Opinnäytetöiden osalinjaus/en

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Open education and educational resources, open access to scholarly publications. National policy and executive plan by the higher education and research community for 2021–2025: Policy component for open access to theses

Open Access to Theses

The Declaration for Open Science and Research states that "In the research community, responsible openness is a part of everyday research throughout the research process, and research organisations have assessment practices, incentives, and services in place to support this." (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2020, 3) This also applies to the thesis process, and this policy component on open access to theses applies to all theses completed in higher education institutions (bachelor’s and master’s theses at universities and universities of applied sciences, advanced studies theses, licentiate theses, and doctoral theses). Open science enables a broader use of research results by the research community and society, thus increasing the impact of research as well as the level of scholarship and innovation in society. Openness and the transparency of the process are also intended to support the quality of research. In the context of universities of applied sciences, a thesis is a task that requires and demonstrates expertise and takes into account aspects of the challenges of working life, thus making openness particularly useful from a professional point of view. The policy component on open access to theses has been developed to serve these basic objectives from the perspective of theses.A thesis written in a public educational institution is, in principle, a public document (Constitution of Finland 12.2 §; Openness Act 1 §). A thesis being a public document means that the metadata of the thesis are available, and the thesis is accessible directly or upon request. According to a 2019 decision by the Administrative Court of Northern Finland, copyright law does not limit the disclosure of information about a public document, and the author's consent is not required for disclosure (Dnro 01976/17/1203).All theses are public, but in addition to publicity, efforts and skills are needed to promote openness, both in terms of publications and education. Openness is a core value of science and research, and a part of responsible research and teaching.

The of immediate open access is to raise the quality of science and research and to increase their societal impact and visibility (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2019, 2). According to a Ministry of Education and Culture's guideline (Dnro 3/500/2004), universities and universities of applied sciences must ensure that their theses do not contain confidential material and that they are made public as soon as they are approved. If the research material of a thesis contains confidential material, it should be placed in the background/annex material rather than the publicly accessible part of the thesis. The Publicity Act defines what information should be kept secret ( § 24, link in Finnish). The National Defence University and the Police University College may, if necessary, deviate from the thesis publicity requirement on the grounds of security classification. Open access to a thesis means making the work available online free of charge. In some subjects, there may also be parts of a thesis, such as events or artwork, which cannot be made open. In practice, it is mainly the archivable part of the thesis that can be opened. Openness and the degree of openness are the thesis author’s choice, but organisations and supervisors must ensure that every thesis author has the option to be open and to determine the degree of openness, for instance by providing the infrastructure and guidance to enable openness.In principle, theses are not considered publications, but doctoral theses are also research publications. Similarly, articles that are included in theses are publications, to which the policy on open access to scholarly publications applies. Theses and dissertations are usually made openly available in a repository (e.g. Theseus, institutional repository).

Responsible Opening of Theses

Higher education institutions are responsible for providing thesis supervisors and authors with support and guidance in opening theses responsibly. An essential part of this support and guidance is to provide advice on the laws (e.g. General Data Protection Regulation, The Copyright Act) and principles of good scientific practice to be followed when making a thesis public and possibly open access. It is also important to advise, for example, that when publishing and opening theses, one must respect the copyright of third parties, especially concerning the use of images, and that the privacy of research subjects should be respected. Higher education institutions must ensure that thesis supervisors and authors have sufficient support and guidance to meet accessibility requirements for all theses. The minimum digital accessibility requirements are defined in the Act on the Provision of Digital Services (link in Finnish), and the accessibility of theses is also required in the third principle of the National Policy on Open Education and Educational Resources.

Objective 1: Theses will be openly accessible.

All theses approved from 2025 onwards will be openly accessible.

Actions required to achieve the objective:

