Hot Spots and Development Trends of Smart Rural Research in the Context of Big Data—An Analysis of Knowledge Mapping Based on Citespace

Although the amount of research findings about smart villages is growing, big data analysis technologies are still not widely used to thoroughly analyze the findings and pinpoint the current research trends and hotspots. To analyze research hotspots and development trends in the field of smart villages, we created and visualized knowledge maps of authors, research institutions, keywords, and emergent words using 490 documents from the Web of Science (henceforth referred to as WOS) Science Citation Index database from 2015 to 2025. According to the findings, the research on smart villages can be categorized into phases of development, growth, and stabilization. A cooperation network has been established, with the United States and China serving as the primary knowledge-sharing partners in the field. Big data, data analytics, management, and challenges are among the most frequently occurring and centrally located keywords, as are the terms “smart village” and “smart village.” Artificial intelligence and information technology are the current main research directions; how to realize the entire chain of digitalization, intelligence, informatization, and smart village is the future of the main research direction. High and central keywords, smart village, China, and construction are the current emerging words.