Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to show that the quantum inverse scattering method for the so-called q-boson model has a nice interpretation in terms of the algebra of symmetric functions. In particular, in the case of the phase model (corresponding to q=0), the creation operator is essentially the operator of multiplication by the generating function of the complete homogeneous symmetric functions, and the wave functions are expressed in terms of the Schur functions. The general case of the q-boson model is related in the same way to the Hall-Littlewood symmetric functions.