Research trends in forensic science: A scientometric approach to analyze the content of the INTERPOL reviews

The INTERPOL International Forensic Science Managers Symposium (IFSMS) brings together forensic scientists and forensic science managers from across INTERPOL countries to discuss scientific articles, including peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations relating to forensic science every three years. These reports for the individual evidence types are then combined into one final document called the IFSMS review paper.

The use of forensic evidence has become indispensable in many countries and jurisdictions around the world, however, the dissemination of research advancements does not always directly or easily reach the forensic science community.

In the work published by LRCFS, the research found that the IFSMS reviews contain publications that are outside of the mainstream scientific literature. It also highlighted some of the major areas that are of interest to forensic practitioners across the INTERPOL member state countries. However, it also pointed that while the information contained in the IFSMS reviews is extensive, it can be challenging to process and the monitoring of data and literature can be difficult. 

As part of this research, LRCFS have built a simple free application that enables users to export reference lists based on keyword searches and is available for anyone to use on our INTERPOL Reports Explorer.

This work provides a comprehensible output of the research trends for 10 of the evidence types reviewed in the International Forensic Science Managers Symposium (IFSMS) reports, and the content of IFSMS reviews complimenting information available in citation databases. 

Research paper

Ménard, H, Akinpelu, O, Fiakpui, NA, He, RL, Huxter, S, Jordan, C, Judge, L, King, A, Miller, B, Moggs, SE, Patrascu, C-T, Pearson, T, Seneviratne, MEJ, Timmerman, LE, Haddrill, PR, Klu, JK, Cole, C & Nic Daeid, N 2021, 'Research trends in forensic science: A scientometric approach to analyze the content of the INTERPOL reviews', WIREs Forensic Science.