Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify trends of nursing concept development in Korean journal papers to improve accurate understanding of nursing concepts. Methods: A systematic review of 216 concept development articles published from 1970 to 2018 that met the inclusion criteria was conducted using Research Information Sharing Service (RISS) databases. Results: The most common method of concept development was Walker and Avant’s concept analysis method, identified in 139 (64.3%) of the 216 studies, followed by 48 examples of hybrid models (22.2%) and 15 examples of evolutionary methods (6.9%). Chinn and Kramer’s method, Norris’s clarification, Wilson’s method, and others were also used. The concepts of “spirituality” and “fatigue” were most frequently analyzed. Among the 139 studies that used Walker and Avant’s concept analysis method, 127 studies (91.4%) applied all the recommended steps; the others applied the recommended steps partially, omitting description of model cases/additional cases, antecedents/consequences, and empirical indicators. Among the studies using the hybrid model, among two (5.7%) did not describe attributes, three (8.5%) did not provide definitions, and 16 (45.7%) did not present empirical indicators in the final stage. Conclusion Among concept development studies published in Korean journals, Walker and Avant’s concept analysis method is most commonly used. In case of most studies using Walker and Avant’s method a suitable concept analysis process is applied, but in case of other studies using the other concept development method, a suitable concept analysis process is not applied. Therefore, a suitable concept analysis process must be applied for concept development in nursing research.