An Ontology for Workplace Violence: Protocol to support Cross-sector Incident Reporting in Public Services

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 organization-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.

The objective of this protocol is to describe and justify a research methodology for developing a cross-sector ontology and reference nomenclature for WPV in public services (WPV-ONTO), including the scoping review, expert-consensus, and evaluation procedures used to build it. Promoting openness and high standards during its creation and encouraging its uptake once available are broader project goals that this protocol is designed to support, rather than measurable objectives that this protocol itself tests.

Using the Protégé ontology editor and the METHONTOLOGY 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/APA PsycInfo/ERIC/Sociological Abstracts); (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. A small pilot with 6-8 frontline workers from two sectors will test the prototype reporting form against usability criteria before version 1.0 release.

The primary output will be a comprehensive, 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. Recruitment of the expert panel is planned to begin in March 2027, and WPV-ONTO version 1.0 is expected at the end of the 24-month development period.

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.

Not applicable.