This study was conducted to describe trends of health services research (HSR) in Korea since 1968 and analyse the relevance of HSR to changes in health policy. Research methods are as follows: firstly, HSR articles were selected from 4 HSR related journals implicitly. Secondly, classification system of HSR was developed and then applied to previously selected papers in order to describe research trends. Finally, the frequency rankings of articles in research areas were compared with rankings in order of the importance of research area rated by experts. As a resesult, HSR articles have increased with time and three main research areas are health programme, health care financing, and health care organization/management. And many articles have been related to the efficiency and quality of health care since 1990. It seems HSR articles had little relevance to changes in health policy and policy environment. Especially, the recently disputed policy topic, namely the separation of prescription from disposing, has not received little attention since 1990. These findings suggest there is an urgent need for the reflection on HSR direction in Korea.