Vortex field is a kind of special structured light field with spiral wavefront, which is widely used in optical micromanipulation, large-capacity optical communication and super-resolution imaging due to its physical properties such as phase singularity, orbital angular momentum and central dark core structure. By modulating the traditional physical dimensions of vortex field (amplitude, polarization and frequency), the novel vortex fields with richer modes and wider application can be obtained. In addition, there is a very important regulation dimension of vortex field, that is coherence. Recently, researchers have obtained a novel type of vortex field, namely partially coherent vortex beam, by adjusting the coherence of vortex beam. Compared with fully coherent vortex beam, partially coherent vortex beam has more advantages in some fields, such as higher disturbance resistance to turbulent atmosphere, richer beam shaping, higher self-reconstruction ability and stronger particles trapping ability. In this paper, the research progress of the partially coherent integer vortex beams and the partially coherent fractional vortex beams in recent years is reviewed, and the theoretical model, generation method, transmission characteristics, topological charge measurement and application of partially coherent vortex beam are described in detail.