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The following guidelines supersede all previously published guidelines.
Submissions to Forensic Science Communications must be
the authors’ original, unpublished work and should not be
under consideration elsewhere. This prohibition does not include
published abstracts or papers presented at meetings or conferences
if the proceedings were not published.
Manuscripts must be written in English using clear and concise
language. The information should be logically organized, progressing
from a statement of purpose, through analysis of procedures or evidence,
to conclusions and implications. Manuscripts are evaluated according
to the following criteria: significance of contribution, technical
accuracy, appropriateness for the journal audience, clarity, effectiveness
of presentation, and pertinent references. The Managing Editor will
reject obviously unsuitable manuscripts without submitting them
for peer review.
Forensic Science Communications is published quarterly,
in January, April, July, and October. Authors who submit manuscripts
cannot be promised a publication date; however, every effort will
be made to publish manuscripts in a timely manner. Authors can generally
expect a three-month lead time between acceptance and publication.
This time frame does not include peer review or, if required, revision
by the authors.
Manuscripts will be reviewed by at least two subject-matter experts.
Reviewers remain anonymous, whereas the authors’ identities
are revealed to the reviewers. However, authors may suggest the
names of potential reviewers. The review process may take up to
90 days or longer, depending on the length and complexity of the
manuscript. The Managing Editor, in consultation with the reviewers,
makes the final decision as to whether to accept or reject the manuscript.
When rejecting a manuscript, the Managing Editor may provide reviewer
comments to the corresponding author but reserves the right to summarize
the results of the review without providing exact comments. Requests
for revision will include the reviewers’ comments and suggestions
for revising the manuscript. Authors then have three months to complete
the revisions and resubmit the manuscript for further consideration.
All manuscripts are edited for format, grammar, style, accuracy,
clarity, and readability. The corresponding author will receive
the edited version to approve prior to publication. The Managing
Editor may make additional corrections, if required, prior to final
publication and without the authors’ consent. Generally, such
corrections are minor and limited to changes in grammar, style,
and punctuation.
The journal staff uses the most recent editions of The Gregg
Reference Manual by William A. Sabin and Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary as its primary guides for grammar, style,
spelling, and punctuation. The format for references is not based
on any particular style guide. Authors should refer to the examples
below when preparing their reference lists.
Inclusion of a manuscript in Forensic Science Communications
does not represent an endorsement or recommendation by the U.S.
Government, the U.S. Department of Justice, or the Federal Bureau
of Investigation.
Authors are responsible for the completeness and accuracy of their
work, including references. The Managing Editor assumes that authors
have obtained all necessary permissions and followed appropriate
internal review procedures prior to submitting their work.
Contributors should send manuscripts and other information relating
to the journal to the Managing Editor at labfsc@ic.fbi.gov.
Submissions may be in the following forms:
• Letter to the Editor: A brief communication presenting
new technical information, discussing a previously published paper,
or requesting information.
• Review Article: A basic introduction and overview
of new scientific methods and areas of forensic research or interest.
• Research Paper or Feature Article: An in-depth
discussion of current methods and specific aspects of various
procedures or instrumentation.
• Technical Article: A step-by-step description
of specific analytical procedures, detailing the materials and
methods used and evaluating the results.
• Technical Note or Case Report: A new application
of an existing technique or instructive findings on an unusual
case.
• Book Review: A summary and analysis of a book
or publication.
All manuscript submissions must adhere to the following guidelines.
Manuscripts may be returned to the contributing authors to conform
to these guidelines prior to being sent to peer reviewers. To view
the format of recently published manuscripts, authors should click
on the following link: www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/fsc/current/index.htm.
- The title page must include a concise title; the complete names,
position titles, and current affiliations with city, state, and
country of all authors; and the name, complete address, telephone
number, fax number, and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
- Authors should submit their manuscripts in electronic form using
Microsoft Word. Manuscripts should be double-spaced. The title,
author information, headings, and the text of the article should
be flush with the left margin. The text of the article should
be 10-point Arial type with 16-point bold for the title and 14-point
bold for the headings. Authors should limit unnecessary formatting
codes and use italic and bold typeface only when necessary.
- Only well-known abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms (e.g.,
FBI, DNA) should be used in the manuscript. All others should
be spelled out. Authors also should not use unnecessary jargon.
