Introduction. Journals play an important role in enabling scientific studies to be read. Published articles are of vital importance in developing evidence-based practice in nursing and strengthening professional nursing. Aim. The aim of this analysis was to describe the publication profile of Polish nursing research. Material and methods. The top four Polish general nursing journals with open-access were included in the study. All published papers in Polish Nursing, Nursing and Public Health, Nursing in 21th Century and Nursing Problems for the years 2015–2019 were analysed regarding the types of publication, number of authors and issues of the study. Results. The sample consisted of 658 research papers, 294 review articles, 38 professional communications and statements, and only 51 case reports. The most common authorship was with the two authors (n=260). Only 18 studies were co-authored by 8 or more authors. The co-author of every sixth article was a nursing student. Lifestyle and quality of life variables, clinical issues of gynecology and obstetrics, internal medicine and surgery continued to be studied mainly. Papers focusing on infectious diseases remained low (n=21). The most popular method for collecting data was an author’s questionnaire. Patients were the most frequent subjects. Over half (54%) of the studies contained a sample size 100 or more. Conclusions. Editors of Polish general nursing journals were allocating nearly two thirds of their space to original research papers which means that the journals serve as important vehicles to research disseminating in nursing. However, nursing journals need also to increase and encourage the publication of case reports authored by nurses because they are more likely to be read by bed-nurses and stimulate interest in specialist literature.

Key words: nursing, nursing research, scientific literature, general nursing journals.