Taking two authoritative academic journals Science Communication and Public Understanding of Science as the research objects, this paper collects the research articles published in the two journals from 2000 to 2019. It carries out bibliometric analysis from the aspects of the amount of papers published, the spatial distribution of papers, the author’s organization, cooperation network, highly-cited papers and research hotspots. It is found that Pareto law applies in the field of science communication research and academic regional differences also exist in this field. The research topics of science communication experienced a transition from media content analysis and public participation in science to the new focus on climate change and emerging science and technologies, etc. Also, the science communication research related to China has gradually entered the views of scholars. China’s science communication research must not only keep up with the international frontiers, but also respond to the major needs of the country and society, and form its own research interest and style.