Human-Centred Approaches to Upper-Limb Prosthetics: Understanding User-Experience and Real-World Contexts of Use

Dear Colleagues,

Solutions to the challenges of upper-limb prosthesis design have primarily been sought through technological innovation and focused on the enhancement of function or control. Yet despite significant advancements in upper-limb technologies, abandonment rates for users remain high. Arising from this tension is a growing recognition of the need to understand the real-life contexts and lived experience of prosthesis users.

In this Special Issue of Prosthesis, we aim to showcase approaches to upper-limb research and design which place emphasis on the experiences of prosthesis users. We welcome submissions which explore human-centered approaches to prosthesis design or seek to understand the everyday experiences of users. These may include user-experience assessments of advanced prosthetic devices, the needs and values of prosthesis users, studies which focus on the lived experience of prosthesis use, or participatory approaches to prosthesis design.  

We are particularly interested in papers which seek to illuminate contexts of use beyond the laboratory, including at-home or leisure use. Research into how socio-cultural or environmental influences shape prosthesis use are also of relevance to this collection.

We invite authors to submit original research reports (quantitative assessments, qualitative studies, ethnographies, or design research), case studies, position papers, or reviews (narrative, scoping, or systematic reviews) on the topics outlined above.

Dr. Adam Galpin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Prosthesis is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• upper-limb prosthesis
• user -experience
• human-centered design
• real-world use