# Analysing Near-Miss Incidents in Construction: A Systematic Literature Review
## 3 Research Methodology  
This study employs an exploratory research methodology, with the objective of conducting a comprehensive review of the literature on near-miss incidents within the construction industry. The study's scope encompasses the identification of publication trends, an examination of methodologies for incident data collection, an assessment of research tools utilised, and the delineation of prior research areas. The research was conducted in seven stages, which are outlined in Figure 2.  
Step 1: The initial step is to create, based on keywords, a database of scientific publications on near misses in construction. To this end, the online database Scopus, which is widely used for scientific analysis [42], was employed. A list of publications was created using the following keyword sequence in the \"Article title, Abstract, Keywords\" search field: near misses or near misses, construction or construction industry. A search conducted in accordance with the specified criteria yielded 222 publications, published between 1985 and 2023. Subsequently, the search was refined to include only articles written in the English language. The following categories of publications were included in the analysis: articles, conference papers, books, and book chapters. The database was then subjected to further filtration, with reviews, conference reviews, errata, letters, short surveys, and retracted items removed. A total of 195 publications were subjected to analysis. Step 2: The second stage is to conduct a preliminary evaluation of the selected publications in order to ascertain their quality and compliance with the research topic. A  
Figure 1: Safety pyramids according to [10; 32; 33; 34; 35]. selection of publications was made on the basis of an analysis of titles and abstracts, which enabled the exclusion of articles that were not pertinent to the research topic. Subsequently, publications that were responses to review were excluded, as were those in which the keyword near miss was only mentioned, without being the subject of the research. In accordance with the aforementioned criteria, 75 publications that address near misses in construction were retained, which are shown in Appendix A, Table A1. Step 3: Conduct a statistical analysis of the publications contained in the database, with a view to determining the number of papers published in successive years of the time interval studied, the country in which the topic was studied, and the journals in which the papers were published. Step 4: The fourth stage of the process involves the categorisation of the publications in accordance with the specified keywords. A thematic breakdown of the publications was carried out using VOSviewer. This tool is employed for the mapping and analysis of trends and patterns in the scientific literature [12]. VOSviewer employs network analysis techniques to generate visual representations of the relationships between keywords. The map depicts nodes, which represent keywords, and lines indicate their co-occurrence. The proximity and connections between nodes signify thematic relationships. The analysis was conducted on both indexed and authored keywords. Step 5: A comprehensive examination of individual publications, encompassing the methodologies employed for the acquisition of information on near misses, the research instruments utilized, the techniques of data analysis, and the extent of research conducted. A review of the literature on near misses in the construction sector, based on an analysis of publications listed in the Scopus database, has identified key aspects of past research in this field. The following aspects of past research on near misses in the construction sector have been defined:  
* methods of obtaining information on incidents, including reporting and recording incidents;
* real-time monitoring of workers;
* methods of data analysis;
* thematic areas of research. Step 6: A discussion of the findings and an identification of research gaps.