Like all other technological applications which enhance the standards of life, the refrigeration process has taken its place amongst the indispensable needs of human beings. In accordance with this purpose, the most widely used systems are the vapour compression refrigeration systems. Vapour compression refrigeration systems are based on the transfer of heat from a low temperature reservoir to a high temperature reservoir using the thermodynamic properties of the refrigerants. This study was carried out to find out if the various trends in scientific studies can help us see the roadmap of the literature used in the field of vapour compression refrigeration system in the world. All documents used in this study were accessed from the Scopus database. To shed light on vapour compression refrigeration systems trends, both bibliometric and historical analyses were conducted in this research. For the bibliometric analysis, the Scopus database was systematically searched for vapour compression refrigeration system related materials published from 1980 to 2014(June). On the other hand, the patent data used in the study were taken from the Espacenet international patent database. The same keywords coupled with bibliometric analysis were used to find the relevant patent data. Some parameters were considered, such as the number of documents, authorship and ownership, patterns of international collaborations, address, and number of times cited.