Based on the relevant literature published from 2010 to 2025 on soil humus and organic matter in rocky desertification areas retrieved from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Web of Science (WoS) databases, this study employed the bibliometric analysis software CiteSpace to examine the research progress, evolution of research hotspots, and future directions regarding soil humus and its related organic matter components in rocky desertification areas. The findings aim to provide reference for soil quality improvement and ecological restoration in rocky desertification areas. The results indicated that this field had transitioned from being domestically dominated to achieving an internationally balanced development model, with the proportion of English-language publications soaring from 12.3% in the early stage to 44.4%. Author collaboration patterns exhibited a structural characteristic of domestic aggregation and international dispersion, with Xiong Kangning emerged as a core author across both major bibliographic databases. The research focus had evolved from soil erosion diagnosis in early stage, through engineering remediation and carbon pool assessment, to an advanced stage of emphasizing microbial omics and ecosystem resilience. Research in both Chinese and English suffered from the problem of being “effective at the macro level but unclear at the micro level”: Chinese-language studies excelled in practical governance assessments, but the mechanism analysis was insufficient; conversely, English-language research was adept at dissecting micro-mechanisms but tended to overlook the unique characteristics of karst environments. In the future, a multi-scale integration framework needs to be established to couple the macroscopic vegetation restoration effect with the microscopic humus-micro-environment interaction mechanism.