Water inrush hazards in coal mines pose a great risk to the safety of miners and coal production. We studied journal articles on coal mine water inrush prevention and control from 2000 to March 2019 using data from the Web of Science Core Collection V.5.32 database. We used CiteSpace V.5.3.R11 software to analyse the literature, including countries, institutions, authors, disciplines, journals, hot topics, and research frontiers. A total of 1612 published papers on coal mine water inrush prevention and control research were identifed. China and the USA had the highest numbers of publications in this feld. The China University of Mining and Technology was the most infuential research institution. The journal with the largest number of relevant publications was the International Journal of Coal Geology. Hidden water disasters, quantitative evaluation of aquicludes, and rapid identifcation of water inrush sources are still unresolved problems. Improvement of electromagnetic methods, intelligent mine water monitoring, and three-dimensional hydrogeological systems were the leading research trends in this feld.