Nursing education can be divided into various types of training and practical education. Training facilities can be divided into universities and many types of nursing schools. Most medical universities have various types of multiple branch libraries that serve these different types of facilities. The core journals at each facility should differ according to the types of users. The author investigated these differences. The first author's affiliation was used to identify the type of education facility responsible for each article. Articles that cited journal papers, that were written by Japanese author (s), and that were published in three major journals (Kango-Kyoiku, The Japanese Journal of Nursing Education; Nihon Kango Kyoikugaku Kaishi, Journal of Japan Academy of Nursing Education; and Nihon Kangogaku Ronbunshu: Kango Kyouiku, ) were included in the analysis. Journals issued between 1998 and 2005 were surveyed, and 1235 articles with references were selected from amongst the 1496 articles in total. When compared according to the authors' groups, the percentage of articles citing journal papers was about the same (90%). Ninety percent of the papers were by Japanese authors. Ten percent of the citations were for articles in the same journal, and about half were for articles that had been published within five years. The ten most-cited journals were the same at universities and junior colleges, but one journal differed at nursing schools. At nursing schools and hospitals, seven of the top ten journals were the same. When all of the training facilities and hospitals were compared, 51 journals were common to all facilities and 18 journals were among the 50 most-cited journals for all groups. So, these 18 journals form the core journals in nursing education.