Abstract: Improving the occupational injury protection system for workers in new forms of employment is crucial for building a multi-tiered social security system and regulating the healthy development of the platform economy.Based on policy diffusion theory,this study employs policy bibliometrics and citation network analysis to conduct a systematic quantitative analysis of 127 policy documents issued by central and local governments in China from 2006 to 2025.The findings reveal that while the diffusion of these policies exhibits the staged characteristics of local piloting,central integration,and nationwide promotion,the transition between stages is not a simple progression but involves multiple logics of pathway selection,institutional restructuring,and experience screening.Spatially,it presents a pattern where pioneering localities coexist with regionally uneven development.The transmission mechanism has formed a two-way interactive model,primarily characterized by top-down hierarchical transmission supplemented by bottom-up experiential absorption.Accordingly,it is essential to strengthen central planning and top-level institutional design,make dedicated efforts to address regional development imbalances,improve the mechanism for refining and translating local pilot experiences,seize the key window period for policy promotion to facilitate the normalised operation of the system,and provide practical support for optimizing and developing the occupational injury protection system for workers in new forms of employment.