Ethics in research

Knowledge belongs to all of humanity. A scientist can use the scientific achievements of others in research and build on them, come up with new results and contribute to overall well-being. Because of all this, there are international standards for the use of scientific methods and a code of conduct in scientific research, which are important so that scientific works can be protected from all forms of dishonesty.

The Code of Ethics of Good Scientific Practice (GSP) defines the rules of conduct at all stages of scientific research. The basic ethical principle of a scientist's work is intellectual honesty, which must be present in all phases of his work: from setting a hypothesis, through choosing a work methodology, conducting research, analyzing and interpreting the results obtained and publishing them.

On 16 November 2011, the University of Primorska published a code of ethics, which sets out the basic ethical norms to which all its teachers, researchers, students and other employees are bound. In their research work, they also follow the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, revised edition published by ALLEA - Association of European Academies. The document describes in detail the basic principles of research, good research practices and examples of violations of research integrity. The European Commission recognizes this code as a reference document for research integrity for all EU-funded research projects and as a reference model for organizations across Europe.

In the field of ethics at the University of Primorska, there are two commissions of the UP Senate.

On 23 September 2015, the UP Ethical Issues Commission (KEV UP) was established. The commission discusses and takes views on ethically controversial actions and practices and performs other tasks, related to general ethics issues. Six members were appointed to the commission.

From 24 February 2021, the UP Commission for Ethics in Research Involving Work with People (KER UP) has been working at the University of Primorska with the main task of conducting ethics assessments of research on people or people-related secondary data, which do not fall under the responsibility of the national ethics commissions. The commission has five members.