Letter to the Editor: Burning Down the Silos in a Multidisciplinary Field. Towards Unified Quality Criteria in Human Behaviour in Fire

Excerpt

Research on human behaviour in fire (HBiF) is rooted in fire protection engineering but is multidisciplinary in its nature [1]. Conference and journal articles are often authored by experts from various fields such as fire protection engineering, architecture, evacuation modelling, human factors, psychology, traffic engineering, neuroscience, applied mathematics, computer science, sociology, and probably many more. This makes intuitively sense, given that HBiF research is situated at the intersection of the (built) environment, fire, and people. While the promises of such a diverse field are manifold, Kuligowski has warned about the inherent challenge of “silo-ing” [1]: while researchers may be productive within their own disciplines, they risk ignoring work from other disciplines as well as failing to communicate their work beyond their peers. A way forward could lie in the development of a common glossary, similar to recent attempts in related fields [2]. …