Introduction

Although the development of nursing research is every day becoming more concrete, the related Mexican journals do not fulfill the index level of methodological rigor required by the National System of Researchers.

Objective

To describe the topics and methodological characteristics of nursing publications in the main Mexican journals in the last 5 years.

Method

This is a descriptive, retrospective, and transversal study. Six national journals published from the 2nd semester of 2010 to the 2nd semester of 2015 were analyzed. The sample included 244 original and/or research articles. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies and percentages, were calculated.

Results

Education level of the 1st author: master’s degree or superior: 38.2%; institutions of higher studies: 66.8%; main topic: clinical 45.8%; does not use theory: 84.0%. From the studies with a quantitative design: descriptive analysis: 49.1%; transversal: 73.5%; without ethics registry: 79.6%. From the studies with qualitative design: semi-structured interview: 83.9%; open coding: 80.6%; rapport: 3.2%.

Conclusions

Future nursing research should implement and fulfill the corresponding criteria to enhance its quality, so that its products can become part of a trustable, replication-capable, and useful body of evidence which can drive the development of nursing.