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Safety climate and safety culture are important research domains in risk and safety science, and various industry and service sectors show significant interest in, and commitment to, applying its concepts, theories, and methods to enhance organizational safety performance. Despite the large body of literature on these topics, there are disagreements about the scope and focus of these concepts, and there is a lack of systematic understanding of their development patterns and the knowledge domains on which these are built. This article presents a comparative analysis of the literature focusing on safety climate and safety culture, using various scientometric analysis approaches and tools. General development patterns are identified, including the publication trends, in terms of temporal and geographical activity, the science domains in which safety culture and safety climate research occurs, and the scientific domains and articles that have primarily influenced their respective development. It is found that the safety culture and safety climate domains show strong similarities, e.g., in dominant application domains and frequently occurring terms. However, safety culture research attracts comparatively more attention from other scientific domains, and the research domains rely on partially different knowledge bases. In particular, while measurement plays a role in both domains, the results suggest that safety climate research focuses comparatively more on the development and validation of questionnaires and surveys in particular organizational contexts, whereas safety culture research appears to relate these measurements to wider organizational features and management mechanisms. Finally, various directions for future research are identified based on the obtained results.

Although there is a growing field of research focusing on university laboratory safety, accidents in such contexts still occur relatively frequently. Therefore, it is significant to summarize current research status and gaps, and to propose future research directions in the field of university laboratory safety. In this paper, a bibliometric analysis method was applied to gain an overall view of the developments, focus areas, and trends in this field of safety research. A total of 219 scientific publications on university laboratory safety were identified and screened from the database of Web of Science, covering 44 countries or regions, 254 research institutions, 575 authors, 126 publication sources, and 70 subject categories. Bibliometric data such as annual growth trend and distribution of subject categories were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The most productive and influential countries, institutions, authors, and their cooperation networks were identified from co-citation maps created by VOSviewer. Further analysis was carried out to find out the core publications and publication sources in this field. Insights in the focus areas and research topics over time were obtained through terms co-occurrence analysis. The results indicate that university laboratory safety is a highly multidisciplinary research field. However, it is still a young discipline and belongs to the minority research field when compared with other safety domains. Several avenues for future research are identified to advance and make progress in this field.

Scientometrics analysis is increasingly applied across scientific domains to gain quantitative insights in the development of research on particular (sub-)domains of scientific inquiry. By visualizing metrics containing quantitative information about such a domain, scientometric mapping allows researchers to gain insights in aspects thereof. Methods have been developed to answer specific research questions, focusing e.g. on collaboration networks, thematic research clusters, historic evolution patterns, and trends in topics addressed. Several articles applying scientometric mapping to safety-related topics have been published. In context of the Special Issue ‘Mapping Safety Science – Reviewing Safety Research’, this article first reviews these, and subsequently provides an overview of key concepts, methods, and tools for scientometric mapping. Data sources and freely available tools are introduced, focusing on which research questions these are suited to answer. A brief tutorial-style description of a scientometrics research process is provided, guiding researchers new to this method how to engage with it. Finally, a discussion on best practices in scientometric mapping research is made, focusing on how to obtain reliable and valid results, and how to use the scientometric maps to gain meaningful insights. It is hoped that this work can advance the application of scientometric research within the safety science community.

Graphical abstract, Highlights • Macro-analysing the scientific literature on Coronaviruses and Covid-19. • Identifying macro-level patterns of scholarly publications on Coronaviruses and Covid-19. • Scoping review of the safety-related research dimensions with respect to Covid-19. • Synthesising the current safety-related findings of the scientific studies on Covid-19. • Identifying underrepresented safety dimensions with respect to academic studies of Covid-19., The COVID-19 global pandemic has generated an abundance of research quickly following the outbreak. Within only a few months, more than a thousand studies on this topic have already appeared in the scientific literature. In this short review, we analyse the bibliometric aspects of these studies on a macro level, as well as those addressing Coronaviruses in general. Furthermore, through a scoping analysis of the literature on COVID-19, we identify the main safety-related dimensions that these studies have thus far addressed. Our findings show that across various research domains, and apart from the medical and clinical aspects such as the safety of vaccines and treatments, issues related to patient transport safety, occupational safety of healthcare professionals, biosafety of laboratories and facilities, social safety, food safety, and particularly mental/psychological health and domestic safety have thus far attracted most attention of the scientific community in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our analysis also uncovers various potentially significant safety problems caused by this global health emergency which currently have attracted only limited scientific focus but may warrant more attention. These include matters such as cyber safety, economic safety, and supply-chain safety. These findings highlight why, from an academic research perspective, a holistic interdisciplinary approach and a collective scientific effort is required to help understand and mitigate the various safety impacts of this crisis whose implications reach far beyond the bio-medical risks. Such holistic safety-scientific understanding of the COVID-19 crisis can furthermore be instrumental to be better prepared for a future pandemic.

