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According to the Act on the Openness of Government Activities, a thesis completed in a public educational institutions and leading to a degree is an official document in the public domain unless specifically provided otherwise (Section 12 of the Constitution of Finland; Section 1 of Act on the Openness of Government Activities).
In addition, the Act on the Openness of Government Activities defines which kind of official documents are deemed confidential. Documents that are considered confidential are, for example, documents that contain information on a private business or professional secret and documents concerning the plan or basic materials for a dissertation or other scientific study (Section 24). In theses, any confidential material has to remain in the background material.
According to the guideline issued by the Ministry of Education and Culture (2/500/2004), the universities and the universities of applied sciences have to ensure that theses do not include confidential information and that theses are public right after they are approved. When you submit your thesis for assessment, you have to choose the extent to which your thesis will be available online.
If you select open publication, your thesis will be published in its entirety in the UTUPub repository where it will be openly available for everyone. Your thesis will be allocated its own uniform resource identifier that is easy to share and reference (e.g. in a CV)..
If you select restricted access publication, your work’s metadata (including author, title, date of approval, subject and unit/faculty) and the abstract are stored in the UTUPub repository excluding the entire text of your thesis.
NB: if the thesis is a scientific article, ensure that the journal publishing the article allows the publication of the thesis/article in the UTUPub repository as a thesis or as part of one. In these cases, you should discuss the matter with your thesis supervisor.
The privacy notice of the UTUPub repository is available at https://www.utu.fi/en/privacy/library-privacy-notices.
More information:
Theses and data protection (in Finnish)
Data Protection Ombudsman on 27 July 2010, see also: Scientific research and data protection
Tekijanoikeus.fi
A Finnish and Swedish-language website on copyright directed at educational institutions and citizens with information on copyright, Finnish copyright organisations, and available learning materials.
In accordance with the Finnish Copyright Act, a work made public may be quoted, in accordance with proper usage to the extent necessary for the purpose (Section 22). Proper usage means that the citation is used purposefully, for example, to support your own work or to illustrate a matter.
The permitted length and use of citations is determined on a case-by-case basis depending on the type of the work. Citations must not be used as elements of a new work nor out of context.
In accordance with Section 11, subsection 2 of the Finnish Copyright Act, the author's name and the source must be indicated to the extent and in a manner required by proper usage. In addition, marking citations and sources in theses can also have discipline-specific instructions.
The right to quote is not limited to certain types of works or techniques.
Using work of art or photograph as citation in a thesis
In its statement (2002:16), the Copyright Council stated that the inclusion of an entire picture as a quotation on the basis of the provision on the right of quotation (Section 22) can be viewed with reservation.
Instead, works of art made public may be reproduced in pictorial form for a critical or scientific presentation (Section 25) when the photograph is materially connected to the text and used to illustrate or clarify text.
Photographs taken by others cannot be used in theses without permission (Section 1, Section 49a).
More information and useful links
Quoting a mathematical problem (statement of the Copyright Council 2012:1, in Finnish)
Image citation (statement of the Copyright Council 2002:6, in Finnish)
Using copyrighted materials in a thesis is subject to permission. This kind of material can include, for example, different kinds of photos, illustrations and maps (Copyright Act, Section 1 and 49a).
In other words, when using photographs or other images or illustrations that meet the threshold of originality, you have to ask permission from the photographer, creator or publisher, and mention that the picture is included with the permission of the creator. If 70 years has passed since the death of the creator, the copyright is no longer valid and you can use the image without a separate permission.
You can use a chart or table that does not meet the threshold of originality when you mention the original creator and source.
Instead, works of art made public may be reproduced in pictorial form for a critical or scientific presentation (Section 25) when the photograph is materially connected to the text and used to illustrate or clarify text.
More information on copyright and using images is available in the ImagOA guide.
Permissions
Start requesting permissions well in advance, preferably when you find the image you wish to use in your thesis. If you do not receive a response to your request for permission, or if the answer is no, leave the image out of your thesis.
You can usually start by contacting the publisher to ask for permission.
Most publishers offer a service that allows you to request permission and receive it immediately, for example RightsLink. If such a service is available, use it in the first instance. For images on web pages that are not specifically marked with copyright information, you can contact the webmaster of the site.
Threshold of originality
Copyright does not protect information or ideas, but the form of expression. In general, the requirement for crossing the threshold of originality is the independence, originality, and creativity of the expression. Even if these criteria are not met, the work may be protected by related rights, for example in the case of photographs.
In general, technical drawings, tables and diagrams do not meet the threshold of originality, but it is often good scientific practice to ask for permission in these cases as well. The original creator and source must also be acknowledged when using images that fall below the threshold of originality.
More information about the threshold of originality can be found in the statement 2012:1 (in Finnish) of the Copyright Council.
Obtain permission for using map images
For example, the National Land Survey of Finland states on its website the conditions for using its maps. If the terms of use of the map data state that the maps are freely available, the source must still be mentioned.
If you draw the corresponding image/figure yourself, you will still need permission if the original image/figure exceeds the threshold of originality. Drawing the image according to the original model is copying, for which permission must be obtained. If, on the other hand, you draw a completely new image that cannot be combined with the original, no permission is needed.