JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Underreporting is a defining problem in the registration of workplace violence across public services. This is reinforced by inconsistent, often poor incident descriptions and the absence of a clear, shared nomenclature. Without an ontology-backed structure, similar events are recorded differently across settings or remain uncodable and effectively invisible. Moreover, WPV is typically registered and studied within sector- and even organisation-specific categories and local reporting logics rather than through a shared semantic framework, limiting comparability and cumulative understanding across sectors. To address this, we propose creating and publicizing a workplace violence ontology (WPV-ONTO) to unify the representation of WPV events across public services.

Objective:

The purpose of this work is to outline the research methodology for developing a cross-sector ontology and reference nomenclature for WPV in public services, called WPV-ONTO. The objectives are to promote openness and high standards during its creation and to encourage its uptake when it is made available.

Methods:

Using the Protégé ontology editor and the ontology development life-cycle guidelines, we will create an ontology that captures the cross-sector WPV domain in Web Ontology Language (OWL). In order to find common WPV concepts, definitions, and synonyms, the modeling process will employ a methodologically defined, iterative workflow that combines (1) focused scoping searches (Web of Science/PubMed); (2) structured extraction from industry-standard incident reporting tools and code lists; and (3) expert consensus. Based on iterative rounds of scientific literature reviews and industry-standard code lists, a team of domain experts will use a hybrid top-down and bottom-up approach to define and identify key ideas and relationships.

Results:

The primary output will be an exhaustive, versioned WPV-ONTO accommodating key WPV concepts relevant to public services, augmented with synonyms, definitions, and references. WPV-ONTO will include an explicit hierarchical structure and relations supporting inheritance and compositional incident encoding. WPV-ONTO seeks to integrate the needs and conceptualizations of frontline workers, safety and aftercare professionals, sector policymakers, WPV researchers, and health/information systems experts.

Conclusions:

WPV-ONTO is expected to enable reasoning, inference, and consistent representation of relationships among WPV concepts for application in multiple contexts, including cross-sector reporting harmonization, software and API development, research data integration, and evaluation of prevention and aftercare initiatives. By providing a shared vocabulary and explicit structure, WPV-ONTO may also facilitate linkage with other relevant information systems, such as electronic medical records, and justice and police information systems, reducing methodological fragmentation and supporting coordinated cross-sector learning while retaining the contextual specificity necessary for public service environments. Clinical Trial: Not applicable