This study was designed to analyze the research methodology and the key concepts used in articles published in each nursing journal of seven branches of the Korean Academy of Nursing. The purpose of this study was for reflecting the trends of nursing research and suggesting the direction of future nursing research in Korea. One thousand three hundred seventy two articles published in seven nursing journals from the beginning year of 2000 were analyzed. The prevailing research designs for these journals were the non-experimental design ranging from 54.3% to 75.7%, the experimental design ranging from 6.2% to 30.4%, and qualitative research design ranging from 3.7% to 10.6%. Research subjects were 10.0% to 46.0% for clients with health problems, 2.1% to 42.4% for generally healthy persons, 1.4% to 43.9% for primary care-givers, 7.0% to 53.5% for nurses or nursing students, and 3.1% to 7.3% for health organizations or nursing organizations. The data collection method used most often self-report questionnaires using psychosocial measures. Interviewing methods and physiologic measures were used relatively few times. The domains of the key concepts that prevailed was personal domain and health domain. This study has the limitation of focusing on only the superficial structural analysis rather than in-depth content analysis of each article. However, this study is the first study for reflecting the trends of nursing research based on each journal of seven branches of the Korean Academy of Nursing.