Publication patterns and trends of 4ir pillars in a knowledge management journal

The potential issue with the already existing fourth industrial revolution (4IR) is the readiness of knowledge practitioners in many parts of the world. With research being a key contributor to ensuring readiness for the 4IR, the purpose of this paper was to determine the publication patterns and trends of 4IR pillars in an information and knowledge management (IKM) focused journal, the Online Information Review journal, for a period of five years (2015-2019). Pragmatism was applied as well as a mono-quantitative method and deductive reasoning. It was most suited for the study to utilise a content analysis strategy as it enabled researchers to contextualise data. To assist the content analysis process, category sheets were developed by nine IKM experts to provide detailed information regarding the nine pillars' abbreviations, synonyms, and terminology. The research utilised two types of samplings: purposively sampling the Online Information Review journal and randomly sampling 255 articles within the journal. Secondary data was collected as the abstract of each article was evaluated to determine the mentions of the 4IR pillars. While bibliometric analyses have been done on the concept of the 4IR, an analysis of publications regarding the pillars of the 4IR within the Online Information Review journal for the period 2015 to 2019 has not yet been done. Therefore, it was crucial to determine the publication patterns and trends of these 4IR pillars to determine whether the identified IKM journal can aid the development of a 4IR capable workforce. The analysis results indicated that a fluctuating publication pattern was the trend throughout the five years. The pillar found in most of the publications was big data, and additive manufacturing had the least appearances. The process of determining frequencies and sequencing allowed for the development of a table that summarised the research results.