Abstract: Grounded-source transient electromagnetic method (TEM) has many advantages such as deep exploration, flexible arrangement in rough terrain and high working efficiency. Recently it has got much attention and a series of new methods are available, ranging from surface to airborne and borehole method. In this paper, the authors review the research history of long-offset TEM (LOTEM), short-offset TEM (SOTEM), multi-channel TEM(MTEM), grounded-source semi-airborne TEM and grounded-source surface to borehole TEM, and summarize their research status in forward modeling, system design, inversion, imaging and field working. The results show that, as a well-developed grounded-source TEM, LOTEM has accumulated many research achievements. Although some progress has been made, the researches on other grounded-source TEMs are still in a primary stage and still need further improvement. Valuable research results in LOTEM, for example, noise suppression technology, high dimensional inversion and point interpretation, can be introduced to these newly developed electromagnetic methods, which can help provide solutions for high working efficiency and high resolution deep exploration.