5.3 Research integrity, data protection and research permit

Checklist of ethical recommendations for thesis

1. I have ascertained my possible conflicts of interest.
2. I am familiar with the topic of my thesis.
3. I have, together with my supervisor, assessed the resources required for my work.
4. I am familiar with the good research practices and research ethics guidelines.
   • Instructions: Jamk’s ethical principles (For Students pages) (especially table 1, p. 11-12 on good research practices) and a summary of ethical principles in studies (Elmo, login reguired).
   • Instructions: I use sources appropriately (Help).
   • I respect the privacy of my research subjects, inform them well about the purpose and methods of the thesis, and ask them for the necessary consent.
   • I know what disregard or misconduct (e.g. plagiarism) are and how to avoid them. If a thesis worker is suspected of disregard or misconduct, a report is always made. Proven disregard or misconduct might result in the thesis being rejected.
   • Instructions: Ethical use of AI (Help).
5. I am familiar with the principles of processing personal information and data protection as well as the guidelines from my university of applied sciences.
6. I have assessed together with my supervisor whether my thesis requires an ethical review and/or research permits, and I have obtained these, if applicable. As a general rule, a thesis cannot have a research design that requires a ethical review.
7. I have acquired the necessary agreements.
8. I have agreed on authorship and co-authorship of publications related to my thesis.
   • Copyright is created by a human and is the result of creative work. If the human element is missing, it is not a work. AI is not a natural person, so it cannot obtain copyright.
   • Copyrights of works uploaded to Theseus (Theseus).
9. I have prepared a data management plan and will follow it.
10. I have declared the funding and other significant conflicts of interest connected to my thesis.
11. I am aware that my thesis is subjected to an originality check.
12. I understand that my thesis is a public document.
13. I understand how I may use AI tools in the thesis process.
14. I understand that I have a right to a high-quality thesis process.

This list is based on the following recommendations: Ethical recommendations for thesis writing at universities of applied sciences (Arene 2025).

Data protection

Familiarise yourself with data protection and the processing of personal data. In the thesis, data protection concerns the student preparing the thesis, the commissioner, potential research subjects and the written thesis complete with its research data.

Identify if your data contains personal data. Personal data means

• any information on a natural person and on their personal characteristics or personal circumstances, where these are identifiable as concerning them or the members of their family or household.
• all types of data that can be used to directly identify a natural person, but also data that can be used to identify a person indirectly (e.g. photos and voice recordings).

If you process personal data, you must have a privacy statement. Remove any personal identifiers, i.e. anonymize the material as soon as it can be reasonably analysed without identifiers. See the data protection page in the intranet for more detailed instructions.

Generally, theses do not collect data belonging to special categories of personal data (Office of the data protection ombudsman). If this is going to be done, it should be considered in advance together with the supervisor and determine whether there is a storage location for such personal data.

Research permit

If you are conducting research, you need to find out what special permits you will need. Discuss with a representative of the target organization or commissioner whether you need a research permit and how to apply for it. The research permit is always obtained from the organization to which the research pertains. Not all organizations require a separate research permit!

If you are doing your thesis as part of a project or other research, first discuss the research permit with the project or research supervisors.

If a research permit is required, you cannot collect research data until you have an approved research permit.

Jamk research permit

If you are researching Jamk, its students, or staff in your thesis or other research, or if you need archival or registry data from Jamk, you must apply for a research permit from Jamk well in advance before starting the research.

The application must be accompanied by:

• data management plan (mandatory)
• thesis privacy statement (If personal data is processed in the research)

Further information about the research permit and how to apply for it can be found from Jamk’s Research Permit website (please, see the link below). Reserve about two weeks for the processing of the research permit.

For instructions on creating a data management plan, see Chapter 4.4.6 Data management plan and processing of research data of this guide (please, see the link below).