scientometric analysis of human error research and human reliability in industries (1980-2022)

Background: accidents caused by human error often lead to severe incidents. correctly understanding human errors is essential to prevent such occurrences. therefore, the purpose of the present study was to conduct a scientometric analysis of human error research in various industries.methods: this study was conducted using scientometric methods. it includes all articles published and indexed in the web of science (wos) database. the study is a review that aims to synthesize and analyze the existing literature. in total, 845 articles were included in this study. vosviewer and bibliometrix, an r package, were used to perform the scientometric analysis of these articles.results: industrial human error research is generally related to marine safety and accidents, the aviation industry, nuclear power plants, oil and petrochemical industries, occupational accident analysis, occupational fatigue, ergonomic issues, safety analysis of process systems, and the construction industry. concepts such as “human error,” “human reliability analysis,” and “human reliability” (with frequencies of 196, 113, and 64, respectively) were identified as the most frequently used keywords in the field of human error research.conclusion: the co-occurrence map of keywords in human error reveals that most studies focus on diagnosis and assessment rather than preventing human errors. only a tiny percentage of studies address the prevention of human errors. therefore, greater attention needs to be paid to prevention and protective measures.