When we start an investigation, it is important to know the scientific production and the state of the art about the subject or problem of interest, since this allows to visualize the tendencies, the theoretical, conceptual and methodological approaches, the main currents of study; as well as get an idea of where, when and who is producing it. These and other characteristics that the researcher wishes to reveal are useful, within a given discipline, in order to envision the panorama of knowledge around the subject that concern us and also identify little-studied lines of research; allowing us to propose research that contributes to the generation of knowledge in the field. Through specialized software and using the search engines Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus, the scientific production about transboundary basins and mountain areas was reviewed, to find the theoretical niches and research problems relating to these geographical units. Journals, authors, frequency indicators of local citations and global citations, research institutions and prominent countries were also identified. As a result, we obtained that, for transboundary basins, there is a research niche related to water policy, water resources and climate change, while in mountain areas the trends are towards local development of rural areas and its depopulation.