Mapping of the scientific production of industry 4.0 in the BRICS: reflections and interfaces

Abstract This article aims to analyze the recent scientific production about 4.0 Industry from BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), published in leading academics journals. The 4.0 Industry incorporates nine technological innovations, which are related, directly and indirectly, to the evolution of Science and Technology (S&T) in BRICS, diagnosed by the evolution of the financial support, the participation in S&T in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the number of researchers and publications, in each member country. The descriptive and exploratory research was built using bibliometrics. The population was made up of texts of the databases Scopus and Web of Science, and the final sample was composed of 51 interdisciplinary articles. The analysis considered indicators of characterization of scientific production, to a certain degree co-occurrence of scientific productivity and scientific collaboration of methodological features of the study. It is concluded that Chinese articles are predominant, and the research indicated the increase of studies about Industry 4.0 in S&T in BRICS. There is still a need to effectively strengthen the cooperation of these countries in the aspects related to the subject, according to agreements already established in recent years. In addition, the academic production shows a vast field to be explored, with the need for cooperation and effective development of common S&T objectives in BRICS.