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Applications of big data in occupational and environmental health

Edited by: David M. Stieb, Cécile R. Boot, Michelle C. Turner and Osmar R. Zaiane

BMC Public Health invites you to submit to our new thematic series: Applications of big data in occupational and environmental health.

New Content ItemThe potential power of big data and data sharing in occupational and environmental health has been widely recognized, but there is a paucity of published primary research employing these methods. Challenges related in particular to messy and unrepresentative data and spurious findings, as well as epistemological issues and equity considerations are among the issues which need to be addressed.

In recognition of these issues, BMC Public Health has launched a collection of articles and call for papers which highlight innovative applications of big data and data sharing in occupational and environmental health. In particular, we invite submissions which address the following issues:

• Non-traditional data sources or providers

• Novel partnerships

• Real time analysis and forecasting

• Innovative analyses of clinical trial or observational data originally collected for other purposes

• Data curation, protection of original investigators and data ownership, privacy and security

• Epistemological issues

• Data analysis methods

• Equity considerations

This collection of articles has not been sponsored and articles undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process overseen by BMC Public Health Section Editors David M. Stieb, Cécile R. Boot and Michelle C. Turner, and Guest Editor Osmar R. Zaiane, who declare no competing interests.

Submission is open to everyone. Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have carefully read the submission guidelines for BMC Public Health.

We will be offering a 50% discount on article processing charges for a limited number of manuscripts. If you have any research you would like us to consider for inclusion in the series and are interested in applying for this discount, please email the in-house editor Natalie Pafitis at natalie.pafitis@biomedcentral.com

The deadline for submissions of manuscripts is 30th September 2017.

  1. Many infectious diseases of public health importance display annual seasonal patterns in their incidence. We aimed to systematically document the seasonality of several human infectious disease pathogens in En...

    Authors: Mark P. C. Cherrie, Gordon Nichols, Gianni Lo Iacono, Christophe Sarran, Shakoor Hajat and Lora E. Fleming
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2018 18:1067
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  2. The objectives of this study were (1) to identify age and sex trends in the disability burden of compensated work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in Canada and Australia; and (2) to demonstrate a mean...

    Authors: Robert A. Macpherson, Tyler J. Lane, Alex Collie and Christopher B. McLeod
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2018 18:758
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  3. An increasing number of retirees continue to work beyond retirement despite being eligible to retire. As the prevalence of chronic disease increases with age, working beyond retirement may go along with having...

    Authors: Astrid de Wind, Micky Scharn, Goedele A. Geuskens, Allard J. van der Beek and Cécile R. L. Boot
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2018 18:265
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  4. The final meeting of the EXPOsOMICS project “Final Policy Workshop and Stakeholder Consultation” took place 28–29 March 2017 to present the main results of the project and discuss their implications both for f...

    Authors: Michelle C. Turner, Paolo Vineis, Eduardo Seleiro, Michaela Dijmarescu, David Balshaw, Roberto Bertollini, Marc Chadeau-Hyam, Timothy Gant, John Gulliver, Ayoung Jeong, Soterios Kyrtopoulos, Marco Martuzzi, Gary W. Miller, Timothy Nawrot, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, David H. Phillips…
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2018 18:260
    Content type: Correspondence Published on:

  5. Urbanization and ageing have important implications for public mental health and well-being. Cities pose major challenges for older citizens, but also offer opportunities to develop, test, and implement polici...

    Authors: Mariëlle A. Beenackers, Dany Doiron, Isabel Fortier, J. Mark Noordzij, Erica Reinhard, Emilie Courtin, Martin Bobak, Basile Chaix, Giuseppe Costa, Ulrike Dapp, Ana V. Diez Roux, Martijn Huisman, Emily M. Grundy, Steinar Krokstad, Pekka Martikainen, Parminder Raina…
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2018 18:158
    Content type: Study protocol Published on:

  6. The developing fetus is susceptible to environmental insults. Studying the effects of environmental exposures on fetal growth is essential for understanding the causal pathway between prenatal exposures and pr...

    Authors: Rachel Golan, Itai Kloog, Ronit Almog, Anat Gesser-Edelsburg, Maya Negev, Maya Jolles, Varda Shalev, Vered H. Eisenberg, Gideon Koren, Wiessam Abu Ahmad and Hagai Levine
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2018 18:132
    Content type: Study protocol Published on:

  7. Multiple external environmental exposures related to residential location and urban form including, air pollutants, noise, greenness, and walkability have been linked to health impacts or benefits. The Canadia...

    Authors: Jeffrey R. Brook, Eleanor M. Setton, Evan Seed, Mahdi Shooshtari and Dany Doiron
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2018 18:114
    Content type: Study protocol Published on:

  8. Early intervention following occupational injury can improve health outcomes and reduce the duration and cost of workers’ compensation claims. Financial early reporting incentives (ERIs) for employers may shor...

    Authors: Tyler J. Lane, Shannon Gray, Behrooz Hassani-Mahmooei and Alex Collie
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2018 18:100
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  9. Data measuring airborne pollutants, public health and environmental factors are increasingly being stored and merged. These big datasets offer great potential, but also challenge traditional epidemiological me...

    Authors: Colin Bellinger, Mohomed Shazan Mohomed Jabbar, Osmar Zaïane and Alvaro Osornio-Vargas
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2017 17:907
    Content type: Research article Published on: