Abstract: Clarifying the research status, summarizing research hotspots, and identifying trends in social work practice research in China can provide valuable theoretical insights for the research and development of social work practice in China’s New Era. Using the literature visualization tool CiteSpace, this research examines 1,182 core literature in social work practice research from CSSCI journals between 1998 to 2023. The analysis encompasses the overview of the publications and the collaborative landscape among core authors and research institutions in this field. Keyword co-occurrence maps, cluster maps, and mutation word information maps are drawn to examine the hot topics and main themes in the field, as well as to predict future research trends. The findings indicate that social work practice research in China characterized by “high concentration and low dispersion”, highlighting the significant role played by core authors and research groups in this field; The primary focus of the field center around five modules: practical social work, professional construction, social governance, values and ethics, and theoretical foundations. It is predicted that future research will continue to contribute to rural revitalization strategies, ecological environment care, community governance community construction, government procurement of services, and grassroots governance. However, improvements are needed in several areas: the level of collaboration and diversity among authors and institutions need to be enhanced; further research on the integration of innovative technologies in social work practices is necessary; policy research related to practice needs to be further developed.

Key words: social work practice, practical research, specialization, social governance, CiteSpace