The Importance of Computer Science in Industry 4.0

Abstract

Since coined by a German researcher in 2011, Industry 4.0 has piqued the interests of many researchers. The number of scientific publications related to Industry 4.0 or Fourth Industrial Revolution increases tremendously. Unfortunately, 90% of those publications have not been reviewed thus hindering many to track the progress and trends of research in this field. This article aims to address the most subject areas, top productive countries, the most influential authors, the most productive and influential journals/proceedings, the most used/influential keywords, and research trends related to Industry 4.0 based on documents indexed by Scopus. The method used is scientometrics and linear regression. It is revealed that Germany, China and Italy are the most prolific countries, but US, Portugal and UK are the most impactful countries. Researchers from China also dominate the top ten of most influential authors. The study prediction shows that Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT), Intelligent/Smart Manufacturing, Automation, and Big Data will dominate researches in 2018 and the next two years.