2018/03/16

Forensic Magazine March 15, 2018: OSAC Releases an Online Lexicon for the Forensic Sciences

The forensic sciences encompass dozens of disciplines, each with its own history and vocabulary. As a result, a word might mean one thing to forensic anthropologists, for example, but something else to forensic document examiners. To help facilitate clear communication across the many disciplines, the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC) has created a Lexicon of Forensic Science Terminology, which can be accessed from the OSAC website.

The OSAC Lexicon Initiative started in 2016, when OSAC’s Forensic Science Standards Board (FSSB) tasked all OSAC units with identifying and collecting existing terminology related to their forensic science discipline. The end result is a consolidated, searchable lexicon organized by discipline. The terms and definitions come from the published literature, including documentary standards, specialized dictionaries, Scientific Working Group (SWG) documents, books, journal articles, and technical reports. In addition, the OSAC subcommittees generated or modified many definitions. more