This study examined all the research published in Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing (JKAN) for last 30 years, from its beginning year to year 1999, based on an objective frame of evaluation. The purpose of this study is to reflect the trend of nursing research in Korea to date, and to provide an optimal direction for future research. The total number of 959 studies were analyzed with the following results. 1. Since 1990s, the number of non-degree based research has been larger than that of degree-based research compared to 1970s and 1980s. Both collaborative and funded research has been particularly increased in a gradual rate. 2. Research on nurses or nursing students has decreased while research on more diverse populations such as patients, patient families, or community-dwelling healthy clients has increased. 3. While essential nursing concepts such as human, nursing, and health have been consistently dealt as main research topics, research related to the concept of environ- ment has been insufficiently conducted. 4. It was remarkable that the quality of nursing research has been improved due to the acknowledgement of the importance of the empirical research method within the nursing community. 5. Qualitative research has appeared in the journal since the late 1990s, but it is still regarded to be in its novice stage. 6. Although the utilization of research findings for expanding the nursing body of knowledge has been wide in diverse specialties, most studies are limited to focus on concept development or evolution yet. also, in some of these research finding are utilization already considerably as to develop nursing interventions. Based on these findings, conclusions are extended to the following discussions: For the last 30 years, nursing research in Korea has shown an acute methodological development in both quantity and quality. However, there has been a lack of research on theory development although it is one of the ultimate goals in nursing. Further research should be empirical enough to be utilized in an actual nursing care context, and thus to be basis of developing culturally competent nursing theories in Korea.