Abstract: Farmland abandonment is a global land use change with significant ecological, economic and social consequences. China is the largest country with huge population rely on agriculture, and has experienced vast farmland abandonment in past decades. Farmland abandonment is a issue concerning China’s food security, ecological security, and socioeconomic evolution. Numerous studies explored the spatial pattern, temporal trajectory, regime of evolution and the relevant social-ecological consequence of farmland abandonment. Spatial-temporal scales and data collection methods involved in these researches are fundamental. Exploring the scales focused on and the data collection methods of abandoned farmland may contribute to the advance of research and well inform farmland policy making. Spatial-temporal scales of researches and relevant data acquisition methods are important prerequisites for exploring attributes, spatiotemporal pattern, driving mechanisms, and effects of abandoned farmland. This study systematically reviewed literatures on farmland abandonment in China published in domestic and international journals from 1992 to 2024, which were sourced from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Web of Science (WOS) databases. The temporal scale, spatial scale, and the data acquisition methods adopted in these published studies were explored. This review revealed that most researches on farmland abandonment focused on single time point, and the primary spatial scale adopted were county level and national scale. As to data acquisition, primary methods included sampling survey, remote sensing interpretation and field inventory. Integrating the macro scale pattern with micro scale mechanism of farmland abandonment is critical challenge. Future researches on abandoned farmland should establish multiscale framework for data acquisition, and develope methods integrating multi-source data to reveal the trajectories of farmland abandonment.