A Science Mapping Approach Based Review of Construction Safety Research

This study adopted a three-step holistic review approach consisting of bibliometric review, scientometric analysis, and in-depth discussion to gain a deeper understanding of the research development in construction safety. Focusing on a total of 513 journal articles published in Scopus, the influential journals, keywords, scholars, and articles in the domain of construction safety were analyzed. For example, simulation and fall from height related topics, although not with the highest occurrence of being studied, had the highest impact in terms of average citation received per year. It was found that research in the recent 10 years have been extended to the developing countries and regions with a more variety of research topics, such as BIM, and data mining, etc. Articles related to applying BIM in safety management received the highest average normalized citation. A follow-up qualitative discussion targeted three main objectives: summarizing mainstream research topics, identifying existing research gaps, and proposing future research directions. Five main categories were aligned, namely safety climate and safety culture, application of information technologies, worker-oriented safety, safety management program, and hazard recognition and risk assessment. Based on the above, a framework and future research directions were proposed which could serve both the academic community and practical fields in multiple themes within construction safety, including: an adaptable safety climate and safety culture model; prototypes, continuous development, and readiness of applying information technologies in safety management; subgroups factors linked to cognitive models of workers’ safety perceptions and behaviors; and artificial intelligence and smart technologies into safety program management.