1. All thesis authors have an equal opportunity to publish their thesis open access.. All thesis authors have an equal opportunity to publish their thesis open access, regardless of, for example, grade, field of research, funding base or career stage.
2. By 2025, higher education institutions provide thesis supervisors and authors with support and guidance on how to open theses responsibly. Thesis supervisors and authors will have the necessary skills to open theses responsibly..
3. Higher education institutions recommend that the archivable part of the thesis be licensed under a Creative Commons license, taking into account copyright. Other open licences, such as open-source licences, may also be used depending on discipline. 1. Institutions of higher education develop guidelines for thesis supervisors and authors on how to open theses responsibly.2. Organisations offer support to the thesis supervisor and the author in choosing the appropriate open licence. Third party rights must be taken into account when licensing..
4. The metadata of theses, excluding abstracts, will be openly published under a CC0 licence.1. Organisations will provide support and guidance for metadata production..
5. By 2025, higher education institutions provide a contract template for theses conducted in cooperation with companies and other organisations (such as research institutes). Conditions for open access will be defined as part of the contract template..
6. By 2025, higher education institutions provide a contract template for collaborative work on theses, defining the conditions for open access..
7. From 2025 onwards, higher education institutions support and train thesis supervisors and authors in data management. The thesis author will write a data management plan to the extent required by the thesis level, if the thesis involves research data. 1. Both the supervisor and the thesis author have knowledge of and skills to apply the FAIR principles. The organisation provides support for FAIR management, e.g. in the form of guidelines. If research data included in the thesis is opened, it will be handled in accordance with the policy for open research data and methods..
8. Accessibility requirements apply to all theses. Higher education institutions will provide thesis authors with an accessible template for the textual material as well as guidance and support for its use. Support will also be provided for other thesis formats to ensure the thesis author can make them accessible..
9. For articles included in theses, the policy component for open access to journal articles and conference publicationsis applied.1. Higher education institutions provide support and templates for obtaining permission to republish articles included in theses.2. For article-based theses, the use of delayed publication (embargoes) should be avoided. 3. Authors' awareness of predatory publishers and their practices will be increased..
10. Higher education institutions aim to cover reasonable costs of open access publication of theses (e.g. article processing charges, Teosto fees).1. Thesis authors are informed about open access article publication channels without author fees..
11. Higher education institutions provide a publication repository for the archivable parts of theses (e.g. institutional repositories, Theseus)..
12. Portfolios and theses containing prior learning outputs may be subject to the policy on open education and educational resources. Where appropriate, prior learning or theses will be identified and recognised..

Glossary

Accessibility: Digital accessibility means supporting equality and inclusion, i.e. 'that as many people as possible can use online services as easily as possible. It also means that accessibility has been taken into account in the planning and implementation of the services' (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2021, 9). Accessibility is mandatory for public documents such as theses and open educational resources, among others. Accessibility involves good technical implementation, ease of use, and comprehensibility of content (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2021, 9–10).

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Creative Commons: Creative Commons, the world's most common open licensing system, was created in 2001. It is the preferred licence for open source material in many countries. Creative Commons licences are designed to be easy to use and understand. It is up to the author to decide on the licence according to their own objectives. In principle, a CC licence includes an irrevocable worldwide right to redistribute the material. By choosing the appropriate additional conditions from a list of four, the author can limit these rights as they see fit. Read more: https://creativecommons.org/

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Embargo: A restriction under which material can be freely used only after a set waiting period, for example once a publication has been released.

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Metadata: Metadata or descriptive information refers to the context, content and structure, management and/or processing of research data and information describing and summarising its compilation.

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Structured data

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Opening up education or Open Education means extending access to and participation in education to larger audiences and target groups by lowering barriers to education and increasing accessibility, unrestrictedness, offering and learner-centeredness. It diversifies the possibilities of teaching, learning and building, joint development and sharing of knowledge and combines the pathways of formal and nonformal learning. Although open education is often carried out using digital technologies, open education is not the same as digital education or digitalisation of educational resources.

In this policy, culture of open scholarship refers to the working environment and methods of science and research.

The publication in its entirety is available on the Internet free of charge and without restrictions to read, print and copy at least for non-commercial use.

Creative Commons, maailman yleisin avoin lisenssijärjestelmä, luotiin vuonna 2001. Se on suosituslisenssi avoimille aineistoille useissa maissa. Creative Commons -lisenssit on suunniteltu helppokäyttöisiksi ja helposti ymmärrettäviksi. Aineiston tekijä päättää itse lisenssistä omien tavoitteidensa mukaisesti. Lähtökohtaisesti CC-lisenssi sisältää maailmanlaajuisen peruuttamattoman oikeuden jatkolevittää aineistoa. Valitsemalla sopivat lisäehdot neljän eri ehdon joukosta tekijä voi rajoittaa näitä oikeuksia sopivaksi katsomallaan tavalla. Lue lisää: https://creativecommons.org/

