<p>Knowledge about atomic structure has been developed over the years, and through the Philosophy of Science, including Epistemology, it may be approached in Science Teaching. Considering the existence of many explanations for the structure of matter, a review of this concept and the atomic models was carried out to explore what is discussed in the literature from scientific articles in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. It was possible to highlight the importance of developing this research in the languages mentioned above, yielding diverse results, contributing to the discussion of the structure of matter and Science Education. More than 40 explanations for the structure of matter were found, revealing distinct perspectives, many in philosophical approaches and others in models developed by physicists and chemists. The models found were cited, defined, or discussed by the articles. The ideas presented in models were classified as indivisibles, divisibles condensed, divisibles with nucleus and quantization of energy. The Nature of Science was a theoretical base in which cognitive and epistemic aspects were addressed as well as social and institutional to present and analyze the results.</p>