An Ontology for Workplace Violence: Protocol to Support Cross-Sector Incident Reporting in Public Services

Underreporting is a defining problem in the documentation 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, workplace violence (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 Protégé and the METHONTOLOGY life-cycle framework, we will develop WPV-ONTO in Web Ontology Language. A methodologically defined, iterative workflow will combine (1) focused scoping searches in Web of Science, PubMed, APA PsycInfo, ERIC, and Sociological Abstracts; (2) structured extraction from established incident-reporting tools and code lists; and (3) expert consensus. Domain experts will use a hybrid top-down and bottom-up approach to define concepts, synonyms, and relationships based on iterative review of the scientific literature and sector-specific reporting structures. A pilot study with 6 to 8 frontline workers from 2 sectors will test the prototype reporting form against predefined 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. Development will incorporate the perspectives of frontline workers, safety and aftercare professionals, policymakers, WPV researchers, and health and information-system experts. Expert-panel recruitment is planned to begin in March 2027, with version 1.0 expected after 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.

PRR1-10.2196/94392.