Introduction: Nursing doctorate program is very important in the development of the nursing profession and implementation of the new information. Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the characteristics of doctoral theses in the field of psychiatric nursing. Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive and retrospectif study, the theses have been reached by scanning "national dissertation center" site from T.R. internet board of higher education. In the research, characteristics of the 87 doctoral dissertations in the field of psychiatric nursing have been evaluated. Results: 87 Psychiatric nursing doctoral theses which were written between 1977 and 2012 have been reached. It has been found out that 37.9% of these theses were written between 2006 and 2010 and, 40.2% of instructors who have PhD degree have been working at health high schools. It has been identified that 54.0% of the theses advisors have the title of professor, 23% have the title of associate professors, and 23% have the title of assistant professors, and 88.5% of the theses advisors are in the field of psychiatric nursing. 25.3% of the doctoral theses have been done with nurses, 19.5% in the field of consultation-liaison psychiatry, and 19.5% with patients in psychiatry service. 55.5% of doctoral theses are semi-experimental type, 35.4% is descriptive type, and in 94.3% a data collection form and scale have been used as a data collection tool. It has been determined that 23.0% of the sample group of theses is the nurses, the application area of 57.5% theses is hospitals and 25.3% is schools. In 44.8% of theses sample size there are sixty people or less, in 8% there are five hundred people and above, and 31% of application period is 1-3 months, and 2.3% of application period is 13 months and above. Conclusion: The majority of doctoral theses in the field of psychiatric nursing have been carried out by psychiatric nursing consultants. The sample of theses is usually nurses working with psychiatric patients and psychiatric patients and health care providers working with physically ill individuals and individuals who have physical illnesses. More than half of the dissertations are types of quasiexperimental design and implementation period is usually 1-3 months.