Safety Science serves as an international medium for research in the science and technology of human and industrial safety. It extends from safety of people at work to other spheres, such as transport, energy or infrastructures, as well as every other field of man's hazardous activities.

Safety Science is multidisciplinary. Its contributors and its audience range from social scientists to engineers. The journal covers the physics and engineering of safety; its social, policy and organizational aspects; the assessment, management and communication of risks; the effectiveness of control and management techniques for safety; standardization, legislation, inspection, insurance, costing aspects, human behavior and safety and the like.

Papers addressing the interfaces between technology, people and organizations are especially welcome.

Safety Science will enable academic researchers, engineers and decision-makers in companies, government agencies and international bodies, to augment their information level on the latest trends in the field, from policy-makers and management scientists to engineers.

The journal focuses primarily on original research papers across its whole scope, but also welcomes state-of-the-art review papers and first-hand case histories on accidents and disasters of special significance and discussion papers on hot topics.

Special Issue on The Use of Extended Reality Technologies in Safety Research
Submission Date: 2024-09-30

Many contemporary human activities carry inherent risks to people’s safety, and there is growing recognition of the need to improve safety records and reduce injury and fatality rates across various sectors worldwide. As a result, industry practitioners and academics are exploring the use of Extended Reality technology solutions to enhance safety. As technology advances and applications become more diverse, ensuring that these solutions are founded on accurate theoretical grounds and rigorous user-based empirical assessments is critical. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to showcase a range of research on Extended Reality technology solutions to enhance safety in scientific and innovative ways.

Guest editors:

Dr. Daniel Paes
Massey University

Dr. Zhenan Feng
Massey University

A/Prof. Nan Li
Tsinghua University

A/Prof. Ruggiero Lovreglio
Massey University

Special issue information:

We encourage submissions of original research and review articles that make significant contributions to the theory and practice of using Extended Reality technologies to enhance safety. Original research articles must include a report of the development and assessment of prototypes (this does not apply to review articles). Technologies of interest include Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) systems used individually or in combination with other digital technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), and Building Information Modelling (BIM). Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, safety training and education, workplace accident/injury/fatality prevention, decision support systems (for disasters, emergencies, hazardous activities, etc.), and investigation of human behaviour (in disasters, emergencies, hazardous activities, etc.).

Manuscript submission information:

We invite colleagues to submit the manuscript any time before the deadline. For any inquiries about the appropriateness of contribution topics, please contact Dr Daniel Paes at d.paes@massey.ac.nz. 

The journal's submission platform (Editorial Manager®) is available for receiving submissions to this Special Issue. Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare the manuscript and select the article type “VSI: XR for Safety" when submitting your manuscript online. Both the Guide for Authors and the submission portal can be found on the journal Homepage here: https://www.elsevier.com/journals/safety-science/0925-7535/guide-for-authors. 

Manuscript submission deadline: September 30, 2024

All submissions deemed suitable to be sent for peer review will be reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. Once your manuscript is accepted, it will go into production, and will be simultaneously published in the current regular issue and pulled into the online Special Issue. Articles from this Special Issue will appear in different regular issues of the journal, though they will be clearly marked and branded as Special Issue articles.

Here is an example: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/science-of-the-total-environment/special-issue/10SWS2W7VVV 

What is a VSI (Virtual Special Issue):

Upon its editorial acceptance, articles submitted to a VSI will go into production immediately. It will be published in the latest regular issue while simultaneously being presented on the Special Issue webpage. The regular issues will mark and brand the Special Issue articles.

Keywords:

Safety, Extended Reality, Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Digital Technology, Human-Computer Interaction