Issue 1

Pre-Failure Signal Distortion as a Barrier to Integration in Socio-Technical Systems

This paper proposes a conceptual framework of pre-failure signal distortion mechanisms in socio-technical systems. Distinguishing between human, cultural, and systemic processes, we focus on five core mechanisms: silence, normalisation, fragmentation, metric substitution, and procedural shielding. Rather than removing information, these mechanisms undermine safety by weakening the system’s capacity for integration---the ability to hold human experience, organisational structure, and contextual meaning together over time.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Safety Standards Education

The study focuses on the Dutch National Norm NEN-NTA 8287:2021, which adopts a safety-by-design perspective and explicitly emphasises system integration across the lifecycle. We describe an AI-assisted educational approach in which large language models are used to support interpretation of standard requirements, exploration of relationships between safety domains, and reflection on integration challenges. Rather than replacing expert judgement, AI is positioned as an interactive support that facilitates structured dialogue, comparative reasoning, and contextual explanation.

Launching Safety.Science: An Invitation to the Integrated Safety Community

This editorial introduces  Safety.Science as an independent, open-access pilot journal of Integrated Safety (Integraal Veiligheid). The journal aims to provide a modest but reliable meeting place where insights from universities, applied universities, safety regions, industry, government and other partners can be shared in accessible formats.