Abstract
The maritime industry, Similar to many other sectors, is adopting Industry 4.0. The implementation of Industry 4.0 presents significant advantages to the marine industry including, creating new value, fostering cooperation between port actors, and reducing operational costs. This paper analyzes the most intellectual structure of Industry 4.0 and maritime research. To identify the main clusters of this research, a document co-citation analysis was applied. Furthermore, the trend of total publications, the most cited authors, Geographical distribution, and cooperation of countries of this domain was analyzed with the help of CiteSpace and Histcite Software packages. The data collected for bibliometric analysis were collected from the web of Science from 2011 to 2021. The results reveal that the number of publications in Maritime 4.0 has significantly increased since 2011 and will continue to grow rapidly in the next few years. Regarding the Geographical Distribution of Publications in the research domain, such publications primarily originate from People R China, the USA, and Italy. According to document co-citation analysis, Digitalization, Artificial intelligence, and Blockchain are the most active clusters of maritime 4.0 research.
 

INTRODUCTION

The term “Industry 4.0” is a new paradigm first introduced by Germany in 2011. Industry 4.0 results from the integration of information and communication technology with manufacturing and automation technology. Industry 4.0 can impact elements of a sustainable business model. For example, Industry 4.0 can significantly aid in the mass customization of products. By processing big data collected from products, Industry 4.0 can create value and offer new services.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In order to outline the scientific map of the research area of Industry 4.0 in seaports, initially, among the existing databases, the Web of Science (WOS) database was selected for retrieving scientific outputs. In the second phase, keywords related to the maritime industry were defined and finalized. To this end, by reviewing the literature of past studies, possible keywords related to Industry 4.0 and maritime transportation were extracted and subsequently refined.
 

RESULTS

The number of publications indicates that the concept of Industry 4.0 in the maritime sector is a new and emerging concept. However, scientific outputs in this field have experienced a growing trend. The examination of the fitted curve and the regression line for the changes in the total number of publications indicates that the trend of publishing research on Transport 4.0 will increase rapidly in the coming years. Citation analysis, by identifying the main clusters and the most cited authors within each cluster, leads to a better understanding of the foundational concepts of a research field. This approach helps to illuminate the intellectual structure and highlights key contributors and their influence in the domain.
 

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The frequency distribution analysis of scientific productions revealed that research on Industry 4.0 in the maritime sector, despite showing an increasing trend, remains a relatively new concept that is in its early stages.
Based on co-citation analysis, digitalization, artificial intelligence, and blockchain constitute the main concepts driving the research flow in Maritime Transport 4.0. Content analysis of the extracted articles indicates that the predominant focus of Industry 4.0 research in maritime transport is primarily on analyzing specific engineering applications (such as robotics, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, etc.), cyber-physical systems, and interoperability.
However, less attention has been paid to more complex aspects of Industry 4.0, such as the role of humans in the future factory, suitable organizational models, long-term value creation approaches, social implications like individual employment, and sustainability issues. This highlights a gap in the literature that could be addressed in future research endeavors.