Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology has emerged as one of the key streams in construction and civil engineering research within the last decade. Its dimensional presenting technology (4D-BIM) is now a global digital technology that is widely believed to have the potential to revolutionize construction planning and management work. This has been mainly a result of worldwide government initiatives promoting BIM uptake to improve efficiency and quality in delivering construction projects. Thus, this development has been accompanied by a keen interest in 4D modeling aspects and the release of a tremendous amount of 4D literature. It is, therefore, essential to comprehend and determine the core research work, gaps and trends emerging in this field, and its implications for broader research. Previous studies of similar reviews of identifying the core of 4D research have generally been limited in scope focusing predominantly on other aspects of BIM applications instead of 4D applications areas or different selection criteria were used and also a limited number of reviewed papers. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive and systematic analysis, in which a review of a wide range of existing 4D literature focusing on the last decade from 2005 to 2016 is completed. A literature review within a 4D application framework has been conducted and the result reveals a research gap for 4D applications in the project management domains of construction waste management, quality management, resource management, site installation logistics, and site security. It was also confirmed that construction progress tracking, visualization and communication and collaboration, schedule management, workspace planning, and construction method planning as the sub-categories with the most significant growth in the last years.
