Rural development research integrates numerous theoretical and empirical studies and has evolved over the past few decades. However, few systematic literature reviews have explored the changing landscape. This study aims to obtain an overview of rural development research by applying a bibliometric and visual analysis. In this paper, we introduce four computer-based software tools, including HistCite™, CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Map and Alluvial Generator, to help with data collection, data analysis, and visualization. The dataset consists of 6968 articles of rural development research, which were downloaded from the database Web of Science. The period covers 1957 to 2020 and the analysis units include journals, categories, authors, references, and keywords. Co-occurrence and co-citation analysis are conducted, and the results are exported in the format of networks. We analyze the trends of publications and explore the discipline distribution and identify the most influential authors and articles at different times. The results show that this field of study has attracted progressively more scholars from a variety of research fields and has become multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. The changing knowledge domains of rural development research also reflect the dynamics and complexity of rural contexts.

Background: Here, a bibliometric and knowledge-map analysis was used to analyze the research status and application of herbal medicine for the treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD). By looking for research hotspots and key topics, we provide new clues and research directions for future research.Methods: Articles and reviews regarding herbal medicine in the treatment of CKD were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection on 23 May 2022. The R-bibliometrix, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace software were used to conduct the bibliometric and knowledge-map analysis.Results: In total, 5,920 authors at 1,330 institutions from 68 countries published 1,602 papers in 355 academic journals. China is the leader and pioneer in the research and application of herbal medicine in the field of CKD treatment. Beijing University of Chinese Medicine contributed the most publications. Ping Li (China-Japan Friendship Hospital) published the most articles, while Yingyong Zhao (Northwest University) had the most cocitations. However, cooperation among countries and the research institutions is not sufficient. Journal of Ethnopharmacology published the most research and application of herbal medicine in the treatment of CKD and was the most commonly co-cited journal. The most influential research hotspots about herbal medicine in the treatment of CKD focused on diabetic nephropathy-related research, Balkan endemic nephropathy, and pharmacokinetic study.Conclusion: Herbal medicine has a wide range of pharmacological activities and therapeutic value. The research and application of herbal medicine for the treatment of CKD, especially diabetic nephropathy, will remain a hot topic in the future.

Since the reform and opening-up policy of 1978, rural areas in China have experienced significant changes in spatial, social, economic, and environmental development. In this research, we aim to explore the changes in the discourses on rural development over the past 40 years. This can help to understand how problems are framed and why certain strategies are adopted at different times. We employ a quantitative approach and analyze keywords from 32,657 Chinese publications on rural development from 1981 to 2020. From the results, we distinguish eight development paradigms, including “household responsibility system”, “rural commodity economy”, “social market economy”, “sustainable development”, “Sannong”, “building a new socialist countryside”, “beautiful countryside”, and “rural revitalization”. We also interpret the discursive shifts in three aspects, i.e., actors, places, and activities. We argue that the key characteristic of current rural development discourse is the duality, which emerges between agricultural and non-agricultural industries, economic growth and environmental conservation, urban and rural development, top-down and bottom-up approaches, and modernist and postmodernist discourses.

Over the past 40 years, rural China has witnessed drastic changes in its spatial and socio-economic development. In this study, we adopt a quantitative approach to analyze the spatio-temporal patterns of the rural development process. We build an indicator system with nine indicators from population, land, and industry dimensions and calculate the change rate of each indicator of 31 provinces in seven five-year development cycles from 1980 to 2018. Then, we identify five different development types and present their temporal evolution and spatial distribution. From the result, we can see that the predominant type changes under the influence of urbanization and industrialization processes and the development policies and strategies. The disparity between the western and eastern regions is obvious, and the city-clusters have a profound impact on the rural areas around them. We suggest that development policies and strategies should coordinate the relationship between population, land, and industry to achieve rural revitalization.