OSAC Registry

The OSAC Registry is a repository of selected published and proposed standards for forensic science. These documents contain minimum requirements, best practices, standard protocols, terminology, or other information to promote valid, reliable, and reproducible forensic results.

The standards on this Registry have undergone a technical and quality review process that actively encourages feedback from forensic science practitioners, research scientists, human factors experts, statisticians, legal experts, and the public. Placement on the Registry requires a consensus (as evidenced by 2/3 vote or more) of both the OSAC subcommittee that proposed the inclusion of the standard and the Forensic Science Standards Board.

OSAC encourages the forensic science community to implement the published and proposed standards on the Registry to help advance the practice of forensic science.

The OSAC Registry includes two types of standards:

• SDO-published standards have completed the consensus process of an external standards developing organization (SDO) and have been approved by OSAC for placement on the Registry.
• OSAC Proposed Standards have been drafted by OSAC and given to an SDO for further development and publication. They have undergone the same OSAC technical and quality review process as the SDO-published standards on the Registry. Each OSAC Proposed Standard may be revised during the SDO development process; once available, an SDO-published standard will replace the OSAC Proposed Standard on the Registry after completing the technical and quality review at OSAC. To help fill the standards gap while an SDO completes its process, OSAC encourages the forensic science community to implement the OSAC Proposed Standards.

Visit the library for a complete list of Registry Archived and forensic science standards.