Expression of concerns: Evaluating the importance of nurse competencies (doi: 10.17816/socm634585)

An article by L.I. Kaspruk entitled “Evaluating the Importance of Nurse Competencies” has been published in the Sociology of Medicine journal (doi: 10.17816/socm634585). This article is an appeal from the Editorial Board of the journal to the readership, expressing concern about the impact that may result from the publication of the above article. The concern arises from the lack of information in the article about the ethical review of the research protocol involving human participants and the approval of the protocol by an ethics committee. Furthermore, the participants in the study were not randomly selected respondents but rather representatives of the professional medical community. Unfortunately, the authors were unable to provide the ethics committee’s approval of the research protocol or the conclusion that the study did not require ethical review. The Editorial Board of the Sociology of Medicine journal considers this practice of conducting studies and presenting their results unacceptable. However, the article was accepted for publication due to the high significance of the presented data. Henceforth, the Editorial Board will not accept for publication the results of original research that violates the principles of biomedical ethics.