WORLD WISE FIELD FORENSIC 2008
| Previous | Contents | Next | ||
| Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship | AUTOMN 2007 | |||
| URLs in this document have been updated. Links enclosed in {curly brackets} have been changed. If a replacement link was located, the new URL was added and the link is active; if a new site could not be identified, the broken link was removed. |
Science and Technology Resources on the Internet
Forensic Science Resources on the Internet
Science & Engineering Librarian
The Gelman Library
The George Washington University, Washington, DC
holt@gwu.edu
Introduction
Audience, Scope & Methodology
Starting Points
Journals, Magazines & Newsletters: Indexed & Fulltext
Books and Case Files
Societies, Associations & Government Organizations
Anthropology
Botany
Chemistry & Toxicology
Crime Scene Investigation
Criminalistics and Trace Evidence
DNA Analysis
Entomology
Ethics
Explosives
Firearms and Tool Marks
Odontology
Questioned Document Examination
Terminology
Miscellaneous Web Sites
References
Introduction
"The forensic sciences refer to a group of subspecialties in science and medicine that apply their principles and methods to legal questions of a criminal or civil nature" (Nash and Faraino 1999, p.59). Forensic science includes, but is not limited to, pathologists, psychiatrists, odontologists, toxicologists, molecular biologists, entomologists, and criminalists. Practitioners are finding themselves increasingly in demand in the courtroom as expert witnesses. With the advent of shows such as {CSI: Crime Scene Investigation}, forensic science sites on the Web have multiplied exponentially. Sites are produced by government and professional organizations and forensic specialists, as well as by forensic scientist aspirants.
Audience, Scope & Methodology
This webliography is written for librarians who serve a scientific or technical clientele, and any person interested in learning more about forensic science information services.The scope of this webliography is to point people to some of the best resources on the web for forensic science research and information. This is by no means comprehensive, and is focused on web sites based in the United States. Some of the annotations for the resources were drawn from the organization providing the resource. Since many of the metasites do not provide much of an annotation nor a description of a resource, a webliography such as this will provide more information about the content of a web site.
Much of the information for this webliography was found by browsing many of the existing web sites, links and pointers that others have provided. Some of the links and resources were found using articles listed in the References section (Nash and Faraino 1999 and Killoran 1996). I also used the search engine Google -- http://www.google.com/ -- to verify changed URLs for some of the resources.
Starting Points
- Zeno's Forensic Site
- http://forensic.to/forensic.html
- Zeno Geradts is a forensic scientist at the Netherlands Forensic Institute of the Ministry of Justice at the Digital Evidence section in the area of forensic (video) image processing and pattern recognition. This comprehensive page is one of the most complete sites in the field. Zeno has links to an extensive collection of sites arranged by subspecialty, including, but not limited to, DNA, hair and fibre, firearms, handwriting, forensic entomology, and forensic anthropology.
- Reddy's Forensic Page
- http://www.forensicpage.com/
- Reddy P. Chamakura is a forensic scientist with the Police Laboratory, New York City Police Department. Links to sites including, but not limited to, forensic science organizations, forensic science journals, colleges/universities with forensic programs, job opportunities, forensic science laboratories, law enforcement agencies, forensic home pages, forensic chemistry/narcotics, mass spectrometry, fingerprints, ballistics/firearms, microscopy, crime scene processing/investigation/photography, arson, DNA, toxicology, questioned documents, digital photography/imaging, image enhancing, web publishing/internet, and forensic mailing lists.
- Forensic-Evidence.com
- http://www.forensic-evidence.com/
- An information center in forensic science, law and public policy for lawyers, forensic scientists, educators, and public officials, maintained by Andre A. Moenssens, a Douglas Stripp Missouri Professor of Law Emeritus.
- Kruglick's Forensic Resource and Criminal Law Search Site
- http://www.kruglaw.com/
- Created by Kim Kruglick, a criminal defense lawyer in Mill Valley, California, this site pulls together resources arranged by forensic subspecialty. To see the forensic science categories from the main page, click on "Links to Over 1,000 Forensic Sites". The "A Beginner's Primer on the Investigation of Forensic Evidence" link on the main page leads to some useful primers in forensic sciences. Each of the subject pages provides a link to a bibliography in that area, although they are sometimes out of date.
