Abstract: ZnSnO₃ is a kind of ferroelectric oxide material with a LiNbO₃-type structure, which has high spontaneous polarization. Therefore, it has potential application prospects in the fields of lead-free ferroelectric storage, piezoelectric energy conversion and photovoltaic devices. However, the theoretical and experimental studies on ZnSnO₃ are still limited at present. Especially, the results of some studies are problematic, which should cause some troubles to readers. The main problem is the determination of ZnSnO₃ phase. Because there are four diffraction cards of ZnSnO₃ in the standard diffraction library, but it has been proved later that only two of the four cards are correct. The other two diffraction cards are not ZnSnO₃, one is the mixture of Zn₂SnO₄ and SnO₂, the other is ZnSn(HO)₆. But many scholars used the wrong diffraction card of ZnSnO₃, which misled many researchers. In this paper, the first-principles research results on ZnSnO₃ were introduced systematically, and the preparation methods of ZnSnO₃ materials were summarized. Moreover, some problems and inaccurate conclusions of the literatures about the preparation of ZnSnO₃ were analyzed and clarified. Finally, the possible preparation schemes of ZnSnO₃ were proposed.