- Images (i.e., photographs, charts, graphs, tables) must be submitted
in separate, labeled (Figure 1, Figure 2) TIFF, JPEG, or Word
files. All images must be referred to in the text, but should
not be embedded in the text. Image resolution should be reduced
as much as possible. Image captions should be descriptive but
concise and should be included on a separate page following the
references, not embedded in the image. All images will be edited
to conform to the journal’s style. Images created in a format
that cannot be edited by the journal’s staff will be returned
to the author for editing.
- If the manuscript contains images or other material obtained
from copyrighted works, the authors must obtain written permission
from the copyright holder and credit the source in the manuscript.
As a publication of the U.S. Government, Forensic Science
Communications is not copyrighted. Accordingly, all authors
except U.S. and foreign government employees who have prepared
their manuscripts during the course of their employment retain
the copyright to their work. However, all authors must complete
a copyright
release and submit it with their manuscripts.
- When reference is made to a specific product, the name of the
manufacturer and the city, state, and country of the manufacturer’s
headquarters must be included in parentheses in the text at the
first reference of the product.
- Authors may include a short acknowledgment section at the end
of the text, prior to the reference list. Authors should seek
permission from contributors before naming them. Financial support
also should be acknowledged in this section.
- A short list of keywords should be included with the article.
These may be placed between the reference page and the list of
image captions.
- All references in the reference list must be referred to in
the text. References in the text must be in parentheses and include
the author’s last name and year of publication (Anderson and Brown
1993). The citation for a paper written by three or more authors
should contain the name of the first author and et al. (Anderson
et al. 1992; Brown et al. 1991). The authors should be listed
alphabetically in the parentheses. Different works by the same
author should be ordered chronologically, from the oldest to the
most recent. Punctuation and spacing must adhere to the standard.
- All references must be complete and accurate. The Managing Editor
may request a copy of the full text of the referenced document
to confirm its accuracy. The reference section must be arranged
alphabetically by author’s last name. Different works by the same
author should be ordered chronologically, from the oldest to the
most recent. The complete journal title must be listed. Issue
numbers should be included only for those journals whose pages
are not numbered consecutively throughout each volume. Page numbers
should be included for all works not cited in their entirety.
Punctuation, spacing, and the use of italics must adhere to the
standard outlined below.
• Journal Article, Single Author
Richards, G. B. The application of electronic video techniques
to infrared and ultraviolet examinations, Journal of Forensic
Sciences (1977) 22:53–60.
• Journal Article, Two Authors
Verdú Pascual, F. A. and Gisbert Grifo, M. S. Investigation
of bloodstains: False negative results of the benzedrine test,
Forensic Science International (1995) 71:85–86.
• Journal Article, Multiple Authors
Giles, R. E., Blanc, H., Cann, H. M., and Wallace, D. C. Maternal
inheritance of human mitochondrial DNA, Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences (1980) 77:6715–6719.
• Journal Article, No Author
Special report: A buying guide to products and services for
the textile wet processing industry, Textile Chemist and
Colorist, July 1998.
• Journal Article, in Press
Budowle, B., Moretti, T. R., Baumstark, A. L., Defenbaugh,
D. A., and Keys, K. M. Population data on the thirteen CODIS
core short tandem repeat loci in African Americans, U.S. Caucasians,
Hispanics, Bahamians, Jamaicans, and Trinidadians, Journal
of Forensic Sciences (in press).
• Multipart Journal Article
Biermann, T. W. and Grieve, M. C. A computerized data base
of mail order garments: A contribution toward estimating the
frequency of fibre types found in clothing. Part 1: The system
and its operation, Forensic Science International (1996)
77:65–73.
Biermann, T. W. and Grieve, M. C. A computerized data base
of mail order garments: A contribution toward estimating the
frequency of fibre types found in clothing. Part 2: The content
of the data bank and its statistical evaluation, Forensic
Science International (1996) 77:75–91.
• Newspaper Articles
Warrick, P. King County Sheriff’s Latent Lab assist in Akron
PD homicide investigation, Pacific NW IAI Examiner, July-December
1999, pp. 12–13.
• Article in Published Meeting Proceedings
Kidd, G. J. What quality means to an R&D organization.
In: 41st Annual Quality Congress Transactions. American
Society for Quality Control, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 4–6,
1987.
• Unpublished Presentation (Meeting)
Houck, M. M. The Limits of Computing in Forensic Science.