- Kulesh's Forensic Page
- http://vip.poly.edu/kulesh/forensics/list.htm
- With the increasing growth of computer crimes in the world, forensic sciences has seen the establishment of a new breed of forensic scientist, the cybercrime specialist. Kulesh Shanmugasundaram, a graduate student in the computer science department at Polytechnic University in New York, has created a growing list of digital/cyber/computational forensic related resources. Although it may not be flashy and it lacks annotations, it is extensive. Resources are arranged into the categories: Conferences, People, "R&D Groups//Projects//News Groups", "News Groups//Mailing Lists, Papers, Articles//FAQs//Talks", Forensic Books, Tools, Other Forensic Links, and Organizations and conferences.
- Yahoo Directory of Forensic Science Resources
- http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Forensics/
- Resources in this Yahoo directory are arranged by broad subject categories: College and University Departments and Programs, Companies, Forensic Anthropology, Forensic Entomology, Forensic Nursing, Forensic Odontology, Forensic Psychiatry, Forensic Ps ychology, Forensic Toxicology, Government Laboratories, Organizations, Research, and Web Directories. Yahoo is a searchable directory built by humans. They have a team of real live humans (Yahoo! Surfers), who visit and evaluate suggested sites and decide where they best belong.
- Google Web Directory in Forensic Sciences
- http://directory.google.com/Top/Science/Science_in_Society/Forensic_Science/
- Resources in the Google Web Directory in Forensic Sciences are arranged in a similar manner to the Yahoo directory. Google is a true search engine in that it has a robot or a software program that searches and indexes the Web. The Google Web Directory integrates Google's sophisticated search technology with Open Directory pages. Web Directory pages are enhanced with importance ranking. The web pages in the Google directory have been selected by thousands of volunteer editors from the Netscape Open Dir ectory Project, a large public directory managed by Netscape.
Journals, Magazines & Newsletters: Indexed & Fulltext
There is no one index to the forensic sciences literature making finding where a journal is indexed often a challenge. Several key forensic science journals are only indexed in one index, only on the publisher's web site, or are selectively indexed by multiple indexes (e.g., in the journal Science and Justice, a publication of The Forensic Science Society, PubMed indexes biological related articles -- such as DNA analysis, and Web of Science indexes non-biologically related articles -- such as firearms topics).
- AFTE Journal Keyword Index (May 1969-Present)
- http://www.afte.org/ExamResources/journalindex.htm
- This volunteer created database is the only index to the AFTE Journal. Scroll down to "download" and choose either MS Word or Adobe Acrobat format.
- American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology (2001-Present)
- http://www.amjforensicmedicine.com/
- Published by Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, the official journal of the National Association of Medical Examiners "features original articles on new examination and documentation procedures, as well as provocative discussions of the forensic pathologist's expanding role - in human rights protection, suicide and drug abuse prevention, occupational and environmental health, and other key areas. Unique special features include case reports, technical notes on new examination devices, and reports of medicolegal practices worldwide." Abstracts are available, as well as some whole issues available free in fulltext, for non-subscribers from 2001 to the present.
- Canadian Society of Forensic Science Journal
- http://www.csfs.ca/journal/journal.htm
- The Canadian Society of Forensic Science Journal "is published quarterly and is devoted to the publication of original papers, comments and reviews in the various branches of forensic science. In particular, these are considered to include forensic chemistry, forensic toxicology (including blood and breath alcohol analysis), questioned documents, forensic odontology, firearms examination, forensic pathology, forensic biology (including serology, hair and fibre examination and molecular genetics) and forensic anthropology." Abstracts are available free to the public online from 1995 to the present. The fulltext of all book reviews is also available online.
- Forensic Science International (1995-Present)
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03790738
- Forensic Science International "is an international journal publishing original contributions in the many different scientific disciplines pertaining to the forensic sciences. Such fields include, for example, forensic pathology and histochemistry, chemistry, biochemistry and toxicology (including drugs, alcohol, etc.), biology, (including the identification of hairs and fibres), serology, odontology, psychiatry, questioned documents etc., as well as investigations of value to public health in its broadest sense, and the important marginal area where medicine and the law overlap." It is published by Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. Volume 70 to the present are available fulltext online on ScienceDirect, Elsevier's online journal platform, to subscribers. Indexing and abstracting access to the journal is available free to all.
- Forensic Science Review Indexes (1989-varies)
- {http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Galaxy/2044/index.html}
- "Rapid advances in forensic science have created a need for a review journal to bridge the gap between research-oriented journals and reference volumes. The goal of Forensic Science Review is to fill this void and provide a base for authors to extrapolate state-of-the-art information and to synthesize and translate it into readable review articles." Indexes to this bi-annual journal are available by author and subject.
- Identification Canada
- {http://www.cis-sci.ca/Content/index.htm}
- Official publication of the Canadian Identification Society. Indexes to the journal contents are on the top menu bar. The indexes do not provide abstracts or any bibliographic information other than the title and the volume and issue.
