This page compiles instructions on the Research Council of Finland's calls for applications and project reporting.
The guidance is primarily aimed at researchers to help understand the connection between the Research Council of Finland and the VIRTA publication information service. This instructions page aims to reduce the need for higher education institutions to maintain their own instructions. Higher education institutions may, however, have their own supplementary guidelines.
VIRTA publication information service
- VIRTA publication information service, launched in 2016, complies publication information from all Finnish universities, universities of applied sciences, and university hospitals. In addition, the majority of research institutes provide publication information to the service.
- The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture has collected publication information from higher education institutions and university hospitals since 2011 and from research institutes gradually since 2014.
- VIRTA publications can be browsed in the Research.fi service.
- Publication information is used e.g. in calculating universities' and universities of applied sciences' financing models. The publication information collected in the service can also be utilized in various systems and services.
- The Ministry of Education and Culture is responsible for VIRTA service's costs and lifecycle management. CSC – IT Center for Science implements and maintains the service.
Use of publication information in the Research Council of Finland
Retrieving publication information from the Research.fi service's interface significantly reduces the researcher's workload on reporting when data does not have to be entered manually. In addition, the VIRTA publication information retrieved through the Research.fi service is in a commensurate form and checked by research organizations which makes it easier for the Research Council of Finland to utilize than manually entered information.
Utilizing publication information in project reporting
The revised project reporting utilizes the Research.fi service's publication data so that the researcher can retrieve publication information automatically into their project's scientific report. Before, the researcher entered their research project's publication information into the scientific report one publication at a time.
Searching publications from the Research.fi service to the Research Council of Finland's project report is done similarly to searching publications to the application, with the exception that only publications with a publication year included in the funding period or the following year can be saved to the report.
Utilizing publication information in applications for funding
When applying for funding, the researcher's previous scientific production is part of the project's scientific evaluation material. The researcher or the person entering the information searches the Research Council of Finland's online services for publications using search criteria of their choice. The Research Council of Finland's system retrieves publications corresponding to the search from the Research.fi service and returns publications corresponding to the search, from which the researcher can select publications related to their project to be saved for the application or report. Only publications selected by the researcher are imported into the Research Council of Finland's system from the Research.fi service.
See Academy of Finland's instructions on how to search publication to the application.
Why can't I find my publications?
If your publication information cannot be found in the Research Council of Finland's application's publication search, it may be due to one of the following reasons:
- The publication has been made in an organization that does not provide information to VIRTA publication information service.
- The publication has been published before 2011.
- Organisations may also choose to submit publications older than 2011 to the VIRTA publication information service. If necessary, contact the person responsible for publication information collection from the your organization. See the list of organizations' contact persons for the VIRTA information service.
- The author information in the publication is incorrect or the author name is missing from the publication.
You can check if the publication can be found in Research.fi.
You can search again for the name of the author appearing in the publication in the Research Council of Finland's application form.
The organizations providing the information are responsible for its accuracy in the VIRTA publication information service. You can contact the person responsible for publication information collection from your organization. See the list of organizations' contact persons for the VIRTA publication information service.
Your organization has not yet submitted your publications to VIRTA.
You can check if your information can be found your home organization's site and contact the person responsible for publication information collection from your organization. See the list of organizations' contact persons for the VIRTA publication information service.
Some organizations update their information to the VIRTA daily, some less frequently.
Your publication has not been submitted to VIRTA because it does not meet the publication information collection requirements.
For example, The publication channel must have an external editorial board and the publication must be related to research. See Publication data collection instructions for publication authors.
If the publication is not yet in the VIRTA publication information service, the researcher can add it to the Research Council of Finland's project report by entering the information manually. NB. The manually entered publication information does not transfer to the VIRTA publication information service from the Research Council of Finland's form.
You can contact tiedejatutkimus (at) csc.fi in case you have any questions or want to report problems.