Open science and research

Published 11.3.2020 | Updated 18.12.2025

Uniarts Helsinki is committed to openness

The principle of open science is that scientific knowledge and the results of research should be disseminated as early and widely as possible. The principle of openness penetrates the entire research process from research data to methods and publications. The openness of research promotes cooperation between researchers and the transparency and accessibility of research data. Uniarts Helsinki is a signatory to the Declaration for Open Science and research 2020-2025.

Uniarts Helsinki encourages its researchers to be open throughout the entire research process. The principle of openness must first be taken into account in the planning phase of the research project. More and more often, research funding providers require open procedures. However, in addition to openness, ethical principles and legislation restricting openness must be taken into account in research work.

Through Uniarts Helsinki’s publications, we want to increase the utilisation of artistic knowledge and research that has been produced with public funding and highlight its role as a resource that reforms society.

To promote openness, Uniarts Helsinki has appointed a working group for open science and research. Its task is to prepare open science policies and activities supporting open science and research at Uniarts, and it functions as a body of experts in matters relating to open science and research. The working group uses external experts when needed. The working group’s term is January 1st 2025 – December 31st 2028.

Uniarts Helsinki Open Science policy

The University of the Arts Helsinki is committed to promoting Open Science in its organizational culture. Uniarts Helsinki has signed the Declaration for Open Science and Research 2020–2025 and the supporting DORA Declaration (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment). Uniarts Helsinki is a member of the European coalition for research assessment CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment). In addition, national Open Science policies and recommendations guide the development of open science at Uniarts Helsinki.

The values of Uniarts Helsinki include openness. Open Science contributes to the quality and impact of research. In its research activities, the university respects the copyright laws that govern openness.

Uniarts Helsinki strives to strengthen transparency in research and to increase cooperation between researchers. At the same time, the quality of scientific and artistic research will be further improved.

As a rule, theses made at Uniarts Helsinki are openly available. Materials and data related to research carried out at the university are opened whenever possible. Uniarts Helsinki supports the promotion of an open culture by providing a range of services and training to support research and publishing.

In its research activities, Uniarts Helsinki acknowledges the boundaries of Open Science. These include:

• Contextual factors (e.g. artistic activities in time and space that can be part of research)
• The use of CC licences considers constraints such as those related to artistic research. There are cases where CC licensing is not applicable.
• The above factors may create constraints on the implementation of the FAIR principles in the opening of research data.

The career assessment, development and merit of researchers is promoted in cooperation with Uniarts Helsinki’s human resources services.

Uniarts Helsinki has specific and more detailed provisions on openness of research data and Open Access publishing in its policies and action plans.

Uniarts Helsinki Open Access publishing policy

The Uniarts Helsinki Open Access policy describes the general principles of publishing. The policy applies to researchers, staff and students working at the University of the Arts Helsinki. Publications of the University of the Arts Helsinki are typically both artistic and scientific in nature. Uniarts Vice Rector responsible for research approved the publishing policy on October 18th 2022 (updated December 17th 2025).

1. We follow the guidelines on responsible conduct of research determined by the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK) in the publishing and openness of our research results.
2. Uniarts Helsinki requires open access publishing when possible.
3. Uniarts supports publishing in Gold open access publication channels through a centralized APC fund, subject to specified criteria.
4. Uniarts recommends the use of Creative Commons licences in publishing text-based research outputs. If the research funder is the Academy of Finland or the European Commission, CC BY 4.0 should be used. When publishing with open licenses, the author(s) retains the copyright.
5. Uniarts recommends that researchers register their ORCID iD and add it to their publication data.
6. Uniarts Helsinki requires research publications produced within the institution to be self-archived. Research publications are self-archived in accordance with the prior licence model of Uniarts Helsinki. The researcher may choose to opt out of the prior licence model, in which case self-archiving takes place in accordance with the publisher’s terms and conditions. A peer-reviewed manuscript (Author Accepted Manuscript, AAM) or the publisher’s final version is self-archived in the institutional repository. Artistic publications or their parts are linked to the repository metadata.
7. The author is responsible for evaluating the quality and responsibility of the publication channel they have chosen to publish in.
8. The theses of master’s, licentiate’s and doctoral (both scientific and artistic) degrees are published, as appropriate, in Uniarts Helsinki’s open institutional repository Taju and also for example in Research Catalogue.
9. Training, support and guidance is provided for open access publishing.
10. The progress of open access publishing is monitored at Uniarts through the strategic goals of research.

