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Assessing the Impact of NIST's Forensic Publications and Collaborations

NIST Forensic Publications (1976-2016) Co-Author Network

This co-author network shows the collaboration between authors who have published two or more papers and their research fields. Each node represents an author, NIST or non-NIST, who has co-authored with a NIST scientist, and is sized to represent the number of citations the author has received.

The 2016 Forensics@NIST conference was held on November 8th and 9th, 2016 on the NIST Gaithersburg Campus. Presentations and posters included the latest NIST research on ballistic toolmarks, fingerprints, digital forensics, trace evidence, DNA profiling, and more.

Staff from NIST’s Information Services Office (ISO) presented a poster detailing the impact of NIST’s forensic science peer-reviewed journal literature through citation analysis and network visualizations. ISO’s study of NIST forensics papers published from 1978 to 2016 identified the journals, institutions, and countries that cite NIST forensics articles most frequently, and also examined NIST’s extramural publication collaborations in forensics.

Findings concluded that the most collaborations occur in population genetics (34%) and DNA fingerprinting (22%). Additionally, NIST forensic publications have been cited by authors from 128 different countries. 

NIST Forensic Publication Impact, 1978 to 2016
Outside of the United States, NIST forensic publications are cited most frequently by authors in China (1,889 papers), the United Kingdom (482 papers), and Germany (396 papers).
Released December 21, 2016