Autonomous vessels are envisioned to enhance safety, improve environmental sustainability, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. With much effort directed towards merchant shipping, technical designs for urban ferries are also under development to facilitate smart mobility. Safety perceptions of such autonomous ferries are likely important drivers of the adoption of such novel technologies. Understanding the public’s perceived benefits and concerns can support policy makers and industry in implementing responsible risk governance and can have design and operational implications. This article explores this topic for a hypothetical autonomous urban ferry in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Through phone surveys and interviews, focus is on safety perceptions of different automation degrees, which are further explored in relation to selected population characteristics. Improved environmental performance is the most important perceived benefit, whereas safety is the most important concern. Overall, there is support for increased automation, but an on-board presence of qualified operators is considered important for safety and security related reasons. Remotely controlled ferries without onboard personnel or fully autonomous vessels are generally perceived as (very) unsafe. Men are slightly more favourable of increased automation than women, as are people with more digital knowledge and skills. Acknowledging several limitations of this exploratory study, of which the focus on older age groups in the studied population is the most significant, the findings suggest that understanding the public’s safety perceptions is important to ensure the successful design, implementation, and operation of autonomous urban, so that the envisaged benefits of these new systems can be achieved.

Designing maritime safety management systems commonly follows basic processes which focus on fulfilling the demands of the regulations in the industry. This provokes designing systems with limited application which are not capable to efficiently use the guidance contained in regulatory demands, and more importantly, creating systems which are not capable of representing, evaluating, and improving the dynamic management of safety-critical organizations. This article proposes a safety system engineering process for designing maritime safety management systems which is based on the Systems-Theoretic Accident Modelling and Processes (STAMP). This process is applied for sketching the safety management of the Vessel Traffic Services in Finland. The aim is to systematically represent the function of the utilized controls for ensuring the internal VTS safety management and the safety of navigation in Finnish sea areas. The outcome of this study provides a descriptive process of analysis for designing maritime safety management systems. In this process, two other concrete elements are included for supporting the functioning of the safety management system to be designed. First, the adaptation of an identification process for determining key performance indicators for planning, monitoring and evaluating the functioning of the safety management system. Second, the constitution of a performance monitoring tool capable of executing the monitoring, measuring, and updating of the determined key performance indicators and the general functioning of the designed safety management system.

Even though validation is an important concept in safety research, there is comparatively little empirical research on validating specific safety assessment, assurance, and ensurance activities. Focusing on model-based safety analysis, scant work exists to define approaches to assess a model’s adequacy for its intended use. Rooted in a wider concern for evidence-based safety practices, this paper intends to provide an understanding of the extent of this problem of lack of validation to establish a baseline for future developments. The state of the practice in validation of model-based safety analysis in socio-technical systems is analyzed through an empirical study of relevant published articles in the Safety Science journal spanning a decade (2010–2019). A representative sample is first selected using the PRISMA protocol. Subsequently, various questions concerning validation are answered to gain empirical insights into the extent, trends, and patterns of validation in this literature on model-based safety analysis. The results indicate that no temporal trends are detected in the ratio of articles in which models are validated compared to the total number of papers published. Furthermore, validation has no clear correlation with the specific model type, safety-related concept, different system life cycle stages, industries, or with the countries from which articles originate. Furthermore, a wide variety of terminology for validation is observed in the studied articles. The results suggest that the safety science field concerned with developing and applying models in safety analyses would benefit from an increased focus on validation. Several directions for future work are discussed.

