Purpose: This study was aimed to investigate the characteristics of quality of life articles published in Korean nursing journals. Methods: 313 quality of life articles among 8334 articles published from the first issue to last issue until August, 2011 in ten nursing journals were reviewed by one researcher. Data was collected with structured sheets including publishing data, design, participants, instruments, intervention, and related factors. Data was analyzed with SPSS (version 16.0) using frequency and percent, mean and standard deviation. Results: Only five of 1188 (0.4%) articles published from 1970 to 1995 were on the quality of life. However, the number of quality of life articles published in nursing journals has been increased to 5.4 percent, in 2011. Survey studies were 72.9% of quality of life articles. Main study participants of quality of life articles were adults or elderly (92.5%), patients with cancer (27.6%). 61 quality of life instruments were used. The most common interventions for improving quality of life was education (31.1%) followed by exercise (21.3%). The concepts related to quality of life were depression followed by social support and health status. Conclusion: Quality of life articles have been increasing after 1990. Considering many survey has been done until now, it is recommended to activate experimental studies to test the effect of improving the quality of life for each intervention.