To examine the extent to which health promotion research is providing an empirical basis for the diffusion and institutionalization of effective interventions, we conducted a systematic audit of all articles in 12 public health and health promotion journals for the 1994 calendar year. We identified empirical/non-empirical and health promotion/non-health promotion articles. For each study, the health behaviours or outcomes studied, the target group, gender and setting were categorized. Each study was also categorized as belonging to one of four stages: basic research and development, innovation development, diffusion research, and research into institutionalization or policy implementation. Of all articles coded (n = 1210), 33.9% were identified as non-research, 39.5% were health promotion research and 26.6% were non-health promotion research. The vast majority of studies fell within the basic research and development stage (89.6%), with less than 1% categorized as diffusion research and only 5% as institutionalization or policy implementation research. The published studies reviewed provide a limited empirical basis for diffusion and institutionalization of health promotion programs. These findings suggest a need to more systematically monitor research input (funding) and research output (publications), and to develop a more explicit focus on the relevance of the stages of research innovation and development, the issues and/or behaviours addressed, the target population, and the research setting.