Trends in study topics related to quality of life in Industry 4.0: A bibliometric analysis

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The use of new technologies boosted Industry 4.0, making processes more sophisticated and considering the interaction between physical production systems and workers. But these new technologies also intervene in the worker’s quality of life (QoL), that is, we need to know if the industry of the future is changing the scenario of the present. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to identify trends in study topics related to QoL in Industry 4.0. METHODS: A bibliometric mapping analysis was performed without temporal delimitation in the Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed databases. RESULTS: The results show that: (i) the publications most aligned with the theme are from 2016 onwards; (ii) the greatest growth in publications on the subject occurred between the years 2019, 2020 and 2021; (iii) the Journal Sustainability was the most relevant journal on the subject in recent years; (iv) Turkey stood out as the most cited country in the field of study; (v) there are collaboration networks between authors in several countries, including Denmark, Italy and Poland; (vi) with the analysis of the thematic map, it is possible to identify which themes are the motor, specialized, emerging, missing, or basic from the research field and; (vii) the sub-themes that appeared the most in the surveys were work environment, impact of Industry 4.0, robots, health and well-being, digitalization and job satisfaction. CONCLUSION: In addition to being a relevant source of information, where readers find future thematic trends in the field of research, it is hoped that the contributions of this study will provide insights for researchers, academics and society in general.