Bridging the gap between research, policy and practice in health and safety

This issue of the journal represents the second one since I took over as Editor-in-Chief of Policy and Practice in Health and Safety (PPHS) at the beginning of 2016. Some readers will have noticed some changes to the journal including the appointment of new editorial board members, as well as a revised set of aims and scope. One of my ambitions for the journal is we expand the journal to four issues a year at some stage in the near future. Another goal is to publish material which increases the engagement and interest of the diverse range of stakeholders which make up the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) community. Finally, I would like to see an increase in the number of papers in PPHS written by OSH practitioners and policy experts. If we believe the evidence from other disciplines and scientific journals, then achieving these aims is unlikely to be easy. In the last few years within my own fields of expertise (work psychology and human factors/ergonomics) for example, there has been a great deal of discussion centred on the so-called ‘academic-practitioner’ divide and ‘research-practice gaps’ (e.g. Anderson, Herriot, & Hodgkinson, 2001; Chung & Shorrock, 2011). Much of this focuses on the perception that academic research findings rarely transfer into changes to practice or shape wider decision-making about policy. Similar criticisms have been made about the degree to which researchers address questions which are important to researchers (Cascio & Aguinis, 2008). Finally, there is a concern that practitioners do not read or place a high value on research (Brown & Spencer, 2004). Some of these issues, perhaps all of them, may well be lurking within the field of OSH and part of my role as Editor-in-Chief for PPHS is to facilitate dialogue between researchers, practitioners and policy makers. In many respects I believe PPHS is well placed to do this within OSH. Some of that optimism comes from the impressions I got when attending the ‘International Strategy Conference on Safety and Health at Work’ held in Dresden in March this year, as well as the IOSH Conference in June 2016. Both conferences contained a wide range of presentations covering topics such as ‘Demographic Change’, ‘Work in a Digital World’ and ‘Safety Culture’. As a full-time academic these proved to be real eye-opener. The presentations not only made use of some of the latest research findings, but were also supported by sets of ‘real-world’ case studies, many of which could translate into material suitable for publication in PPHS. One session in Dresden on ‘Vision Zero’ inspired a call for a special issue of PPHS on the topic (http://explore.tandfonline.com/cfp/est/tphs-call-for-expression-of-interest). I also expect to receive a number of submissions from other conference participants on a range of other topics within OSH. One idea I have for future issues of the journal is that we include a section explicitly devoted to practitioner viewpoints and case studies (provisionally titled ‘A View from OSH Practice’). Submissions of this type will be subject to the same peer review process and scrutiny as other papers for the journal, however, the expectation is that they will focus more on topical issues and debates within OSH policy and practice as compared to the ‘pure science’ of OSH. Please feel free to contact me if you have an idea for a submission. I am more than happy to help move an idea from initial draft through to eventual publication and welcome suggestions from readers of the journal for topics we should cover or special issues the journal should commission.