Objective: To develop a scientific innovation leadership scale for head nurses and test its reliability and validity. Methods: Based on the five forces model of leadership, an item pool was constructed through the literature review, qualitative interviews, and brainstorming. The items' contents were screened and revised through Delphi expert consultation, pre-investigation, and item analysis methods, and the official scale version was formed. A total of 246 nurses were surveyed to analyze the reliability and validity of the scale. Results: The scientific innovation leadership scale for head nurses was formed with 5 dimensions and 15 items. The Cronbach's a coefficient of the total scale was 0.976, the half-reliability was 0.942, the test-retest reliability was 0.927, and the content validity was 0.923. Conclusions: The formed scientific research innovation leadership scale for head nurses in this study had good reliability and validity, which was suitable for measuring head nurses' scientific research innovation leadership.