Faculty members are overwhelmed by tremendously huge academic responsibilities. This might lead to both professional and personal burdens. These burdens might in turn influence research integrity and may potentially prompt unethical practices. This study aims to explore the lived experiences of pre-tenured and tenured nursing faculty members in Jordanian universities, focusing on how they perceive and navigate the challenges of publication and research integrity. A descriptive phenomenological design guided by Giorgi’s method. In-depth semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with purposively selected nursing faculty members at two large Jordanian universities: one public and one private. Thematic analysis was used to capture the essence of participants’ experiences. A purposive sample of nine pre-tenured and tenured, master’s and PhD nursing faculty members in Jordanian universities, public and private. The analysis uncovered five themes reflecting the faculty’s experiences in research publication and integrity. This included: (1) Institutional Paradoxes and Lack of Support (lack of financial funding for publishing, absence of workload reduction, and constrained research structure); (2) Crushing Teaching and Administrative Burden (administrative and clinical responsibilities, administrative and clinical responsibilities, and heavy teaching schedules with large class sizes); (3) Quantity over Quality in Research Evaluation (point system and author order, and devaluing candid contribution);4) Unethical Research Practices (data fabrication and manipulation, exploitation of graduate students, and predatory practices of publication); and 5) Emotional and Existential Price (frustration and disappointment, fatigue and burnout). This study highlights the pressures and challenges nursing faculty members face regarding publication and research integrity. Universities should move beyond numeracy-based promotion systems and develop strategies to foster a healthy and ethical research environment that contributes to raising the quality of scientific production. Not applicable.
Alfaqieh et al. (Mon,) studied this question.