Prior licence model at Uniarts Helsinki from 1 January 2026

By decision of the rector, Uniarts Helsinki has adopted a prior licence model. It is based on the Rights Retention Strategy (RRS), which ensures the open access of all peer-reviewed research articles of the university in the institutional repository, immediately after publication, under a Creative Commons licence.

The prior licence model is based on the recommendations of the international Plan S initiative, and its aim is to safeguard the researchers’ right to deposit their articles for long-term preservation in the university’s repository, as well as to share them openly, regardless of any restrictions imposed by publishers. It ensures the security of supply of research-based knowledge, supports financial sustainability and ensures the retention of researchers’ copyrights. At the same time, it enhances the open access to academic publications and improves research conditions, for example by enabling the development of new AI tools and methods.

Peer-reviewed research publications written by Uniarts Helsinki researchers will be deposited in the institutional repository Taju, starting on 1 January 2026, as follows:

• The prior licence model applies to peer-reviewed articles in journals, conference publications and anthologies (Ministry of Education and Culture publication types A1–A4).
• If the article has been published as Open Access under a Creative Commons licence, the final version published by the publisher (Version of Record, Publisher’s PDF) is self-archived.
• If the article has been published behind a paywall in a subscription-based publication channel, the latest peer-reviewed manuscript (Author Accepted Manuscript, AAM) is self-archived.

The prior licence model applies to all manuscripts submitted for review to the publication channel on or after 1 January 2026. It does not apply retroactively to manuscripts submitted for review before 1 January 2026.

All self-archived peer-reviewed articles, either the publisher’s Version of Record or the latest version of the author (Accepted Manuscript), are provided immediate open access in the repository, under a Creative Commons licence. Authors may choose to opt out of the prior licence model, if they do not want to provide immediate open access for their article published behind a paywall. In this case, the article is made openly available in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving practices. Unless the researcher specifically requests to opt out, they grant the university permission to make the AAM version of their article immediately open access in the institutional repository, under the default CC BY 4.0 licence.

If the publisher brings a claim against the researcher for breach of the publication agreement, Uniarts Helsinki agrees to assume legal and financial responsibility for a researcher affiliated with Uniarts Helsinki, provided that the researcher complies with the prior licence model of Uniarts Helsinki by depositing their manuscript in the university’s public open repository.

Openness of research data

Planning the management of research data is part of open research. The guidelines for research data management are defined in the university’s research data policy which was approved by Uniarts steering committee in 7 October 2020.

• When managing and opening research data, researchers need to adhere to the principles of research integrity and take care to ensure confidential information is kept securely in accordance with the university’s guidelines and legislation.
• The research services and the Library organise training in data management and give guidance on how to use the data management planning tool DMPTuuli. There is also a Research data management online guide available.
• The processing and preservation of personal data and sensitive material are taken into account in data management plans. If openness of the research data is not possible due to e.g. legal or ethical reasons, our objective is to provide open access to the metadata of the material. Research conducted at the University of the Arts Helsinki is largely focused on personal and artistic processes, which is why research data is opened only after careful consideration.
• When compiling a research plan or applying for funding, the researcher also compiles a data management plan. The data management plan must cover the collection and processing of data, ownership and rights to use, storage and preservation, reuse and publishing, disposal of data in a safe way and the related resource needs required by the planned measures.
• Researchers working with outside funding need to be aware of the funding provider’s requirements for the openness of their research data. Opened research data must mention the funding provider and the number of the funding decision. More information on research funders’ requirements on openness and how to follow their guidelines when applying for funding and conducting research can be found in the Guide to applying research funding and in the Project guide for researchers.
• Uniarts Helsinki’s academy management, lawyers and copyright advice services are responsible for discussing legal issues concerning the research.

Read Uniarts Helsinki’s Research Data Policy and Implementation plan for the research data policy.

Uniarts Helsinki’s open science and research guides:

• Publishing guide
  • Self-archiving guide
• Research data management guide
• ORCID guide
• Project guide for researchers
• Guide to applying for research funding