Abstract: Rational allocation of carbon emission quota is essential for achieving the target of carbon reduction and has received wide attention around the world. In this study, the software package, CiteSpace, was utilized to plot network maps, summarize research hotspots and explore development trend based on literatures related to carbon emission quota from 2009—2021 and indexed by Web of Science (WoS) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure network (CNKI). The study indicated that the number of publications involving carbon emission quota has been increasing but the number published in CNKI database is lower than that in WoS database due to relatively late start of the relevant research in China. However, the rapid increase of the number of articles from China (from both databases) implies rapid development of the carbon emission quota in China, which has kept abreast of the international research progress. The study also revealed that the quota allocation method, the carbon price determination and the identification of influence factors with principles of fairness and efficiency at various levels (i.e. regional and industrial) are the major research direction and focus from the essential authors in both databases. Furthermore, the research hotspots identified by the two databases are basically identical, including both "carbon emission quota" and "carbon market". They represent the two main branches of current research field. Lastly, the future research works should focus on quota management and issuance, and improvement of carbon offset mechanism.