Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit manuscripts showing your current research on occupational safety and health. Occupational safety and health is a growing interdisciplinary field focused on protecting and maintaining the health and wellbeing of workers in the workplace through a variety of interventions (i.e., hazard prevention, education, behavior change, etc.) (World Health Organization, 2023). Disciplines involved in occupational safety and health include public health, psychology, healthcare, ergonomics, industrial hygiene, law, and technology, to name a few. The workplace has shifted substantially in the past few years with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, a shift to remote work, and then with the adjustment into the post-pandemic era. New concerns in the workplace have emerged such as changing polices, procedures, and practices, which have impacted most industries (Almohassen et al., 2023). Additionally, the discussion around mental health and wellbeing has never been more prevalent in the workplace (Santana et al., 2023; Alroomi & Mohamed, 2021). Further, as the workforce changes, we see a need for DEI-related occupational health and safety research (Uezato et al., 2023; Creary et al., 2021), as well as a look into how new technologies impact the health and wellbeing of the workforce (Namkoong et al., 2023; Antwi-Afari et al., 2019).

This Special Issue aims to enable academics, organizations, and decision makers to broaden their understanding of the latest trends and challenges in occupational safety and health. With the near-constant changes to organizations and industries, learning about the progress in occupational safety and health allows research to translate into practice and encourages the development of new ideas for further research.

This call for papers is open to researchers in any subject areas related to occupational safety and health; both original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Work-life balance;
• Exposures in the workplace;
• Industry-specific topics;
• Mental wellbeing in the workplace;
• Organizational climate;
• Safety climate;
• Human factors and design;
• Technologies’ impact on health and wellbeing in the workplace;
• Risky behaviors in the workplace;
• Built workplace environment;
• Injury prevention;
• Interventions in the workplace;
• Measurement tools.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Joseph A. Allen
Dr. Matthew S. Thiese
Guest Editors

References:

• Almohassen, A. S., Alkhaldi, M. S., & Shaawat, M. E. (2023). The effects of COVID-19 on safety practices in construction projects. Ain Shams Engineering Journal, 14(1), 101834.
• Alroomi, A. S., & Mohamed, S. (2021). Predictors of mental health and fatigue among isolated oil and gas workers. In Safety and Reliability Taylor & Francis. Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 80-98.
• Antwi-Afari, M. F., Li, H., Wong, J. K. W., Oladinrin, O. T., Ge, J. X., Seo, J., & Wong, A. Y. L. (2019). Sensing and warning-based technology applications to improve occupational health and safety in the construction industry: A literature review. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management.
• Creary, S. J., Rothbard, N., & Scruggs, J. (2021). Improving workplace culture through evidence-based diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
• Namkoong, K., Chen, J., Leach, J., Song, Y., Vincent, S., Byrd, A. P., & Mazur, J. (2023). Virtual reality for public health: a study on a VR intervention to enhance occupational injury prevention. Journal of Public Health, 45(1), 136-144.
• Santana, G. L., Baptista, M. C., de Matos, G. A. G., Ogata, A. J. N., Malik, A. M., & Andrade, L. H. (2023). The Well-Being of Brazilian Industry Workers on Returning to the Physical Workplace during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 10-1097.
• Uezato, A., Sakamoto, K., Miura, M., & Futami, A. (2023). Workplace culture and mental health of ethnic minority workers in Japan. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 65(1), e28-e29.
• World Health Organization [WHO]. (2023). Occupational health. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/health-topics/occupational-health

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 submissions that pass pre-check are 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. Merits is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1000 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.