We provide a perspective review over the recent development of short-pulsed Raman fiber lasers(RFLs),which can provide laser emissions with flexible wavelengths for a variety of applications as well as an excellent platform to investigate various nonlinear pulse dynamics behaviors that cannot be captured in conventional rare-earth(RE)doped counterparts.Various pulse generation techniques have been explored in RFLs.However,the output pulse performance in terms of the pulse energy,duration and stability from short-pulsed RFLs is still inferior to their RE-doped counterparts despite significant advances made over the past few decades.Therefore,more efforts are required to improve these targets.In this review,we present a detailed overview of the short-pulsed RFLs based on different mechanisms from the principle to the experiment,including the Q-switching,gain-switching,mode-locking,synchronous pumping and other innovative techniques.In addition,Raman-induced pulse dynamics in ultrafast RFLs and RE-doped mode-locked fiber lasers(MLFLs)are briefly reviewed.Finally,a perspective outlook for the future ultrafast RFLs is provided based on their potential applications in industrial and scientific research areas.