With the diminishing extents of Arctic sea ice, Arctic shipping becomes increasingly attractive for the shipping industry. Voyages along Arctic sea routes have seen a significant increase in recent years. Given the harsh environment, shipping operations in the Arctic constitute a hazardous activity for people onboard vessels, while vessels pose risks to vulnerable ecosystems and traditional socio-cultural environments. Given this emerging trend, this paper presents a bibliometric analysis of the broad academic literature related to risk management of Arctic shipping, published in the period from 2000 to 2019. Based on 221 articles, the bibliometric analyses provide insights in publication patterns concerning the year of publication, keywords, journals, and countries/regions from which the work originates. Furthermore, through a qualitative systematic review, this article presents a synthesis of risk influencing factors (RIFs) of navigational accidents in the Arctic, based on published quantitative risk models containing accident scenarios in Arctic shipping. To this effect, ten papers are investigated in detail, focusing on the scenario, methods, data sources, and RIFs. Identifying major thematic clusters in the RIFs, a model is proposed for synthesizing and illustrating the relationships among environmental and ship-related RIFs, and accident scenarios in Arctic shipping. A discussion is made concerning challenges in the research domain and future research directions, focusing on the strength of evidence in the risk models, the use of linear versus complex, systemic accident theories, and on the alignment of academic work with focus issues in regulatory contexts.

Navigational accidents in wintertime conditions occur relatively frequently, yet there is little systematic knowledge available about the circumstances under which these occur. This paper presents an analysis of navigational shipping accidents in the Northern Baltic Sea area which occurred in the period 2007–2013. The analysis is based on an integration of various data sources, aiming to reconstruct the accident conditions based on the best available data sources. Apart from basic accident information from the original accident databases, data from the Automatic Identification System is used to obtain insight in the operation type during which the accident occurred, as well as into other dynamic aspects of the accident scenario. Finally, atmospheric and sea ice data is used to reconstruct the navigational conditions under which the accidents occurred. The analysis aims to provide qualitative insights in patterns and outlier cases in the accidental conditions. Correspondingly, visual data mining is selected asanalysis approach, because of its utility in obtaining qualitative knowledge from data sources through a combination of visualization techniques and human interaction with the data. Special attention is given to the strength of evidence of the identified accident patterns. The results are primarily useful for improving risk analyses focusing on oil spill risks in winter conditions and for developing realistic training scenarios for oil spill response operations.

Slip and fall incidents at work remain an important class of injury and fatality causing mechanisms. An extensive body of safety research has accumulated on this topic. This article presents an analysis of this research domain. Two bibliometric visualization tools are applied: VOSviewer and HistCite. Samples of 618 slip and fall related articles are obtained from the Web of Science database. Networks of institutions, authors, terms, and chronological citation relationships are established. Collaboration and research activities of the slip and fall research community show that most contributors are from the United States, with the (now closed) Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety the most influential research organization. The results of a term clustering analysis show that the slip and fall research can be grouped into three sub-domains: epidemiology, gait/biomechanics, and tribology. Of these, early research focused mainly on tribology, whereas research on gait/biomechanics and epidemiological studies are relatively more recent. Psychological aspects of slip and fall incident occurrence represent a relatively under-investigated research topic, in which future contributions may provide new insights and safety improvements. Better linking of this research domain with other principles and methods in safety science, such as safety management and resilience, may also present valuable future development paths.

openaire: EC/H2020/730888/EU//RESET With the global warming and a large amount of sea ice melting, the available Arctic Sea Route has greatly enhanced the value of Arctic shipping. Ship operations under icebreaker assistance have become an essential way to facilitate the safe navigation of merchant vessels sailing through the Arctic Sea Route in ice-covered waters, but they can also put the crew and the ship in danger caused by a possible collision between the assisted ship and the icebreaker. In this paper, a dedicated Human and Organizational Factors (HoFs) model of ship collision accidents between an assisted ship and an icebreaker is developed and analyzed with the aim to identify and classify collision risk factors. First, a modified model of the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) for collision accidents between a ship and an icebreaker in ice-covered waters is proposed, which helps to analyze ship collision reports. Then, a Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) model is utilized to analyze the fundamental collision risk factors according to the statistical analysis of accident reports and expert judgments based on the HFACS-SIBCI model. Finally, qualitative analysis is carried out to analyze collision risk factors under icebreaker assistance, where Risk Control Options (RCOs) are formulated. An important guidance for the risk control of ship collisions during icebreaker assistance in ice-covered waters is provided for lawmakers and shipping companies.

