Special Issue "Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion: A Physical and Cognitive Ergonomic Approach"
A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Occupational Safety and Health".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020).
Special Issue Editors

Interests: human factors and ergonomics; biomechanics of human postural control, balance and gait; slips, trips, and falls; fall prevention

Interests: human factors and ergonomics; human interaction with industrially rugged mobile and wearable tools, robotics and autonomy, and athletic technology; cognitive engineering
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a total of 2.8 million non-fatal injuries and 5250 fatal work injuries in 2018. Globally, the International Labor Organization estimates that there are around 340 million occupational accidents and 160 million work-related diseases each year. Moreover, hazardous occupations such as construction, manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, mining, quarrying, and healthcare services, as well as emergency responders such as firefighters, law enforcement, and military, are predisposed greater risk for occupational injuries due to their inherent danger. The constant increase in injury, illness, and accident rates in the workplace warrants the successful implementation of safety practices that are evidence-based and warrants the need for new innovating and emerging research to minimize workplace accidents.
The scientific discipline of human factors and ergonomics and their domains of physical and cognitive ergonomics provide specialized approaches in preventing injuries and promoting safety. According to the International Ergonomics Association, physical ergonomics are concerned with human anatomical, physiological, and biomechanical characteristics while cognitive ergonomics is concerned with human, higher mental processing, motor response, and interactions with other elements of a system. Research and clinical approaches in physical ergonomics have included topics on working postures, balance, gait, slips, trips, falls, material handling, acute and repetitive work-related musculoskeletal disorders, fatigue, overexertion, and exhaustion. Research and clinical approaches in cognitive ergonomics have included topics on mental workload, situation awareness, vigilance, attention, memory, cognitive fatigue, memory, reasoning, decision-making, and human–computer interaction.
With recent advancements in human biomechanical, physiological, psychological, and cognitive research, this Special Issue will focus on the application of physical and cognitive ergonomics in workplace injury prevention and safety promotion. A wide range of topics addressing injury prevention and safety promotion in various hazardous occupations will be covered. Contributions including empirical research, review articles, case reports, etc. on injury prevention and safety promotion in ergonomics are encouraged.
Dr. Harish Chander
Dr. Reuben Burch
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2300 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- Human factors
- Occupational injuries
- Occupational safety
- Physical ergonomics
- Cognitive ergonomics
- Cognitive engineering
- Occupational biomechanics
- Occupational physiology