To conduct a bibliometric analysis of clinical research in the field of critical care medicine from 2020 to 2024, both internationally and in China, in order to identify current status, hotspots, and emerging trends.

A bibliometric methodology was employed. Clinical studies were analyzed using CiteSpace and VOSviewer software. The analysis was based on the Web of Science (WoS) core collection database, encompassing 8350 clinical studies published between January 1, 2020 and December 30, 2024. The analysis focused on international collaboration, patterns, author collaboration networks, keyword co-occurrence, and the characteristics of highly cited papers.

The study included 8350 clinical studies from 128 countries and regions. The United States led in publication output with 3563 articles. Analysis of the international collaboration network showed that the top three countries in publication volume were the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. The top three in terms of collaboration centrality were Northern Ireland, China, and Denmark. Keyword co-occurrence analysis identified major research hotspots including “Sepsis”, “Guidelines”, “Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome”, “Children”， and “Mechanical ventilation”. Within the study period, 153 papers were identified as highly cited. The top 5 most cited papers (cited range: 761 to 5549) were published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine, with research themes concentrated on COVID-19 and Sepsis. The single highest internationally cited paper originated from China. The top 5 highly cited papers with Chinese researchers as participating (non-leading) authors had a citation range of 600 to 5549, while the top 5 papers with Chinese researchers as lead authors were cited 178 to 5549 times.

Countries including the United States, France, Australia, and Canada are the main driving forces in critical care medicine research and occupy central positions in the global scientific collaboration network. While a broad and extensive international cooperation network for China has not yet fully formed, its centrality within the existing network has significantly increased, indicating a growing influence.