Risk matrices and risk diagrams are widely used tools for analyzing, assessing and visualizing risk in many industries, and are used extensively for risk management purposes. Despite their popularity and wide application, they have recently become the object of discussion and research in scientific environments, which can be seen as part of a wider focus on foundational issues in the risk analysis discipline. Identifying several serious limitations and problems with the risk matrix approach, various authors have proposed extensions, modifications and recommendations for their use. One issue which has been raised recently but has attracted relatively limited scientific attention is the consideration of uncertainty in risk diagrams, i.e. how to visually represent and communicate uncertainty. This paper first reviews the available proposals for this question. Subsequently, the strengths and weaknesses of these proposals are discussed. Finally, some new proposals are made on how to represent uncertainty in risk diagrams in practical applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Efficient response to maritime incidents and accidents requires good communication processes and situation awareness by all involved parties, in particular between the Search and Rescue (SAR) response operators and the crew of the distressed vessel. In this paper, a method is proposed for enhancing the communication between the involved parties, by focusing on the safety status of the vessel. Borrowing ideas from well-established working methods in especially emergency medicine, the Vessel TRIAGE method has been established through a broad stakeholder consultation process. Its intended application is to assess and communicate whether a vessel can provide a safe environment for the people onboard. Using a set of threat factors and a four-level ship safety categorization, the method aims to establish a shared understanding of the nature of the distress situation, which in turn has implications for the operational focus of the SAR operators and vessel crew. An evaluation of the proposed method indicates a positive reception among various maritime stakeholders, suggesting that implementing the Vessel TRIAGE method in maritime SAR procedures may act as a useful tool to assist in the management of maritime distress situations.

Maritime transport faces new safety-related challenges resulting from constantly increasing traffic density, along with increasing dimensions of ships. Consequently, the number of new concepts related to Decision Support Systems (DSSs) supporting safe shipborne operations in the presence of reduced ship manning is rapidly growing, both in academia and industry. However, there is a lack of a systematic description of the state-of-the-art in this field. Moreover, there is no comprehensive overview of the level of technology readiness of proposed concepts. Therefore, this paper presents an analysis aiming at (1) increasing the understanding of the structure and contents of the academic field concerned with this topic; (2) determining and mapping scientific networks in this domain; (3) analyzing and visualizing Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of analyzed systems. Bibliometric methods are utilized to depict the domain of onboard DSSs for operations focused on safety ensurance and accident prevention. The scientific literature is reviewed in a systematic way using a comparative analysis of existing tools. The results indicate that there are relatively many developments in selected DSS categories, such as collision avoidance and ship routing. However, even in these categories some issues and gaps still remain, so further improvements are needed. The analysis indicates a relatively low level of technology readiness of tools and concepts presented in academic literature. This signifies a need to move beyond the conceptual stages toward demonstration and validation in realistic, operating environments.

Recently, there has been a significant interest in industry, regulatory, and academic contexts in the prospects of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS). Much work focuses on technical developments and discussions on legal, economic, and safety and security implications. There has been less focus and discussion on the role of different societal actors in the decision-making processes concerning the conceptualization, design, and operational implementation of these future vessels. This paper contributes to this discussion by framing the introduction of MASS in a risk governance context. After briefly introducing the International Risk Governance Council’s Risk Governance Framework, the different degrees of autonomy of MASS are categorized according to their dominant risk characteristics. Subsequently, implications are drawn for the recommended risk governance strategies in approaching MASS development and implementation, and some future research areas are identified. It is argued that with higher degrees of autonomy, complexities and uncertainties become more important, necessitating an approach to MASS design and implementation where multiple affected stakeholders are included. A reflective discourse is recommended. For MASS degree of autonomy three and four, normative ambiguities may be present. In such cases, a participative discourse is recommended, where a wider societal debate is held regarding appropriate actions.

