Emerging Trends of Ergonomic Risk Assessment in Construction Safety Management: A Scientometric Visualization Analysis

Abstract

Ergonomic risk assessment is critical for identifying working posture hazardous to the health of construction workers. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are predominant non-fatal injuries in the construction industry owing to manual handling activities and poor working conditions. However, there is a lack of scientific synopsis aiming to better understand the emerging research focus in this field. To fill the research gap, this study performed a scientometric evaluation of the bibliometric data on ergonomic risk assessment from the Web of Science database using VOSviewer software. The purpose of this study is to analyze the co-occurrence network of keywords, co-authorship network, most active countries, and the sources of publication. The results indicate that research related to risk assessment in construction has fluctuating growth, peaking in 2020 with significant advancements in the USA, China, and Canada. WMSDs, risk factors, construction workers, and ergonomics are hot research topics in this field. Furthermore, the research gaps of previous studies and suggestions for future research have been provided to bridge the knowledge gap. We believe that this scientometric review provides useful reference points for early-stage researchers as well as beneficial in-depth information to experienced practitioners and scholars in the construction industry.