Objective:

To provide a bibliometric mapping of child neglect and abuse literature within the social work context, focusing on child welfare and protection systems, from 2000 to 2025.

Approach:

• Data Collection: Records were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus, yielding a final dataset of 6,132 journal articles and reviews.
• Analysis Methods: Utilized bibliometrix and VOSviewer to examine publication trends, co-authorship networks, co-citation structures, bibliographic coupling, keyword co-occurrence, and thematic evolution across three periods.

Key Findings:

• Publication output increased from 109 in 2000 to 362 in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 5%.
• Collaboration was concentrated in high-income countries, particularly with the U.S. as a central hub connected to the U.K., Canada, and Australia.
• There was a conceptual shift toward system- and prevention-oriented themes, with foster care emerging as a prominent theme in the literature.

Interpretation:

The field of child neglect and abuse research has expanded and is increasingly focused on welfare and protection systems.

Limitations:

• Existing bibliometric studies have often relied on single-database designs, which may limit coverage and introduce bias in the findings.
• Previous studies did not systematically prioritize the social work domain in their bibliometric designs.

Conclusion:

The study provides an empirical baseline for future interdisciplinary research and practice-oriented knowledge translation.