With the help of visualization tool CiteSpace, this paper formed the knowledge mapping of the nations/areas, institutions, subjects and co-citation of shale oil studies, and displayed the research nations, subjects, research focuses and study history of shale oil. The study showed that shale oil study is undergoing a rapid development, with America playing the leading role. Engineering and energy and fuel study are the main research front. Destructive distillation of oil shale is the focus of related studies, with many studies concentrating on such topics as retorting techniques, retorting factors and catalytic hydropyrolysis and so on. With the development of technology, analyses of oil shale molecular component with new techniques like FT-ICR MS, oil shale microscopic pore and exploration of unconventional oil and gas within the pores have stepped into the new research focuses of related studies.