Leiden University · Faculty of Humanities

Thesis & Research Supervision

Ethics & AI

This page collects the key ethical guidelines, university policies, and regulations relevant to your thesis research.

Ethics Review

For BA and MA students: Your thesis research is reviewed for ethical concerns by your supervisor, not by the faculty Ethics Committee. During supervision meetings, we will discuss any ethical dimensions of your research design — particularly if your work involves human participants, sensitive data, or vulnerable populations.

Exception: Research Master students must submit their research for formal review by the Faculty Ethics Committee.

If you are unsure whether your research requires formal ethical review, consult your supervisor early in the process.

Checklist: BA and MA students should use the faculty’s Ethics Checklist and Flowchart (PDF) with their supervisor as a risk-screening tool. If the checklist suggests formal review may be needed, your supervisor or programme should determine the correct route.

Code of Ethics

All thesis research must comply with the principles outlined in the Code of Ethics for research involving human participants. The code addresses informed consent, confidentiality, data storage, and the rights of research subjects.

Generative AI Policy

The Faculty of Humanities has established guidelines governing the use of generative AI (GenAI) tools in academic assessment. Key points:

  • GenAI products or outputs may not be used in assessed work unless your teacher or supervisor has explicitly allowed the specific use under clear conditions
  • Discuss any planned GenAI use with your supervisor before building it into your thesis workflow, so you can agree on which tasks are appropriate and what needs to be documented
  • Procedural support, such as file organization, scripting, corpus cleanup, checks, documentation, grammar support, or machine translation, still needs to be appropriate for the assignment and verified by you
  • You remain responsible for the thesis: the research question, evidence, interpretation, argument, and final claims must be work you can explain and defend
  • Any permitted use of GenAI in assessed work or research methodology must be disclosed, cited according to Faculty guidance, and documented with prompts and outputs available on request
  • Do not upload confidential, personal, copyrighted, or otherwise protected source material or research data to GenAI tools

Required resources:

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a serious academic offense. It includes presenting another person’s work, ideas, or words as your own without proper attribution. This applies equally to printed sources, internet sources, and GenAI outputs.

Consequences range from a failing grade to referral to the Board of Examiners. All theses are checked for plagiarism.

Academic Integrity

As a thesis student, you are expected to uphold the highest standards of academic integrity. This includes:

Disability Accommodation

If you require academic accommodations due to a disability, contact your study advisor early in the process. Accommodations for thesis work (such as extended deadlines or alternative formats) are arranged through the formal university process.

Ethics Committee

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