국내 간호학 학술지 투고규정의 연구윤리 기준 분석*

Background: All research involving human subjects, including research done in the field of nursing, should satisfy appropriate scientific and ethical requirements. Medical journals that publish the results of such research can help to ensure that researchers do satisfy these requirements by explicitly listing them as preconditions of publication in the publication guidelines (“Instructions for Authors”).

Purpose: This study was designed to examine the explicit ethical requirements for the protection of human subjects in the publication guidelines of nursing journals.

Methods: The guidelines of 19 nursing journals were reviewed to determine whether or not they required authors to a) comply with the Helsinki Declaration, b) have their projects approved by an institutional review board (RB), c) obtain informed consent, d) protect subjects’ privacy and confidentiality, and e) explicitly state any conflicts of interest.

Results: Twelve of the 19 (63.2%) journals included at least one of these ethical requirements in their publication guidelines. The most common requirement was the need to obtain informed consent, followed by the need to comply with the Helsinki Declaration. None of journals mentioned the need to have research projects approved by an IRB.

Conclusion: While the publication guidelines of nursing journals have improved in recent years, there is a need for further explicit instructions to ensure that authors satisfy all ethical requirements in conducting research on human subjects. Further studies are recommended to determine if IRB approval should be a requirement for publication in nursing journals.