Objective To analyze the research hotspots and development tendency of prescription pre⁃audit based on the CiteSpace and VOSviewer software. Methods Literature related to prescription pre⁃audit from January 2012 to August 2023 was retrieved from China National Knowledge Infrastructure, China Biomedical Literature Service System, Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform, and VIP. The Microsoft Office Excel software was used to draw annual distribution of the number of relevant literature publications, and the CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were utilized for the establishment of co⁃occurrence and burstness analysis visualization maps of institutions, authors, journals, and keywords. Results A total of 688 literature related to prescription pre⁃audit was retrieved. From 2012 to 2023, the number of literature publications in the field of prescription pre⁃audit exhibited an upward trend, etc., and the institution and journal with the most number of literature publications were Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University and Strait Pharmaceutical Journal, respectively. The authors with the most number of literature publications were Cui Xiaohui and Wu Rong. The high⁃frequency keywords contained rational drug use and prescription comment, etc., and the keywords with the highest burstness intensity included real⁃time audit. The research hotspots and frontiers in this field were supposed to be audit rules. Conclusion Research on the rules of prescription pre⁃audit is a research hotspot in the field of prescription pre⁃audit, and exploring the establishment of refined audit rules for specialty drug use is the development tendency in this field.

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