Objective:

to analyze the evolution of nursing research in Ecuador through the publications made in this sector.

Method:

a review was carried out of the scientific publications included in CUIDEN, BIREME and PUBMED from 2000 to 2019.

Results:

there were 94 articles (53 in CUIDEN; 27 in BIREME and 14 in PUBMED) related to nursing knowledge in Ecuador, distributed in 31 indexed journals, out of which 3 were national and 28 internationals. The start of publications was observed since 2003, with variations, achieving a sustained increase from 2017 to 2019. More than 90 % of the publications were made by professionals affiliated to higher education with a predominance of the female gender.

Conclusions:

there is a need to promote the accessibility to journals, as well as interculturation in the thirteen officially recognized languages in Ecuador. It is necessary to increase the production of nursing knowledge with impact, as well as to publish the content, whether ancestral or from another line, of the materials that remain in the repositories of national universities.