Objective: To understand the current status of literature on human resources for health during 1997-2014 in China, and to explore the research week spots in this area. Methods: We retrieved Chinese literature related to human resources for health between 1997 and 2014. JBI (2005) and quality classification standard of evidence (GRADE) were performed to systematically evaluate qualitative and quantitative research, respectively. Results: We screened 420 Chinese research papers on human resources for health, including 95 qualitative studies and 325 quantitative studies, and from which the numbers of quantitative descriptive studies on status quo and intervention control studies were 318 and 7, respectively. The main research topics on human resources for health included demand forecasting and allocation (77.4%), medical education and in-service training (6.7%), systematic management (8.8%), international experience introduction (5.0%), and financial investment (2.1%). The quality of 45.3% qualitative and 57.6% quantitative studies located at medium and above, only 2.2% (7/325) quantitative studies performed intervention control study. Quantitative study clearly described the method and process of data collection, however, it lacked reliability and validity test of self-designed survey tool. Conclusion: Most studies are performed by qualitative study and descriptive quantitative study. Randomized controlled trial is rarely adopted. Most studies focus on allocation of human resources for health, while the number of studies on finance, development, education and evaluation of intervention effect which are the main challenges in practice accounts for a lower proportion.