Literature Review of Rural Settlements Based on Web of Science Database:1921- 2023

Rural settlements, as a form. of rural population concentration, are gathering and settling areas with clear spatial structure and specific functions formed by human beings according to production and living needs. . In this study, the bibliometric analysis software Bibliometrix and Biblioshiny R language package were used to analyze the development history and current status of 2122 articles in the field of rural settlements in the Web of Science core collection database during the period of 1921—2023, to reveal their research hotspots and to predict the future development trend. The results showed that: (1) the number of papers published in the field of rural settlements and the average number of citations per year have been increasing over the past 102 years. (2) Seventy-four countries/regions have scientific research outputs in the field of rural settlements, and developed countries have strong research strength in this field. China, the United States and Ireland are the top three countries in terms of the number of publications. In addition, among 5635 authors, the top three authors are JIANG GUANGHUI, QU YANBO and ZHANG FENGRONG. ( 3) The top three keywords in the field of rural settlements are “Rural”, “Settlements” and “Residential”. The research themes can be divided into three phases: in the first phase (1921—2006) , scholars began to explore the two aspects of “rural residence” and “rural settlement”. In the second phase (2007— 2013) , the research content of rural settlements was gradually enriched, mainly related to “rural migration”, “ rural population” and “rural settlements”. In the third stage (2014—2023) , rural settlement research mainly focuses on “settlement intention”, “living environment” and “rural settlement”. The research on rural settlements in this stage (2014—2023) focuses on “settlement intention”, “living environment” and “rural settlements”. In general, from 1921 to 2023, “settlement” and “land” have been one of the core issues in the field of rural settlements.