A 15-item Head Nurse Research Leadership Scale based on 5 dimensions was developed, and the content validity was satisfied. The 15 items accounted for 77.9% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable convergent validity and discriminant validity. The Cronbach's α coefficient, split-half reliability and test-retest reliability of the scale were 0.966, 0.9633 and 0.927, respectively.