Over the last 20 years, academic, industry and community stakeholders have been meeting at a biennial scientific conference to discuss fatigue-related research and policy in the transportation, resources and health sectors. During this period, the research conducted around the world has progressed substantially: there is a better understanding of the basic processes of sleep and circadian physiology that underpin performance; researchers better understand that fatigue risk management in the absence of any discussion about sleep is fruitless at worst and inadequate at best; and there is improvement in the capacity of models and other technologies to assist in predicting, monitoring, identifying, minimizing and mitigating fatigue-related risk. At the same time however, the relationship between performance on simple cognitive tasks in laboratory settings and performance on complex tasks required to operate efficiently and safely in the workplace, remains a stumbling block. This special issue brings together fifteen papers that cover the range of areas in the field of fatigue research and challenges researchers, regulators, industry representatives and community members to continue the work of managing the risk of fatigue. (A) Reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
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