Ethical guidelines

NHH's ethical guidelines for research, teaching and dissemination.

Academic freedom is a basic precondition for research, teaching and dissemination.

Academic freedom shall be exercised within an ethical framework and in a manner that serves the interests of the academic discipline, the NHH group and society at large.

The guidelines apply to all employees at NHH.

Research ethics

Researchers in the NHH group shall comply with the ethical norms for research, e.g. the requirements for honesty, impartiality and willingness to accept their own fallibility.

Researchers at NHH shall work on the basis of fundamental respect for human dignity and respect the integrity, freedom and right to co-determination of their research subjects.

Researchers have a particular responsibility to safeguard the interests of vulnerable groups in all phases of the research process.

Researchers in the NHH group shall respect the legitimate reasons given by enterprises and interest organisations for not publishing information about the organisation or its members.

Scientific honesty

Researchers and students in the NHH group shall comply with and promote the norms for scientific honesty, including the rules relating to plagiarism and good reference practice.

Co-authorship

The status of co-author is only earned by active participation in a scientific work. All authors have a shared responsibility for the research and its results

Commissioned research

The researcher is responsible for commissioned research satisfying scientific and research ethical requirements for honesty, impartiality and openness. The researcher also has co-responsibility for how the research results are used.

Commercialisation of research products

The commercialisation of research and research products is legitimate and desirable as long as it does not conflict with the NHH group’s capacity to promote academic and social development.

It must not lead to certain research areas being given priority in practice over academic fields that have fewer or no commercial opportunities.

Teaching – the relationship between supervisor and student

Teaching at NHH consists of the research-based dissemination of knowledge and training in academic values such as academic independence, self-reliance, responsibility and critical thinking.

Both supervisor and student shall respect academic values such as openness and honesty and be humble in relation to their own fallibility.

Supervisors are obliged to have students’ best interests at heart, and to not exploit their dependence. This applies to both academic results and personal relations.

Supervisors must help with any ethical dilemmas that their students or project co-workers encounter.

Dissemination and information

The NHH group shall help to disseminate academic knowledge to a wider audience. The NHH group shall facilitate diverse and comprehensive research dissemination, which is relevant and of a high standard.

Research-based knowledge shall be disseminated in line with ethical guidelines for dissemination, characterised by openness and honesty.

The requirements for honesty shall be met in all information activities in the NHH group, whether the information is for external or internal use.

NHH’s responsibility as employer

As employers, NHH, the Institute for Research in Economics and Business Administration (SNF) and the Administrative Research Foundation (AFF) have overriding responsibility for formulating and raising awareness of ethical guidelines.

However, all employees in the NHH group have an independent duty to take ethical guidelines into account and to think and act accordingly.