Risk communication is a significant research domain with practical importance in supporting societal risk governance and informed private decision making. In this article, a high-level analysis of the risk communication research domain is performed using scientometrics methods and visualization tools. Output trends and geographical patterns are identified, and patterns in scientific categories determined. A journal distribution analysis provides insights into dominant journals and the domain&rsquo, s intellectual base. Thematic clusters and temporal evolution of focus topics are obtained using a terms analysis, and a co-citation analysis provides insights into the evolution of research fronts and key documents. The results indicate that the research volume grows exponentially, with by far most contributions originating from Western countries. The domain is highly interdisciplinary, rooted in psychology and social sciences, and branching mainly into medicine and environmental sciences. Narrative themes focus on risk communication in medical and societal risk governance contexts. The domain originated from public health and environmental concerns, with subsequent research fronts addressing risk communication concepts and models. Applied research fronts are associated with environmental hazards, public health, medical risks, nuclear power, and emergency response to various natural hazards. Based on the results, various avenues for future research are described.

Recently, there have been several calls for increased attention to foundational issues in risk analysis, addressing issues like terminology, principles and theories. An important foundational issue is the appropriateness of different concepts and perspectives for analyzing risk in practical applications. Several authors have addressed this through arguments involving, inter alia, the definition of risk, the ontology of risk, and the reliability and validity of risk analysis. This paper aims to contribute to this discussion by focusing on the concept of prediction. While this term is quite frequently used in risk analysis contexts, no earlier work has specifically focused on the issue of whether risk analyses can be considered to be predictive, and if so, in what sense. Neither has this been linked to the feasibility of risk perspectives. First, two definitions of what prediction can mean are elaborated, and criteria corresponding to these definitions are outlined to facilitate the subsequent discussion. A brief discussion on system types is included, as one type of prediction is defined through the relation between the model and the modeled system. Then, the definitions of prediction and the corresponding criteria are used to consider the appropriateness of two commonly used risk perspectives, namely the probability of frequency and the uncertainty perspective. In the former, a risk analysis aims at estimating an underlying true risk with quantified uncertainty bounds. In the latter, a risk analysis is a descriptive account of judgments and uncertainties by an assessor. It is finally argued that the uncertainty perspective generally is more appropriate than the probability of frequency perspective for practical risk analysis applications.

Ship collisions are rare occurrences with a potential to cause significant human, monetary and/or environmental loss. One element in preventing collision accidents is the presence of a collision alert system (CAS), providing warnings to ship crews and/or personnel in Vessel Traffic Services of the collision risk in a real-time operational environment. In risk research, there is a recent focus on foundational issues related to risk concepts, perspectives and methods for describing risk, with calls for work addressing these risk-theoretical issues in application areas. Despite several proposed applications for CAS, no frameworks covering these risk-theoretic issues have been presented. Hence, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First, a framework for maritime risk-informed CAS (RICAS) is presented, including a risk-conceptual basis, a systematic description of the risk perspective and a discussion on the intended use of the risk model. A theoretical framework for the operationalization of the construct “ship collision risk” is presented, and a method for measuring this construct is introduced. Second, the framework is applied to a case-study concerning open sea navigation. An evaluation of the proposed RICAS in comparison with earlier proposed CAS methods indicates an improved performance over these.

Winter navigation is a complex but common operation in north-European sea areas. In Finnish waters, the smooth flow of maritime traffic and safety of vessel navigation during the winter period are managed through the Finnish–Swedish winter navigation system (FSWNS). This article focuses on accident risks in winter navigation operations, beginning with a brief outline of the FSWNS. The study analyses a hazard identification model of winter navigation and reviews accident data extracted from four winter periods. These are adopted as a basis for visualizing the risks in winter navigation operations. The results reveal that experts consider ship independent navigation in ice conditions the most complex navigational operation, which is confirmed by accident data analysis showing that the operation constitutes the type of navigation with the highest number of accidents reported. The severity of the accidents during winter navigation is mainly categorized as less serious. Collision is the most typical accident in ice navigation and general cargo the type of vessel most frequently involved in these accidents. Consolidated ice, ice ridges and ice thickness between 15 and 40 cm represent the most common ice conditions in which accidents occur. Thus, the analysis presented in this article establishes the key elements for identifying the operation types which would benefit most from further safety engineering and safety or risk management development.

