Every student possesses large amounts of data and materials in various formats, including lecture notes saved on their laptops and seminar papers stored on the University’s network drive.

Keep track of your study-related data – they may come in handy at a later stage of studies. For example, you can use the list of sources compiled for your seminar paper again when writing your thesis.

All students handle research data when working on their thesis, if not earlier.

Research data are commonly defined to include all the material needed to justify and repeat the research results, as well as any other material that others may find useful.

Taking the definition further, research data can include

• Physical or digital research source material (e.g., diverse archive material)
• Data produced during the study (e.g., results from measurements)
• Data collected using various methods (e.g., surveys, interviews, measurements, assessments, imaging)
• Organised collections
• Coded, catalogued, analysed and commented-on material at different levels
• Different versions of analysed data
• Physical and electronic laboratory journals
• Source codes and software

You can find examples of research data related to your own field in the theses stored in the University’s Digital Repository.

Examples of research material used in master’s theses:

• The sleeping places used by bears and the location data of bears (The effects of habitat and human activity on daybed selection in brown bear)
• Strains of Y. enterocolitica preserved by the Department of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health (Yersinia enterocolitica 2/O:9 – kantojen karakterisointi MLST-menetelmällä)
• Cancer cells, cell culture and related measurements (Ekstrasellulaarivesikkelien välittämän lääkekuljetuksen seuranta elinaikaerotteisella fluoresenssimikroskopialla)
• Works of art, nutritional guidelines, cookbooks and home economics handbooks describing 17th-century food and its preparation, eating and food culture (Ravintoa, lääkettä vai luksusta? Porvariston ruokakulttuuri 1600-luvun Englannissa ja Alankomaissa)
• A questionnaire for science camp participants and instructors and the responses to it (Biologiaa tiedeleireillä: leiriaktiviteettien kiinnostavuus lasten näkökulmasta)
• A patient case and its different parts (initial examination, dental age, estimate of dental arch condition based on plaster models, X-ray and cephalometric analysis, occlusion analysis, diagnosis, goal and treatment plan, treatment and follow-up visits, end of treatment and retention, as well as reflection) (Purennan kehitys ja oikomishoito lapsilla, esimerkkinä QH.kojeen käyttö lapsipotilaan suussa)
• Field laser scanning data and decaying wood measurements for a forest sample plot (Maalahopuun kartoitus maastolaserkeilauksella)
• The source code of a software development project (Lint-työkalun käyttöönoton vaikutus JavaScript-sovelluksen ylläpidettävyyteen)
• The EU General Data Protection Regulation and its preparatory work, the Data Protection Directive and related case law, as well as the opinions of the Working Party on the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Processing of Personal Data, specified in Article 29 (Rekisterinpitäjän osoitusvelvollisuus EU:n yleisessä tietosuoja-asetuksessa)
• The Book of Tobit, the Books of the Maccabees 1–4, the Book of Enoch, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Testament of Abraham, the Sibylline Oracles, the Psalms of Solomon, 2 Baruch, and the Community Rule (1QS) (Teot ja pelastus varhaisessa juutalaisuudessa)
• The target programmes of women’s wings in political parties (Vi i höger har möjlighet till jämställdhet, men hur har ni det i vänstern? En studie om jämställdhetsfrågor som presenteras av politiska partiers kvinnoförbund)