Doctoral-prepared nurses play an important role in providing a robust supply of nursing faculty and researchers, as well as advancing nursing education, science, and practice (Ketefian & Redman, 2015; American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2010; Weaver et al., 2023). Currently, nursing schools and colleges offer varied doctoral-level degrees, including research-focused doctoral degree in nursing (e.g., Doctor of Philosophy [PhD], Doctor of Nursing Science [DNS]), educational focus doctoral degree in nursing (i.e., Doctor of Education [EdD]), and practice-focused doctoral degree in nursing (e.g., Doctor of Nursing Practice [DNP]) (Ketefian & Redman, 2015). Research-focused nursing doctorates have been available since the mid-1960s. In 2022, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) revisited research doctorate education and suggested a greater focus on fostering the scientific discovery and inquiry, implementing systematic evaluations of program outcomes, and advancing postdoctoral competencies and resources (Weaver et al., 2023). In contrast, the DNP degree is designed to prepare nurses for advanced practice roles since 2004 (Auerbach et al., 2015). DNP-prepared nurses evaluate clinical practice approaches, appraise evidence, and create clinical strategies to improve practice and health outcomes in the healthcare system (Brown & Crabtree, 2013). Although the research- and practice-focused doctoral degrees differ in curriculum, graduation criteria, and scope of practice and scholarship, they complement and rely on each other to advance nursing education, research, and practice.

Since its initiation, the number of DNP graduates has steadily increased, reaching an estimated total of 49,429 nurses with DNP degrees in 2020. In contrast, the number of PhD graduates has remained stable, with an estimated total number of 7752 nurses holding PhD degrees in 2020. With advancements in the healthcare system, the importance of collaboration between nursing research and clinical practice has been particularly emphasized. Owing to the distinct competencies of nursing doctorate degrees and their complementary skillsets in translating evidence-based nursing interventions from research to practice, professional institutes and organizations have promoted strategies to enhance PhD-DNP collaboration. These institutes and organizations include Institute for Medicine, Southern Nursing Research Society, and AACN (Ashcraft et al., 2021; Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, 2011; Murphy et al., 2015). Scholarly collaboration for PhD-DNP nurses often involves researchers working together on common research projects to produce new knowledge. Through scholarly collaboration, both PhD- and DNP-prepared nurses can support each other's work and redefine the nursing profession's approaches to translating and implementing nursing knowledge and science (Ruppar, 2023; Trautman et al., 2018). Importantly, a collaborative PhD-DNP team can significantly impact the quality of care and patient outcomes (Cowan et al., 2019; Halloway et al., 2023). Therefore, developing innovative programs to promote PhD-DNP scholarly collaboration can enrich both doctoral programs and further contribute to the success of faculty and students.

Faculty in PhD and DNP programs have agreed on the importance of collaboration, collegiality, and the sharing of resources (Edwards et al., 2016). Unfortunately, PhD- and DNP-prepared or preparing nurses have faced various challenges in collaborating, largely due to a lack of role delineation (Dreher et al., 2012; Redman et al., 2015) and a misunderstanding of roles (Staffileno et al., 2017). Both PhD- and DNP-prepared nurses felt that DNP-prepared nurses needed to spend more time in clinical practice, and thus making them less likely to be experienced in scholarly work and less likely to receive support for such work (Smeltzer et al., 2015). Interestingly, 76 % of DNP-prepared nurses indicated their readiness to function in faculty roles; however, only 19 % of the PhD-prepared nurses agreed with this assessment (Grey, 2013; Loomis et al., 2007), further demonstrating role ambiguity in academia and scholarship (Udlis & Mancuso, 2015). Besides disagreements regarding the capability of the DNP-prepared nurses to conduct research, both PhD- and DNP-prepared nurses reported a lack of opportunities and structural support for collaboration (Garcia et al., 2025). They cited respect, time, role clarification, and mutual goals as primary factors contributing to effective scholarly collaboration (Garcia et al., 2025; Staffileno et al., 2017).

Regarding the challenges of PhD-DNP scholarly collaboration, existing literature is predominantly grounded in academic settings and focuses mainly on PhD- and DNP-prepared faculty (Cowan et al., 2019; Kennedy et al., 2022; Mauro et al., 2018; Nickasch et al., 2018; Pinto et al., 2021; Rocafort, 2020; Staffileno et al., 2017). Almost all the studies were conducted in or in collaboration with a university or university medical center (Staffileno et al., 2017). The specific intricacies of PhD-DNP scholarly collaboration across regional nursing societies, as well as the perceptions of doctoral-prepared and doctoral-preparing nurses toward scholarly collaboration and its influencing factors, remain understudied. This research gap hinders the development of targeted interventions and programs to effectively enhance scholarly collaboration between PhD- and DNP-focused doctorates in nursing. Given these commonalities in mind, finding ways to improve scholarly collaboration between PhD- and DNP- prepared and preparing nurses is imperative for the advancement of the nursing profession, the quality of care, and healthcare outcomes.

The purposes of this study were to: 1) investigate the perception of scholarly collaboration and its influencing factors among doctoral-degreed nurses (e.g., PhD, DNP, and EdD) and nursing students seeking doctoral degrees (e.g., PhD, DNP, and EdD) in a nursing society-based region, and 2) understand nurses' experiences in promoting scholarly collaboration. The findings of this study can guide the design of programs and activities to promote scholarly collaboration between nurses holding research doctorates and those holding practice doctorates. Moreover, our findings contribute to the existing literature by defining the potential barriers and facilitators to scholarly collaboration between critically distinct and complementary nursing professionals, whose combined body of work is instrumental in addressing the health care needs of the public.