Abstract: A bibliometric method was employed to evaluate the global scientific production of tidal bore research and seek the characteristics of publication outputs including countries, institutions, authors, journals and keywords from papers related to tidal bore. The basic data were obtained from CNKI and Web of Science core collection database. The 652 papers published by 632 authors from 433 research institutions in 239 publications were retrieved from CNKI. “Qiantang River Estuary” and “North branch of the Yangtze River Mouth” were areas of high concern in China. “tidal bore pattern”, “river bed evolution”, “tidal bore pressure” and “tidal bore height” were hot keywords in the researchs. “numerical modelling” and “physical modelling” had become important means of tidal bore research. A total of 277 articles published in 143 journals by 447 authors from 224 institutions in 34 countries were retrieved by Web of Science. The literatures payed high attention to Qiantang River in China, Seine and Garonne River in France, Amazon River in Brazil and other estuaries. “turbulence”, “sediment transport”, “hydraulic jump”, “wave”, and “environmental impact” were hot issues on tidal bore, and “physical modelling”, “field measurements” and “numerical modelling” had become important means of research on tidal bore. Although the number of research papers published at home and abroad fluctuated in different years, it showed a rapid growth trend and rich research results. Due to the limitation of specific estuarine area, the research institutions were relatively concentrated and the total amounts of papers published were not much. This study objectively analyzed the current status of tidal bore research at home and abroad to provide data reference for researchers and decision makers.

Key words: tidal bore, estuary, bibliometrics, CiteSpace