Review of Risk Studies in Public–private partnerships (PPP) Projects in China: A Visualization Analysis based on VOSviewer Software

This paper applies VOSviewer software and the Web of Science database as the main source to systematically review the journal literature on risk research of Public-private partnerships (PPP) projects in China over a 10-year period from 2014 to 2023. In this research, the selected literature is analyzed by metrological visualization, which includes the time of publication, both of domestic and international authors and institutions, and research hotspots. It can be found that the number of publications has grown rapidly in China, despite the fact that PPP-related research in China started around 2000, which is a relatively late start compared to the UK and the US. This is particularly reflected in the rapid growth of PPP projects in China since the state launched its PPP incentives in 2014, with the number of publications in 2018 almost equal to the total of the previous four years. In addition. The results show that the research topics such as risk allocation, risk management and infrastructure PPP projects as research focuses, representing the research hotspots and trends in the field of PPP project risk in China.