Abstract: In recent years, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in soil environments have attracted widespread attention. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using the Web of Science core database and Wanfang database as data sources to analyze the researches on ARGs contamination in soil environments from the aspects of annual publication volume, contributions from different countries, and the evolution of research topics (based on keywords). The aim was to explore the current status, hotspots, and development trends in this domain both domestically and internationally. The results show a rapid increase in the number of publications annually on ARGs contamination in soil. Chinese literature had a significant impact in terms of publication volume and citation frequency, indicating its strong international academic influence in this field. Keyword clustering analysis revealed that the current researches in this field have been mainly focused on the following areas: (1) microorganisms carrying ARGs in the soil environments; (2) source and persistence of ARGs in soil environments; (3) transmission and reduction methods of ARGs in soil environments; (4) the influence of coexisting substances in soil on the abundance and migration behavior of ARGs; (5) the impact of agricultural production activities on ARGs contamination in soil environments. Additionally, commonly used detection methods for ARGs were introduced, the sources and distribution of ARGs contamination in soil environments were also analyzed. Various factors influencing the spread of ARGs were analyzed, and methods for reducing ARGs in soil environments were discussed. Current shortcomings and future research directions in this field have been pointed out. This article can serve as a reference for future research and risk management in the field of ARGs contamination in soil environments.

Key words: soil, antibiotic resistance gene, horizontal gene transfer, bibliometric analysis, research progress, remediation method