OSAC website: http://www.nist.gov/forensics/osac/

Organization of Scientifc Area Committees 

for Forensic Science

Newsletter

Inside this issue

Feature Article: 

OSAC Publishes the Standards/

Guidelines Registry Approval Process

Page 1

Message from the Forensic Science 

Standards Board (FSSB)

Page 2

Message from the OSAC Affairs Director 

About OSAC

Page 3

Recent and Upcoming Meetings

Page 4

OSAC Vacancies

Page 5

Upcoming Public Comment Periods 

for Standards/Guidelines 

Under Consideration for 

the OSAC Registry

Page 6

OSAC Catalog of External Standards 

and Guidelines

Page 7

OSAC Accomplishments

Page 8

Feature Article: 

OSAC Publishes the Standards/Guidelines Registry 

Approval Process

Forensic science service providers need access to a uniform set of standards that 

support scientifically sound and statistically valid test results, laboratory results, 

and courtroom testimony. These types of standards would help increase confidence 

in the criminal justice system, and the testimony 

put forth by practitioners. 

One aim of the Organization of Scientific Area 

Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC) is to 

identify and promote existing, technically sound, 

consensus-based, fit-for-purpose documentary 

standards that are based on sound scientific 

principles. This will be achieved through the 

OSAC Registry of Approved Standards and 

the OSAC Registry of Approved Guidelines. A 

standard or guideline that is posted on the 

registry demonstrates that the methods it 

contains have been assessed to be valid by 

forensic practitioners, academic researchers, 

measurement scientists, and statisticians 

through a consensus development process 

that allows participation and comment from all 

relevant stakeholders. 

The OSAC has developed 

and launched the OSAC Registry 

Approval Process of Published 

Standards and Guidelines, which 

includes checklist criteria against 

which existing standards and 

guidelines are to be analyzed before they are posted to the 

registries. This includes an analysis of technical merit, the 

openness of the development process (to ensure balanced 

interests are represented), consensus, harmonization, 

August 2015 | Vol. 1, Issue 1

Subcommittee

Level Reviews

FSSB

Level Reviews

Public

Reviews

SAC Level 

Reviews

... Continued page 6
The FSSB recognizes and appreciates 

all of the hard work occurring within the 

Scientific Area Committees (SACs) 

subcommittees and resource 

committees in contributing to our 

program’s initial deliverables, and most 

recently the deliverables of our early 

operations. To date we have developed 

24 priority action reports that are 

available on Kavi public workspace, 

developed and issued a repeatable and 

transparent process through which the 

OSAC will perform work, and submitted 

the first 5 selected standards to route 

through the OSAC Standards/Guidelines 

Registry Approval Process (for more 

information, see page 4). Shortly you 

will also be able to facilitate further 

development of other critical documents 

through existing standards development 

organizations (SDOs) or through the 

canvass method.

We would like to also offer a highlight 

of the FSSB’s ongoing activities. First, 

the FSSB has established multiple task 

groups, each with specific focus and 

action items. These task groups include: 

• Bylaws and Operations 

• Ethics 

• Finance 

• Long Range Planning 

• Membership and Awards 

• Nominations

• Outreach and Communication 

• Statistics 

The FSSB is also developing the 

process for adding a new forensic 

discipline to the OSAC, developing and 

analyzing OSAC program metrics, and 

actively working to fill current OSAC 

vacancies. 

We look forward to a productive 

year of the OSAC. Please contact 

forensics@nist.gov with any questions 

for the FSSB. 

Message from the Forensic Science Standards Board (FSSB)

2

FSSB Meeting in May 2015: Top row left to right: Austin Hicklin, MS; Andrew Baker, MD; Steven Johnson; Scott Oulton; Barry Logan, PhD; Middle row left to right: Mark Stolorow, MS, 

MBA; Douglas Ubelaker, PhD; Gregory Davis, MD; Richard Vorder Bruegge, PhD; Bottom row left to right: Sarah Kerrigan, PhD; Mark Keissler, Jeremy Tripplett, MS; Laurel Farrell; 

George Herrin Jr., PhD; Karen Kafadar, PhD. Not pictured: Anil Jain, PhD.

Jeremy Triplett, Chair
The Organization of Scientific Area 

Committees (OSAC) is part of an 

initiative by the National Institute of 

Standards and Technology (NIST) and 

the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) 

to strengthen forensic science in the 

United States. The organization is a 

collaborative body of more than 500 

forensic science practitioners and other 

experts who represent local, state, 

and federal agencies; academia; and 

industry. OSAC is organized into 33 

operating units based on discipline 

and purpose. The OSAC fosters 

the development and promotion of 

technically sound, consensus-based 

documentary standards and guidelines 

that can be used to strengthen the 

practice of forensic science.

The purpose of OSAC is to strengthen 

the nation’s use of forensic science by:

• providing technical leadership 

necessary to facilitate the 

development and promulgation of 

consensus-based documentary 

standards and guidelines for 

forensic science

• promoting standards and 

guidelines that are fit-for-purpose 

and based on sound scientific 

principles

• promoting the use of OSAC 

standards and guidelines by 

accreditation and certification 

bodies

• establishing and maintaining 

working relationships with other 

similar organizations.

