The study aims to analyse the scientific academic background of the concept of ‘values education’ which has nearly twenty years historical background in Turkey. In this context, 957 articles completed by the end of 2017 regarding values education were examined. The articles in the research have been examined by considering variables such as publishing performance in terms of year, institution, department; distribution by method and related components, and according to the topics discussed; theory, approach, and models used in creating scientific background. The research is structured in descriptive document scanning model. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in data analysis. Examination forms developed by the researchers were used to analyse the articles. As a result of the examinations, it is carried out that the highest number of articles (113) was reached in 2015; while most of the articles (70.7%) are written by researchers working in the field of education, researchers from the fields of theology (11.6%), science-literature (6.1%) and other fields (4.5%) have also contributed extensively to the articles; the rate of articles scanned in high-level indexes (SSCI, SCI and AHCI) and articles in foreign languages was low; the studies which samples are from primary and higher education are more intense; the most addressed issues were the value preferences, and attitudes and evaluations regarding the values education; in 22.7% of the articles, a clear, understandable and independently followed and repeatable method was not specified; while the explanation of academic contribution of the article was found to be incompatible with the subject, problem and method, and scientifically problematic in 4.2% of the articles, no explanation about the academic contribution was specified in half of the articles.