Winter navigation is a complex but common operation in the Northern Baltic Sea areas. In Finnish waters, the safety of the wintertime maritime transportation system is managed through the Finnish–Swedish winter navigation system. This system results in different operational modes of ship navigation, with vessels either navigating independently or under icebreaker assistance. A recent risk analysis indicates that during icebreaker assistance, convoys operations are among the most hazardous, with convoy collisions the most important risk events. While the accident likelihood per exposure time is rather low, accidents occur almost every winter. Even though these typically lead to less serious consequences, accidents leading to ship loss and oil pollution have occurred and may occur in the future. One aspect of ship convoy navigation in ice conditions is the distance kept between the icebreaker and the ships in the convoy, a form of the well-known ship domain concept. While operational experience naturally is a valuable source of information for decision making about the distance of navigation in convoys, systematic analyses are lacking. The aim of this paper is to investigate selected operational aspects of convoy navigation in ice conditions in the Finnish waters of the Gulf of Finland, based on data of the Automatic Identification System and sea ice hindcast data. Focus is on obtaining qualitative and quantitative knowledge concerning distances between vessels in escort and convoy operations and the respective transit speeds, conditional to ice conditions. Such empirical knowledge can support operational decision making, contributing to wintertime maritime safety.

A number of authors have discussed reliability and validity of quantitative risk analysis (QRA). These concepts address respectively whether a QRA provides the same risk picture when the analysis is repeated and whether the analysis addresses the right concept. While it has been argued that QRA is not in general reliable, there is little evidence supporting this claim available in the scientific literature. In light of this, this paper studies the reliability of QRA through a case study of ship–ship collision risk. It is found that probability- and indicator based risk perspectives do not necessarily provide a reliable risk picture, neither in terms of numerical accuracy of the risk metrics, nor in terms of rank order of risk metrics in various parts of the system. The results of the case study indicate a low inter-methodological reliability for the selected methods, raising concerns about their validity. This is discussed applying criteria concerning validity of risk analysis and in terms of the validity of the proposed encounter detection mechanisms. Significant uncertainty is found regarding this encounter definition in the selected methods, implying a need for more focus on this important aspect of maritime traffic risk analysis.

Quantitative risk analysis (QRA) is widely applied in several industries as a tool to improve safety, as part of design, licensing or operational processes. Nevertheless, there is much less academic research on the validity and validation of QRA, despite their importance both for the science of risk analysis and with respect to its practical implication for decision-making and improving system safety. In light of this, this paper presents a review focusing on the validity and validation of QRA in a safety context. Theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions in the scientific literature are reviewed, focusing on three questions. Which theoretical views on validity and validation of QRA can be found? Which features of QRA are useful to validate a particular QRA, and which frameworks are proposed to this effect? What kinds of claims are made about QRA, and what evidence is available for QRA being valid for the stated purposes? A discussion follows the review, focusing on the available evidence for the validity of QRA and the effectiveness of validation methods.

This paper proposes a framework for risk analysis of maritime transportation systems, where risk analysis is understood as a tool for argumentative decision support. Uncertainty is given a more prominent role than in the current state of art in the maritime transportation application area, and various tools are presented for analyzing uncertainty. A two-stage risk description is applied. In the first stage, Bayesian Network (BN) modeling is applied for probabilistic risk quantification. The model functions as a communication and argumentation tool, serving as an aid to thinking in a qualitative evidence and assumption effect assessment. The evidence assessment is used together with a sensitivity analysis to select alternative hypotheses for the risk quantification, while the assumption effect assessment is used to convey an argumentation beyond the model. Based on this, a deliberative uncertainty judgment is made in the second risk analysis stage, which is supplemented with a global strength of evidence assessment. The framework is applied to a case study of oil spill from tanker collisions, aimed at response capacity planning and ecological risk assessment. The BN-model is a proactive and transferable tool for assessing the occurrence of various spill sizes in a sea area. While the case study uses evidence specific to the Gulf of Finland, the model and risk analysis approach can be applied to other areas. Based on evaluation criteria and tests for the risk model and risk analysis, it is found that the model is a plausible representation of tanker collision oil spill risk.