Since Journal of Outdoor Recreation Study first published in 1988, eighteen volumes and 290 articles have been published. The purpose of this article is to analyze those articles published and manuscripts submitted to the journal based on rejection rate, manuscript first author’s academic background, themes of articles and methodology adopted. The results show that rejection rate is increasing caused by high quality requested. Main sources of submitted manuscripts shifted from forestry, building & planning, and landscape major to the field of leisure recreation management and tourism. The themes of the articles are mostly related with recreational psychology & behavior and recreational resource research. Articles on the themes of ecotourism and travel study are increasing recently. Besides, there are more local empirical studies instead of concept review articles. As for methodology, quantitative methods are adopted in most empirical studies. The number of studies using both quantitative and qualitative methods is increasing. Based on the findings, some topics need further studied and possible approaches to improve quality of outdoor recreation research are also suggested.