The Hotspots and Trends in the Literature on Cleaner Production: A Visualized Analysis Based on Citespace

Cleaner production (CP) has emerged as a new concept to cope with the astronomical environmental degradation associated with the expanding scope of industrialization. We conducted a review of the scientific data on the conceptualization of “cleaner production” using published documents from the 2011–2021 period. Data were extracted from the CNKI and WOS databases—two major databases based in China and the United States, respectively. Citespace software was used to track the developmental process and trend of future research on cleaner production. We report the following findings: (1) While the literature on cleaner production in CNKI is decreasing, the literature in WOS has been increasing annually. (2) Even though clear instances of different research priorities exist between WOS and CNKI, the research problems addressed in the two databases, however, are mostly common. In terms of research collaboration, WOS is more likely to accept papers with cross-institutional authorship. The study further identified that there is no aggregation effect between Chinese research institutions. (3) In WOS, the Journal of Cleaner Production is the most popular journal for researchers, and in CNKI the Chinese Journal of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning leads in CP publications. (4) Regarding the research hotspots, there are obvious differences between WOS and CNKI. Finally, we put forward the future prospects for cleaner production research.