Complex sedimentary environments in coastal zones make it very difficult to determine accurate ages of marine sediments.Luminescence dating methods can be successfully applied for investigating coastal zones because of their exclusive ability to obtain the last exposure age information of inorganic sand-size samples,and be free from radionuclide contamination.Based on the development of the optical stimulated luminescence(OSL)dating technique,the enormous cases of OSL dating on marine sediments in coastal areas are reviewed,including examples from Australia,Africa,the Americas,Europe,Asia,the Middle East and Mediterranean Sea.Furthermore,the present problems(such as the slow component of OSL signal and the recuperated OSL signal are currently limited by a lack of precision or by the lack of testing on coastal sediments)and the development prospects of the OSL technique are pointed out.With more attention paid to coastal development and its relationship with global climate changes,the OSL dating method should be helpful for the investigation of sea level changes,global climatic changes and regional marine geology in the future.