PAKISTAN’s nursing profession is finally gaining the academic recognition it has long deserved, with new academic pathways, faculty positions and promotion criteria now being increasingly tied to published research. However, this progress carries a hidden cost: nursing faculty and postgraduate students, often working without institutional funding or research mentorship, are being pushed hard towards predatory journals to meet requirements of publication quota.
These journals charge a high fee, skip meaningful peer review, and publish almost anything submitted. For a discipline whose research is meant to directly shape patient-care protocols, an evidence- base built on un-reviewed papers is not just a serious health risk; it is also an academic embarrassment in the eyes of professionals.
The same resource gap drives reliance on pirated textbooks and unauthorised journal access, since many nursing colleges cannot afford legitimate subscriptions that larger medical universities take for granted. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) maintains a Journal Recognition System to flag predatory outlets, but nursing and allied health literature needs dedicated, actively updated vetting, not a footnote in a system built primarily for medical sciences.
The Pakistan Nursing Council (PNC) should also consider subsidised journal access and structured writing mentorship before publication quotas are enforced. Recognition should not come at the high cost of the discipline’s research integrity.
Ameet Kumar
Karachi
Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2026
