Since the 21st century, natural biopolymers have played an indispensable role in long-term global development strategies, and their research has shown a positive growth trend. However, these substantive scientific results are not conducive to our quick grasp of hotspots and insight into future directions and to understanding which local changes have occurred and which trend areas deserve more attention. Therefore, this study provides a new data-driven bibliometric analysis strategy and framework for mining the core content of massive bibliographic data, based on mathematical models VOS Viewer and CiteSpace software, aiming to understand the research prospects and opportunities of natural biopolymers. The United States is reported to be the most important contributor to research in this field, with numerous publications and active institutions; polymer science is the most popular subject category, but the further emphasis should be placed on interdisciplinary teamwork; mainstream research in this field is divided into five clusters of knowledge structures; since the explosion in the number of articles in 2018, researchers are mainly engaged in three fields: “medical field,” “biochemistry field,” and “food science fields.” Through an in-depth analysis of natural biopolymer research, this article provides a better understanding of trends emerging in the field over the past 22 years and can also serve as a reference for future research.

Based on the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) database, the academic works published in the past 30 years on biodegradable films for soil were analyzed. In order to ensure the rigor of this experiment, this paper is based on the mathematical double matrix model VOS Viewer software and CiteSpace software. This work shows that publications of biodegradable films for soil are increasing year by year; polymer science is the hottest subject in the field of biodegradable films for soil; China and the United States are the countries with the most significant number of publications in this field, has an important position; Washington State University is the most published institution. This study further identifies and reveals the essential characteristics, research strength, knowledge structure, main research fields, and research hotspots in the late stage of the field of biodegradable films for soil and introduces the Activity Index (AI) and the Attractive Index (AAI), thereby assessing trends and performance in different countries. The paper also further illustrates the importance of biodegradable films by presenting field trials using biodegradable films on different plants. The research in the field of biodegradable films for soil is divided into four categories: “The research field of degradation,” “The effect of biodegradable film on soil,” “Performance and mechanism of the biodegradable film,” and “Effects of biodegradable film on crop growth and development.”. The study can be seen as a microcosm of the development of biodegradable films for soils, which will help researchers quickly identify their general patterns. Readers can better understand the changes and development trends in this field in the past 30 years and provide references for future research.