Creative Commons, the world's most common open licensing system, was created in 2001. It is the preferred licence for open source material in many countries. Creative Commons licences are designed to be easy to use and understand. It is up to the author to decide on the licence according to their own objectives. In principle, a CC licence includes an irrevocable worldwide right to redistribute the material. By choosing the appropriate additional conditions from a list of four, the author can limit these rights as they see fit. Read more: https://creativecommons.org/

Creative Commons, världens vanligaste öppna licenssystem, skapades 2001. Det är den rekommenderade licensen för öppet tillgängligt material i många länder. Creative Commons-licenser (länk på finska) är utformade för att vara lätta att använda och för-stå. Upphovspersonen väljer licens enligt sina egna mål sättningar. Utgångspunkten är att en CC-licens innehåller en oåterkallelig världsomspännande rätt att vidaredistribuera materialet. Genom att välja lämpliga ytterligare villkor bland de fyra nedan kan upphovspersonen begränsa dessa rättigheter på det sätt som hen anser lämpligt. Inga ytterligare begränsningar eller villkor kan knytas till CC-licensen. Läs mer: https://creativecommons.org/

FAIR principles are a set of guidelines to make research data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. This facilitates scientific discovery and access to knowledge. (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2023, 34.)

Digital accessibility means supporting equality and inclusion, i.e. 'that as many people as possible can use online services as easily as possible. It also means that accessibility has been taken into account in the planning and implementation of the services' (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2021, 9). Accessibility is mandatory for public documents such as theses and open educational resources, among others. Accessibility involves good technical implementation, ease of use, and comprehensibility of content (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2021, 9–10).

Information or materials related to the thesis assignment that should be kept confidential.

The archivable part of a thesis includes any part of the thesis where the publication format allows for long-term preservation. In some disciplines, there may also be parts of a thesis, such as events or artistic works, which are not archivable.

A fee that may be charged by the publisher of an open access journal to the author or their organisation. Article processing charges may be charged by fully open access journals (so-called "gold standard" journals) or by "hybrid" journals, where only part of the content is open access. (The Helsinki Term Bank For the Arts and Sciences)

Availability refers to the accessibility of information in, for example, a public document. This means that the information in the document can be used at the desired time and in the required manner. An accessible document may, for example, be openly accessible or available on request.

Business collaboration refers to collaboration between research organisations and companies for consideration or free of charge, which may vary from informal interaction to organised collaboration. Forms of collaboration include contract research, commissioned research, training and consulting. The collaboration can be funded by a public or private sector organisation.

Data Management Plan (DMP) is a formal and dynamic document that specifies how resources are managed across the life cycle of a thesis, covering, for instance, research data, analysis steps (e.g. protocols, algorithms, procedures), devices and tools (e.g. information on lab equipment and manufacturers, reagents, infrastructure, software), other relevant documentation, versioning, preservation, services, terms and conditions, and open development and sharing of research data, methods and infrastructures. (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland, Federation of Finnish Learned Societies 2023, 34)

Rajoitus, jonka mukaan aineiston vapaa käyttö alkaa vasta säädetyn odotusajan jälkeen esimerkiksi julkaisun ilmestyttyä.

Begränsning, enligt vilken fri användning av materialet börjar först efter en reglerad väntetid efter att t.ex. en publikation kommit ut.

A restriction under which material can be freely used only after a set waiting period, for example once a publication has been released.

Institutional repository is a technical system for the storage and open online publication of scientific publications and the services built around it. (The Helsinki Term Bank For the Arts and Sciences)

Med metadata avses beskrivande och sammanfattande information om forskningsmaterialets kontext, innehåll och struktur, behandling och/eller hantering samt insamling av det.

Metadata or descriptive information refers to the context, content and structure, management and/or processing of research data and information describing and summarising its compilation.

Metadatalla, metatiedolla tai kuvailutiedolla tarkoitetaan tutkimusaineiston kontekstia, sisältöä ja rakennetta, hallintaa ja/tai käsittelyä sekä sen kokoamista kuvaavaa ja tiivistettyä tietoa.

Opening a thesis means that the archivable part of the thesis is made available online free of charge. Making the thesis public means that the metadata of the thesis are available, and the thesis is accessible directly or on request. A public thesis is therefore not necessarily open.

A journal or other publication that presents itself as scientific but neglects the responsibility of a scientific publisher, for example for peer review, and relies on aggressive marketing and charging fees to authors (The Helsinki Term Bank For the Arts and Sciences).

see Opening a thesis