[Objective] Responsible research and innovation is an important topic of global scientific and technological competition and sustainable development. This paper analyzes the general situation, knowledge base, and research hotspots of responsible research and innovation based on international literature. [Coverage]We used “responsible research and innovation” and “responsible innovation” as the keywords to search in the three core databases of the Web of Science, finally a total of 657 English articles were retrieved. [Methods]This paper combines bibliometrics and visual analysis to investigate the status quo, to mine the knowledge base and research hotspots of responsible research and innovation. [Results]The results show that scholars in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have led responsible research and innovation. The international publications of China starts in 2014, with a total of 14 papers. This research also finds that the research in the field of responsible research and innovation is based on technology assessment and anticipatory governance, conceptual development in the EU context, conceptual speculation, and strengthening. Research hotspots focus on science, society and governance, conceptual framework and practice, ethics and value of technology development, and sustainability research. [Limitations] The data range of the review should be further expanded, and the dynamic evolution trend of hot spots should be further analyzed. [Conclusions]This study appeals to Chinese scholars to pay attention to international trends in the future research in the field of responsible research and innovation, and combine with unique research problems and research practice in China to escort the responsible development of emerging technologies.