Nursing departments have a responsibility to promote nursing research activities. To attain this goal, they may select and/or adapt an organizational approach from existing models for nursing research. Research consortium, directorate, program, group, and single researcher, organizational models are described and discussed in this paper using examples from the literature and current practice. Issues which nurse administrators and researchers should consider when selecting and implementing organizational models are presented. These include the departmental perspective regarding nursing research, the nurse researcher role, and compatibility between model and departmental characteristics.