Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the trend of nursing research by analyzing doctoral dissertations of nursing college at Seoul National University. Method: The doctoral dissertations used in this study were 69 thesis from 1989 to 2001. The methodological characteristics, theory, philosophy and world view in these thesis were explored. Key words were classified according to metaparadigm and were compared with MeSH term. Result: There were 54 dissertations of quantitative research and 12 dissertations of qualitative research. Most of subjects of the thesis were patients with 20~65 years old. The written consent to participate in research was not described in great part of thesis. As to measurement, questionnaire was most frequent used. In independent variables cognitive nursing interventions were used frequently. Psychosocial variables as a dependent variable were used mainly. In theory level of research, situation-producing research was performed. In type of nursing knowledge according to Caper many dissertations studied about empirical knowledge. More than half of doctoral dissertations used borrowed theory from nursing related disciplines. Most of studies were done within empirical positivism and organic viewpoint. Key words related to the concept of environment among four metaparadigm has been insufficiently studied. English key words in doctoral thesis were out of accordance largely with MeSH term English. Conclusion: These results show that it is necessary to develop the nursing theory for nursing knowledge body.