- Information Bulletin for Shoeprint/Toolmark Examiners
- http://www.intermin.fi/intermin/hankkeet/wgm/home.nsf/pages/47A43E6C3D552B2CC2256C8E003C04D0
- Published by the Marks Working Group, one of the technical Working Groups of the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI). The indexes and abstracts are included as pdf files.
- International Journal of Legal Medicine (1997-Present) (formerly Zeitschrift für Rechtsmedizin)
- http://link.springer-ny.com/link/service/journals/00414/index.htm
- "The International Journal of Legal Medicine is the continuation of the Zeitschrift für Rechtsmedizin and its predecessors and carries on their tradition, which goes back nearly 200 years." The journal is published exclusively in English, no longer even containing German summaries. Fields covered include "forensic pathology, including sudden death, thanatology, and demonstration of vital reactions; clinical forensic pathology, including such topics as non-accidental injury and rape; forensic haemogenetics, with special emphasis on the recent advances in DNA technology and PCR; forensic toxicology, as it relates for example to alcohol and drug addiction, and recent technology; and traffic medicine, with special reference to reconstruction, causal connections, and medical complications." The journal is published by Springer-Verlag and is the official publication of the International Academy of Legal Medicine. The online site includes electronic supplementary material that does not appear in the print publication.
- Journal of Forensic Identification
- {http://www.theiai.org/publications/jfi.html}
- "A scientific journal that provides over 115 pages of articles related to forensics. Such articles are written by either the IAI editor himself, and/or by forensic authorities from around the world employed in forensic science fields. Examples of articles include dispositions of the Daubert Hearings, exhaustive case studies of closed criminal cases, minutes of IAI business meetings, air disaster identification articles, field evidence instructions, crime scene processing covering blood pattern interpretation and latent print identification articles, forensic photography field examples to DNA analysis studies." The JFI also offers information specific about training and educational events, job postings and announcements as well as information about the business of the IAI. Only volumes from 1998-99 are indexed online presently although the fulltext of all issues from 1988 to the present are available on CD-ROM in pdf format.
- Journal of Forensic Sciences, Comprehensive Index to (1981-Present)
- http://www.aafs.org/?section_id=journal_of_fs&page_id=searchable_index
- Index to articles published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. All aspects of forensic science are covered. This is one of the most valuable indexes for finding articles in forensics.
- NCJRS Abstracts Database (early 1970's-Present)
- {http://abstractsdb.ncjrs.org/content/AbstractsDB_Search.asp}
- "The National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts Database contains summaries of more than 170,000 criminal justice publications," including Federal, State, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and unpublished research. This is the only index which covers the Journal of Forensic Identification.
- Science & Justice (formerly Journal of the Forensic Science Society)
- {http://www.forensic-science-society.org.uk/publications/saj.html}
- Science & Justice is published quarterly by the Forensic Science Society. The table of contents for volume 36 to the present, as well as the fulltext of volume 37 and "recent articles of interest", are available online. Articles can be searched through a {keyword searchable index}. Book reviews from 1996 to 2001 are available fulltext through a searchable index.
- Crime and Clues: The Art and Science of Criminal Investigation
- http://www.crimeandclues.com/index.htm
- Edited by Daryl W. Clemens, a Crime Scene Technician, this collection contains articles in various fields of forensic sciences written by experts.
- FACESforward
- {http://www.ga.lsu.edu/faces/forward.html}
- The online version of the FACESforward newsletter, published by the Louisiana State University FACES Lab, explains how forensic anthropology and computer imaging (rather than old-fashioned clay reconstructions) are used to locate missing persons (by age-progressing old photographs) and how faces can be reconstructed from recovered bones. It also details advances in various subcategories of forensic anthropology, including forensic odontology, the science of identifying remains from dental records. As a warning, this page is very graphics intensive.
- FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin
- http://www.fbi.gov/publications/leb/leb.htm
- The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin is published monthly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The fulltext of articles from 1989-present is available on the FBI site. Issues from 1989-1995 are in ZIP format.
- Forensic Science Communications
- http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/fsc/current/index.htm
- A forensic science journal published quarterly by FBI Laboratory personnel. The articles, relating to all aspects of forensic sciences (from cipher systems to mitochondrial DNA), are quite long and informative.
- In the Spotlight: Forensic Science
- http://www.ncjrs.org/forensic/summary.html
- "In the Spotlight" is a bi-monthly Web-based feature located on the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Web site that focuses on crime, public safety and drug policy.
Publicité