Desert steppe is an important part of grassland in China, which plays an extremely important role in ensuring food security and ecological security. In order to understand the research situation in this field in China, based on 3651 papers published at home and abroad in recent 36 years, this paper analyzed the number of articles, sources of articles, cited frequency, main authors, research institutions and research hotspots, etc. The results showed that: (1) after 2000, the number of papers on desert steppe has increased greatly, with an average annual publication of over 160 papers, but the cited frequency of each paper, the number of high-quality academic journals and innovative research results were few, and the overall quality of papers needs to be further improved; (2) Innovative evaluation methods and theoretical research had always attracted much attention, and the comprehensive analysis of research progress in a certain field by using big data methods has been recognized by scholars; (3) Han Guodong, Song Naiping, Wei Zhijun, Zhou Guangsheng and others were the main contributors to desert grassland research. Inner Mongolia Agricultural University and Ningxia University have played an important role in the cooperation between publishing institutions and formed the core of research network. However, the cooperation between Chinese papers research institutions was more discrete than that of English papers, especially with foreign institutions; (4) The research focused mainly on the impacts of human activities and climate change on the vegetation-soil system of desert steppe, the productivity of desert steppe vegetation and its influencing factors, and the use of sporopollen to study vegetation and environmental changes. In the future, it is necessary to carry out more in-depth research from the meso-and micro-level to promote the output of high-impact and high-quality results, so as to provide more data support for the construction of ecological civilization and the development of science and technology in this region. It is expected that this paper can provide reference and new direction for the related research of desert steppe, and provide scientific basis for grassland construction and decision-making in China.should be strengthen cooperation and innovation between institutions and personnel at home and abroad, apply multi-disciplinary knowledge and multi-technical means from multi-scale and multi-dimensional, and strengthen the analysis and discussion of the interaction between human activities and climatic conditions on the evolution process of plant community structure, the coupling relationship between above-ground and underground ecological processes and the internal mechanism between different trophic levels in desert steppe. In order to promote the output of high-impact and high-quality results, and realize both quantitative and qualitative changes of scientific research results, and pay equal attention to basic research and practical application, it is expected that this paper can provide reference and inspiration for the relevant research of desert steppe, and provide scientific basis for grassland construction and decision-making in China.