Hotspot Analysis and Path Evolution of the Three-Dimensional Transformation in Eco-Translatology

Purpose: To investigate the growth and evolution of research in the field of Eco-translatology, the research particularly focuses on the three-dimensional transformation concept and its development in China since 2010. By analyzing co-citations and co-occurring mappings, the research aims to identify the main patterns, hot topics, and the development trajectory of this interdisciplinary field. Methodology: The methodology employed in this research is the CiteSpace software for visualizing and analyzing the core database literature references obtained from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The study applies a bibliometric approach, focusing on the co-occurrence of keywords and authorship to map the knowledge structure and identify research hotspots. Findings: 1) From the perspective of basic research characteristics, based on the Eco-translation environment, domestic related research has shown a clear linear growth trend. However, the cooperation network among institutions and core authors is not close, and a research stronghold has not yet been formed; 2) From the perspective of research hotspots, the differences between the three-dimensional transformation’s linguistic and cultural dimensions are of great concern in the field of cross-cultural communication, and areas such as subtitle translation, foreign publicity English translation, and red tourism are highly popular, but quantitative studies are scarce; 3) From the perspective of research trends, the fields involved in the three-dimensional transformation application research continue to expand to areas, such as ecological criticism and MTI translation teaching. Value: The study seeks to understand how the integration of translation activities with ecological concepts has shaped the discourse and practices within Eco-translatology. This interdisciplinary approach also presents an emerging paradigm where digital humanities tools are envisioned to have a pivotal role.