This paper, based on the data from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Web of Science databases, uses CiteSpace to conduct a bibliometric and visual analysis of domestic and international research on online rumors over the past decade. It reveals the progress and evolution trends of the research from aspects such as annual publications, author collaborations, national collaborations, keyword co-occurrences, clustering, and emergent words. The results show that the number of foreign research papers increased from 7 in 2014 to 54 in 2024, reaching a peak of 74 in 2022, showing a continuous expansion trend; while the number of domestic research papers decreased from 55 in 2014 to 12 in 2024, exhibiting a phased fluctuation and contraction feature. The keyword structure indicates that foreign research focuses on social media, false information, and detection technologies, with the top three frequently used keywords accounting for more than half of the cumulative contribution; domestic research centers on “online rumors”, with the core theme category accounting for 75.1% of the total frequency of the top 10 frequently used keywords, and the transmission mechanism and governance regulations constitute the main supporting direction. Overall, the research on online rumors is shifting from basic description to modelization, technologyization, and collaborative governance-oriented, but domestic research still needs to strengthen cross-platform data integration, analysis of public psychological mechanisms, and international cooperation to enhance the scientificity and practical effectiveness of online rumor governance.
