Although traditional industrial development has created great wealth for human beings, it has caused serious eco-environmental problems, which have challenged global eco-security, resulting in regional eco-service crises and threatening human health. It is fundamental to develop a sustainable industrial developmental model to reverse this dangerous trend. An industrial symbiosis-based model was developed in 1989 to enhance industry ecosystems, which provided new ideas to solve the problem. The industrial symbiosis network is a cooperative network between different companies based on the exchange of material, energy, knowledge, fundamental infrastructure, and services that benefits all parts of the network; and this system has been considered since the 1990s. As it necessary to maintain the efficacy of industrial symbiosis, research has been carried out globally from theory to practice on the industrial symbiosis network since 1989. Moreover, research has been conducted in China to study network structure since 2002. From 2008, extensive research has focused on different areas of the industrial symbiosis network, to summarize existing research, clarify future directions, and facilitate application. The present article reviews the literature related to the industrial symbiosis network from five different areas:definition, structure, function and assessment, evolution, and management. This article concludes that global research has focused on the industrial symbiosis network theory, evolution, and assessment, and the factors affecting it. However, Chinese research has focused on the structure and attributes of industrial symbiosis. In addition, some global research has focused on the social factors that influence the evolution of the industrial symbiosis network, which was neglected before 2009. Moreover, local research has focused on industrial symbiosis on an urban scale. Furthermore, there are three topics that should be highlighted in future research:First, it is important to understand different scales of the industrial symbiosis network, as urban and regional-scale network research is limited. In addition, multiple factors that influence the evolution of the industrial symbiosis network should be discussed. Furthermore, Chinese research should focus on social factors. Second, it is fundamental to quantitatively clarify the industrial symbiosis network, which depends on sufficient support from relevant data. Therefore, a digital information platform should be developed to satisfy the requirement of the large amounts of accurate data required for such research. Third, different scientific models should be developed to study the evolution of the industrial symbiosis network for its effective management. Therefore, industrial symbiosis has been become a potential method to promote the green development of various industries, and to ensure economic development and effective environmental protection.