct must be investigated in accordance with the guidelines provided by the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK). The investigation is a three-tier process: 1) a written notification, 2) a preliminary investigation and 3) an actual investigation. In the University of Eastern Finland, any allegations of misconduct are reported to the Rector, who is responsible for decision-making throughout the process.
If you need assistance or guidance, you can contact the UEF's research ethics advisers (in Heimo, requires UEF login).
Conflict situations include, for example, personality clashes, issues related to tasks or management, or issues related to supervision. For solving those, so called low threshold principle is primarily applied:
- Supervisee (or supervisor) will contact the coordinator of the doctoral programme to book a meeting/an appointment.
- The situation will be explored in a confidential discussion with the head and the coordinator (or other suitable person) of the doctoral programme
- Who are the parties to the conflict?
- How should the situation change in order for the conflict to be resolved?
- The actions to attempt to resolve the situations will be defined.
- A memo will be written.
- A time/An appointment to follow up on the situation will be agreed on.
If the conflict is not resolved, it will be transferred to the head of the department / the dean.
Other working community situations include, for example, inappropriate feedback, suspected indoor air quality problem, or sexual harassment.
UEF Compasses (in Heimo, requires UEF login) have been created to provide guidelines for these situations.