A bibliometric analysis of industry 4.0 digital manufacturing and smart technologies for sustainable development

This study provides a broad bibliometric analysis of Industry 4.0 as well as technology-based production systems within the appropriate scientific literature to target the description of the dynamic structure, intellectual foundation, and cooperation processes of the relevant research field. In order to fulfil the research aims, a total of 2500 peer-reviewed journals indexed within the Web of Science citation database, published within the time frame from the year 2013 to the end of the year 2024, have been subjected to a multi-component analysis technique based upon performance analysis, network analysis, as well as theme dynamic analysis. The analysis process has utilized cutting-edge technological tools such as Python, VOSViewer, Gephi, and Tableau. The outcome has emphasized robust and continuous growth for Industry 4.0 research with a distinct indication and acceleration after the mid-2010s, symbolically showing the transition point from conceptual research to practical and empirically focused research. Network analyses clearly highlight the inclined cooperation processes with extreme localized clustering, simultaneously featuring high fragmentation concerning institutional and geographical stakeholders. The citation analysis clearly indicates the existence of a set of crucial publications encompassing the basic research areas which includes edge computing, cyber-physical systems, AI-based research, and artificial intelligence. This shows the key conceptual foundations that guide the main research domains while also revealing the effect of citation dilution as the literature grows. The thematic dynamics analysis indicates an increasing intellectual focus on explainable AI, uncertainty-aware decision-making, and trustworthy automation systems. The thematic dynamics analysis also shows an increasing shift in research priorities from infrastructure and connectivity-oriented research topics to intelligent and autonomous systems. Moreover, the results indicate an increasing adoption and dominance of open-access publication models, while at the same time highlighting emerging issues of publication inequality and visibility.