Human-Centered Future: The Rise of Industry 5.0 in Corporate Sustainability Literature

Abstract

In the second quarter of the 21st century, Industry 5.0 is considered as the most advanced stage of the industrial revolution, where the interaction between people and smart technologies has reached a new level. This assessment is not limited to the digital transformation of production processes, but also shaped by multidimensional sustainability elements such as environmental sensitivity, social benefit and ethical responsibility. The concept of Industry 5.0 seeks to build a manufacturing ecosystem grounded in sustainability and human-centric principles. The aim of this study is to reveal the current research trends in the international academic literature within the framework of the keywords “Industry 5.0” and “Sustainability” and to analyze the areas in which this conceptual framework is concentrated through bibliometric data. Building on this context, a total of 664 English-language scientific publications published between 2020 and 2025 in the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database were included in the scope of the analysis. The retrieved data were processed using RStudio Biblioshiny and VOSviewer software, and the publications were systematically evaluated according to their distribution across research fields, open access status, funding institutions, ongoing projects, influential conferences, leading journals, and prolific authors. The findings reveal that engineering, computer-related fields, and environmental sciences stand out as the disciplines contributing most to this area, while the fact that 71% of the publications are open access has gained particular attention. Furthermore, it was identified that funding bodies originating from the European Union and China provide the majority of financial support for this research domain. International conferences and publishers such as IFIP, IEEE, and ACM are among the most prominent platforms where the research is disseminated. As a result of the research, it is seen that the themes of Industry 5.0 and sustainability are met with increasing interest in the scientific literature; this interest is supported by multidisciplinary collaborations, global research funds and open access policies. This study contributes to identifying gaps in the literature and possible future research directions by revealing how Industry 5.0 is positioned in the context of sustainability.