Abstract: In this paper, I conducted a literature review for the studies of pesticide residue in tea between 1997 and 2017, applying bibliometric methods. I searched the China Journal Full-text Database (CJFD) and Web of Science Core Collection by the items of number, journal, keywords and core paper, and presented a statistical analysis of search results. The results showed that: (1) the number of publications of pesticide residue in tea in Chinese journals increased as time went on, the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Xiamen University were the top two institutes, Chen Zongmao, Wang Qinghua and Liu Xin were the top three authors, and China Tea and Chinese Journal of Health Laboratory Technology were the top two journals, ranked by the number of publications. (2) The number of publications of pesticide residue in tea in English journals increased as time went on, whereby China and India were the top two countries in publications, Liu X, Chen H P and Fang C L were the top three authors, Food Chemistry, Journal of Aoac International and Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry were the top three journals, ranked by the number of publications. Future studies should focus on improving the detection methods and exploring the transfer process of pesticides to tea brew.