In order to further understanding of the research status and fronts, a novel method was adopted in the textile and apparel field to perform knowledge mapping of protective clothing research over the last 20 years. The database of 1735 articles was built based on records retrieved from the Web of Science. Visualization software, CiteSpace, combined with Google Earth was applied to determine intellectual basis and research fronts for the protective clothing domain. Research area analysis indicated that the top ranked field was the “Materials Science” with a number of articles of 427. Publication distribution revealed that the Textile Research Journal was the most popular cited and citing journal of the protective clothing articles. The USA and China were the two primary countries contributing to the protective clothing research evidenced by the frequency, bursts and centrality. Donghua University, North Carolina State University and the University of Alberta, with a high publication frequency and centrality, were identified to be the main research drivers. The intensity of red nodes in the geographical visualization map proved the core status of Europe and America in the global cooperation network. According to the co-occurrence analysis, the three keywords of exposure, performance and heat stress were detected to be the most popular research topics over the last 20 years, corresponding to the study of exposure environment, performance evaluation and thermal physiology. The keywords in recent years suggested the research trend of enhancing the mechanism and fundamental investigation of the heat transfer process and fabrics.
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