This paper presents some snapshot views of the problems of, and prospects for, developing a research culture in nursing.

It argues that nursing research is enmeshed in political, social and gendered forces.

Any achievement has to be set within the framework of nursing's relative youth and its own intellectual history within academe, along with the impact that different research traditions have exerted upon it.

It is argued that lessons might be learned from models used to develop research in similar groups, for example by nurses in the USA or among social science researchers in this country.