Fraudulent qualitative study participants: experiences of two nurse researchers

BACKGROUND: Qualitative research enables the exploration of human experiences, supports theory development and reveals the reasons behind complex nursing phenomena. The shift to virtual data collection during the COVID-19 pandemic introduced challenges, particularly the rise of fraudulent study participants, that threaten data integrity. AIM: This report aims to raise awareness of the concept of fraudulent participation in qualitative research in the nursing discipline and discusses actions that qualitative researchers can take to reduce or eliminate recruitment and enrolment of fraudulent participants. DISCUSSION: Through a case series presentation, nurse researchers share two experiences of managing fraudulent responses in qualitative research. Both studies encountered suspicious patterns, vague participant responses, repeated participation attempts and refusal to turn cameras on. In both studies, researchers lacked clear protocols to address fraud. CONCLUSION: Fraudulent participation highlights the need for standardised guidelines, proactive measures and institutional support to ensure research integrity in online qualitative nursing research. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Implementing standardised recruitment protocols and providing training for nurse researchers are important steps in detecting and preventing fraudulent participation in qualitative research. Additionally, developing ethical guidelines and fostering collaboration among researchers will improve the integrity and reliability of research findings.