It is an important issue for marine economy research filed to analyze and show the research hotspot, the core of author groups, major research institutions and important scholarly journals. Taking 3 441 articles related to marine economy which are retrieved form “China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database” and“Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index” as subjects, we have drawn maps of the research hotspot, the core of author groups, major research institutions and important scholarly journals to by CiteSpace, a visual software for literature analysis. As a result, firstly, since Chinese marine economy research association was established in 1982, marine economy caused concern of scholars gradually. Secondly, the study of China’s marine economy focused on marine economy, marine industry, sustainable development, exploitation of marine resources, coastal tourism, coastal regions, etc. Thirdly, Han Zenglin, Zhang Yaoguang, Zheng Guibin, Yin Kedong, Li Jingyu and Xu Zhibin are the top six prolific authors in marine economy research, and most research teams are study alone, common research teams are made up by authors who come from the same institution; and State Oceanic Administration People’s Republic Of China, Ocean University of China, Liaoning Normal University and Guangdong Ocean University are the top four prolific intuitions. At last, the journal which published the most of articles about marine economy is “Ocean Development and Management”, while “Economic Geography”, “China Population Resources and Environment” and “Resources Science” are the main core journals of marine economy research. The article showed a structure in the marine economy research from various angles, by which we hope to help for the learning of the status of marine economy research.