Manuscripts Sought for ASCE-ASME Special Journal Issue on Human Performance and Decision-Making

The guest editors of an upcoming special issue of the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering are currently accepting papers addressing the theme of human performance and decision-making in complex industrialenvironments. Authors who are interested in submitting a paper for the special issue, which is expected to be published in the summerof 2019, should submit their papers electronically by Nov. 30, 2018.

Complex industrial systems are unquestionably subjected to major hazards, which are of great concern to businesses, governments,communities and wider stakeholder groups. For this reason, efforts are increasingly made to control these hazards and manage risks,supported by improved computational capabilities and the application of sophisticated safety and reliability models. However, recent events such as the Air France 447 crash that caused 228 deaths and the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 people and released approximately 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico have shown that apparently rare or seemingly unforeseen scenarios, involving interactions between human factors, technologies and organizations, can trigger major accidents and lead to catastrophic consequences.

The understanding of human behavioral characteristics, when combined with current technology aspects and organizational context, is extremely important for the safety and reliability field, in particular the role of non-technical competences, such as communication skills, leadership, decision-making capabilities and risk awareness. In addition to examining these matters, the special issue of the ASCE-ASME journal will explore contemporary regulatory approaches that should go beyond rules of compliance and establish risk-based and goal-setting models in order to challenge academics and industry to develop new methods to assess human performance and anticipate critical issues.

Topic areas to be covered in the special journal issue will include factors influencing human decision-making processes and human performance; regulatory approaches to human factors, non-technical skills and human reliability analysis; qualitative and quantitative models for assessing human reliability in high-hazard environments; learning from accidents; human factors in design; safety culture and leadership; risk perception and communication; and uncertainty analysis related to human performance.

The guest editors for this special issue of the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering are Dr. Raphael Moura, ANP, Brazil/University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, rmoura@liverpool.ac.uk; Dr. Luca Podofillini,Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland, luca.podofillini@psi.ch; and Prof. Michael Beer, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, and theUniversity of Liverpool, United Kingdom, and Tongji University, China, beer@irz.uni-hannover.de.

Papers can be submitted to the online peer review system for Part B. Mechanical Engineering by visiting the Journals Connect web pageat https://journaltool.asme.org/home/JournalDescriptions.cfm?JournalID=27&Journal=RISK. When submitting a paper, please select “SpecialIssue SI034B,” and then assign the paper type as “Research Paper.”

For more information on the ASME Journal Program, visit ASME Journals.