title: Development of safety incident coding systems through improving coding reliability.
abstract: This paper reviews classification theory sources to develop five research questions concerning factors associated with incident coding system development and use and how these factors affect coding reliability. Firstly, a method was developed to enable the comparison of reliability results obtained using different methods. Second, a statistical and qualitative review of reliability studies was conducted to investigate the influence of the identified factors on the reliability of incident coding systems. As a result several factors were found to have a statistically significant effect on reliability. Four recommendations for system development and use are provided to assist researchers in improving the reliability of incident coding systems in high hazard industries.
authors.affiliation: School of Aviation, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. Electronic address: Nikki.Olsen@defence.gov.au.
authors.forename: Nikki S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Olsen
authors.affiliation: School of Aviation, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Ann M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Williamson
mesh_terms: D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000145:classification*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012308:Risk Management / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D017751:Safety Management / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards
keywords: Incident classification; Reliability; Safety management system