Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic bibliometric analysis of reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) articles using VOSviewer to identify their research themes and future research trends and investigate their interconnectivity. This paper also aims to identify prominent authors, publishers, organizations, countries and their collaborations in the RMS domain. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, the Scopus database is used to retrieve 454 RMS articles published between 1988 and 2020. These articles are then investigated using VOSviewer to determine their interconnectedness, clusters and citations, as well as to generate a map based on text data. The network visualization diagrams and clusters obtained for documents, authors, sources, organizations and countries are explored to determine the current state and future trends in RMS research. Findings: A bibliometric analysis of selected articles is performed, and current research hotspots in this domain are identified. This work also investigates the current status and future research trends in this domain. The work presented also identifies top researchers, journals, countries and documents in RMS. Practical implications: This paper can provide academics, researchers and practitioners with additional research insights. At the same time, the research trends identified here can help to direct research and benefit researchers. Originality/value: The study is the first attempt to review selected documents in the RMS domain using bibliometric analysis tools, and it presents a method for collecting articles, organizing them and analyzing the data.