The objective of the study is to analyze the review contents of reviewers for the submitted papers in the Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing in 2003.

The review contents of the 165 papers were selected 217 papers that were submitted in 2003. Among those 165 papers, the 21 papers belonged to the ‘Do not publish’ list and 17 papers, ‘Revise manuscript and resubmit’, list and the 94 papers, ‘Publish if revisions are made’ list. There are more than two level differences among the four levels of decision in acceptance of publication in 33 papers.

The analysis of the review contents for the papers were suggested according to review categories : introduction, method, results, discussion and conclusion. In addition, if papers had more than two levels of review they were rated poor accord or inconsistent.

For the quality of the academic journal and development of the nursing science, it is important to disseminate and publish the research paper. Therefore, review of the submitted paper is also important. Implications for the profitable review were suggested in the study.