Presented at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Seattle,
Washington, 1995.
• Published Report, No Author
Report of a Symposium on the Practice of Forensic Serology,
Method Evaluation (Topic 4). Sponsored by the California
Department of Justice Bureau of Forensic Services, California
Association of Criminalists, and the UNISYS Corporation, 1996.
• Book or Entire Volume, Single Author
White, T. D. Human Osteology. Academic Press, San Diego,
California, 1991.
• Book or Entire Volume, Two Authors
Billmeyer, F. W. and Saltzman, M. Principles of Color Technology.
John Wiley, New York, 1981.
• Book or Entire Volume, Multiple Authors
Windholz, M., Budavari, S., Stroumtsos, L. Y., and Fertig,
M. N. The Merck Index. 9th ed., Elsevier, Rahway, New
Jersey, 1996.
• Book or Entire Volume, No Author
RN and WPL Encyclopedia. Salesman’s Guide Press, Richmond,
Virginia, 1999.
• Handbook with Editors
Bicking, C. A. and Gryna, F. M. Process control by statistical
methods. In: Quality Control Handbook. 3d ed., J. M.
Juran, ed., Section 23. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1979.
• Article or Chapter in a Book or Collective Work
Monson, K. L. and Budowle, B. A system for semi-automated analysis
of DNA autoradiograms. In: Proceedings of the International
Symposium on the Forensic Aspects of DNA Analysis. U.S.
Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1989, pp. 127–132.
• Article or Chapter in a Book or Collective Work with
Editors
Landfield, P. W. Stress theory of aging. In: The Encyclopedia
of Aging. 2nd ed., G. L. Maddox, ed. Springer, New York,
1995.
Neave, R. Age changes to the face in adulthood. In: Craniofacial
Identification in Forensic Medicine. J. G. Clement and D.
L. Ranson, eds. Oxford University Press, New York, 1998, Part
3, pp. 225–234.
• Article or Chapter in a Book or Collective Work, in
Press
Budowle, B., Moretti, T. R., Niezgoda, S. J., and Brown, B.
L. CODIS and PCR-based short tandem repeat loci: Law enforcement
tools. In: Second European Symposium on Human Identification
1998. Promega Corporation, Madison, Wisconsin (in press).
• Online Article
Kolb, S. E. Facial rejuvenation: Prevention and treatment of
facial aging due to gravity, expression lines, inherited facial
features, and stress, Panorama of Plastic Surgery [Online].
(March 24, 1998). Available: http://plastikos.com/art-facegrav.htm.
• Organization as Author
AABB Standards Committee. P7.000 DNA polymorphism testing.
In: Standards for Parentage Testing Laboratories. 1st
ed., American Association of Blood Banks, Arlington, Virginia,
1990.
• Scientific Working Group (SWG) as Author
Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods. Guidelines
for a proficiency testing program for DNA restriction fragment
length polymorphism analysis, Crime Laboratory Digest
(1990) 17:59–64.
• Government Publications
Bond, W. W. Safety in the forensic immunology laboratory. In:
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Forensic Immunology.
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1987, pp.
101–109.
• User’s Guides, Equipment Manuals, Company Materials
Perkin-Elmer Applied Biosystems. AmpFℓSTR® Profiler
Plus PCR Amplification Kit User’s Manual. Perkin-Elmer
Corporation, Foster City, California, 1997.
• Federal Codes, Laws, Rules, and Regulations
Federal Trade Commission Rules and Regulations under the
Textile Products Identification Act, Title 15, U.S. Code
section 70, et seq. 16 CFR 303.7.
• Legal Cases
Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 US,
579 (1993).
Frye v. United States, 54 App. D.C. 46, 293 F. 1013,
1014 (1923).
• Personal Communications
Knoop, D. Allied Signal, personal communication, March 22,
1999.
• Thesis
Castelló, P. A. Critical review of presumptive tests
in bloodstain investigations: False negatives in Adler’s testAn
application of forensic chemistry. Doctoral thesis, University
of Valencia, Spain, 1997.
• Thesis, in preparation
Bailey-Darland, C. M. Validation of polymerase chain reaction
analysis of short tandem repeat loci for casework within the
Oregon State Police Forensic Laboratory. Master’s thesis
in preparation, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon,
2000.
To review the Privacy and Security Notice for the FBI Web site,
please visit www.fbi.gov/privacy.htm.
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