Good practices in research and scientific publishing: what do nurse-researcher in Brazil know?

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the performance of nurse-researchers on topics related to good practices in research and scientific publishing. Method: a descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted by a nationwide online survey in 2020 with 197 Brazilian nurses. Descriptive and univariate analyzes and the Mann-Whitney test were performed on the total score of each professional. Results: Among the 18 specific questions, the average of correct answers was 7.14 (standard deviation: 2.559), with the minimum recorded for a correct question and the maximum 15. There was no difference in the average of correct answers between masters and doctors (p = 0.025), or between fellows and non-fellows of productivity (p = 0.021), according to tests of difference of means. Conclusion: A low performance of nurse-researchers was identified, regardless of the level of education in relation to knowledge of good practices in research and scientific publishing, which implies the risk of incurring questionable practices in scientific research. The expansion of strategies for the dissemination and articulation of this knowledge are necessary for the production of quality scientific knowledge in the area.