Social-ecological systems (SESs), which integrate social governance and natural environment utilization, are expected to provide an innovative solution for global ecological problems and have gradually become hotspots in human-earth system research. Bibliometrics was conducted to inductive the trends and hotspots in the research of SESs, meanwhile, the development history and the status of the fields were also analyzed. The evolution of the research topics and regional practices were finally summarized. The main findings are as follows: Although there are fewer publications in the field, the development trend has obvious stages due to important international research programs and organizations. Universities, institutes, and government agencies in the three core areas of Europe, North America, and Australia are the main research forces of SESs, and the core authors of the SESs literature have compact collaborative networks. The SESs research in China has gradually been deepened, but it has not formed or been integrated into the international research communities. Research on the complex, regional, and dynamic SESs covers wide topics about natural ecosystems, climate change, land use, social governance, management policies, etc. Interdisciplinarities between natural sciences such as environmental sciences, ecology, and geography and social sciences such as economics, politics, and sociology are the main features of SESs research. Previous research frameworks of the human-earth relationship provide diverse methodological support for SESs research. Olsson's Dynamic Link Analysis framework, Redman's Social Pattern and Process and Ecological Pattern and Process, and Ostrom's Public Resource Governance are three influential SESs analytical frameworks. Panarchy provides the theoretical basis for the understanding of the rapid-slow interactions and local-global adaptive changes between social and ecological systems. Vulnerability and resilience focused on disturbance response, system self-organization process, learning and adaptive governance have been the core of SESs research. Coastal zone, arid zone, urban areas, and other environmentally sensitive areas in ecology and society are most concerned in SESs regional practices. Establishing the theoretical and methodological systems and expanding practices in China are the focus of the future work. The findings help to concise the research interests and deepen the scientific questions in SESs fields.