State of science: occupational slips, trips and falls on the same level.

Occupational slips, trips and falls on the same level (STFL) result in substantial injuries worldwide. This paper summarises the state of science regarding STFL, outlining relevant aspects of epidemiology, biomechanics, psychophysics, tribology, organisational influences and injury prevention. This review reaffirms that STFL remain a major cause of workplace injury and STFL prevention is a complex problem, requiring multi-disciplinary, multi-faceted approaches.

Straight ladder inclined angle in a field environment: the relationship among actual angle, method of set-up and knowledge.

Ladder inclined angle is a critical factor that could lead to a slip at the base of portable straight ladders, a major cause of falls from heights. Despite several methods established to help workers achieve the recommended 75.5° angle for ladder set-up, it remains unclear if these methods are used in practice.

Editorial: emerging issues in sociotechnical systems thinking and workplace safety.

Unlabelled: The burden of on-the-job accidents and fatalities and the harm of associated human suffering continue to present an important challenge for safety researchers and practitioners. While significant improvements have been achieved in recent decades, the workplace accident rate remains unacceptably high. This has spurred interest in the development of novel research approaches, with particular interest in the systemic influences of social/organisational and technological factors.

Modelling and simulation of complex sociotechnical systems: envisioning and analysing work environments.

Unlabelled: Accurate comprehension and analysis of complex sociotechnical systems is a daunting task. Empirically examining, or simply envisioning the structure and behaviour of such systems challenges traditional analytic and experimental approaches as well as our everyday cognitive capabilities. Computer-based models and simulations afford potentially useful means of accomplishing sociotechnical system design and analysis objectives.

Sociotechnical approaches to workplace safety: Research needs and opportunities.

Unlabelled: The sociotechnical systems perspective offers intriguing and potentially valuable insights into problems associated with workplace safety. While formal sociotechnical systems thinking originated in the 1950s, its application to the analysis and design of sustainable, safe working environments has not been fully developed. To that end, a Hopkinton Conference was organised to review and summarise the state of knowledge in the area and to identify research priorities.

The importance, measurement and practical implications of worker's expectations for return to work.

Purpose: Workers' own expectations for return to work consistently predict work status. To advance the understanding of the relationship between RTW expectations and outcomes, we reviewed existing measures to determine those which we felt were the most likely to capture the construct.

Method: A comprehensive search of the work-disability rehabilitation literature was undertaken.