The aims of the OSAC are to:

• populate the OSAC Registry of 

Approved Standards and the OSAC 

Registry of Approved Guidelines

• compile and update the forensic 

science catalog of external 

standards and related documents

• maintain Priority Action Plan 

documents on OSAC strategic 

objectives and associated goals 

and intended actions

• promote and improve the 

communication, dissemination 

and use of forensic science 

standards, accreditation, and 

personnel competencies

• encourage forensic science 

service providers in the United 

States to implement guidelines 

and standards (e.g., ISO/IEC 

17025, etc.) for quality and 

competency

• provide insight on each forensic 

science discipline’s research and 

measurement standard needs

• enlist stakeholder involvement 

from a broad community to provide 

public comment on OSAC outputs.

About OSAC 

Welcome to the inaugural issue of 

the OSAC for Forensic Science monthly 

newsletter. 

The benefits of OSAC as a single 

organization that encompasses 

multiple forensic science disciplines 

helps to develop and promote 

enforceable standards via a unified 

effort in the forensics field, and to 

broaden the impact these standards 

could have. 

OSAC is launching a monthly 

newsletter to share program activities 

and accomplishments with internal and 

external stakeholders and contributors. 

The OSAC Affairs Program Office at 

NIST welcomes any feedback and 

contributions related to the OSAC 

and OSAC newsletter. Please send 

feedback and inquiries to 

forensics@nist.gov.

Please visit the OSAC homepage 

at www.nist.gov/forensics/osac and 

insert your e-mail address in the brown 

box on the left side of the screen.

Message from the OSAC Affairs Director 

3

Submit

Sign up to receive news 

about NIST Forensic Science.

 *Email Address

Mark Stolorow, Director for 

OSAC Affairs
4

Upcoming Public Comment Periods for Standards/Guidelines 

Under Consideration for the OSAC Registry

The Materials (Trace) Subcommittee, the Seized Drugs Subcommittee, and the Fire Debris and Explosives 

Subcommittees have submitted the following standards for consideration to the OSAC registry. If all OSAC 

approvals are met, public comment period will open shortly on the Kavi Public Workspace 

https://workspace.forensicosac.org/kws/public/workgroup?wg_abbrev=sac_chem, under “documents”. The intent 

of the public comment period is to collect public opinion on inclusion of the standard to the OSAC registry. 

ASTM: E2330-12 Standard Test Method 

for Determination of Concentrations 

of Elements in Glass Samples Using 

Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass 

Spectrometry (ICP-MS) for Forensic 

Comparisons

One objective of a forensic glass 

examination is to compare glass samples 

to determine if they can be discriminated 

using their physical, optical or chemical 

properties (for example, color, refractive 

index (RI), density, elemental composition). 

If the samples are distinguishable in 

any of these observed and measured 

properties, it may be concluded that they 

did not originate from the same source 

of broken glass. If the samples are 

indistinguishable in all of these observed 

and measured properties, the possibility 

that they originated from the same source 

of glass cannot be eliminated. The use 

of an elemental analysis method such 

as inductively coupled plasma mass 

spectrometry yields high discrimination 

among sources of glass. This test method 

covers a procedure for quantitative 

determination of the concentrations of 

magnesium (Mg), aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), 

titanium (Ti), manganese (Mn), rubidium 

(Rb), strontium (Sr), zirconium (Zr), 

barium (Ba), lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), 

neodymium (Nd), samarium (Sm), and lead 

(Pb) in glass samples.

ASTM: E2926-13 Standard Test Method 

for Forensic Comparison of Glass Using 

Micro X-ray Fluorescence (μ-XRF) 

Spectrometry

This test method is for the determination 

of major, minor, and trace elements 

present in glass fragments. The elemental 

composition of a glass fragment can 

be measured through the use of μ-XRF 

analysis for comparisons of glass. This 

test method covers the application of μ-XRF 

OSAC Meeting in January 2015
5

Standards Development Organization (SDO) Corner 

On the Horizon

The Quality Infrastructure Committee (QIC) and NIST OSAC Program Affairs Office 

are working on the procedures describing how to facilitate moving a standard or 

guideline through a standards development organization (SDO) and how to facilitate the 

development of a standard through the canvass method. Future newsletter issues will 

feature information on standards and guidelines that are under consideration for these 

processes.

using mono- and poly- capillary optics, and 

an energy dispersive X-ray detector (EDS).

ASTM: E2329-14 Standard Practice for 

Identification of Seized Drugs

This practice describes minimum criteria 

for the qualitative analysis (identification) 

of seized drugs. Listed are a number of 

analytical techniques for the identification 

of seized drugs. These techniques are 

grouped on the basis of their discriminating 

power. Analytical schemes based on these 

groupings are described.

ASTM: E2548-11e1 Standard Guide for 

Sampling Seized Drugs for Qualitative and 

Quantitative Analysis

This guide covers minimum considerations 

for sampling of seized drugs for qualitative 

and quantitative analysis.

ASTM: E2881-13e1 Standard Test 

Method for Extraction and Derivatization 

of Vegetable Oils and Fats from Fire Debris 

and Liquid Samples with Analysis by Gas 

Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

This test method covers the extraction, 

derivatization, and identification of fatty 

acids indicative of vegetable oils and fats 

in fire debris and liquid samples. This 

procedure will also extract animal oils 

and fats, as these are similar in chemical 

composition to vegetable oils and fats. 

Herein, the phrase “oils and fats” will be 

used to refer to both animal and vegetable 

derived oils and fats. This test method is 

suitable for successfully extracting oil and 

fat residues having 8 to 24 carbon atoms.

To be notified of upcoming public 

comment periods, please visit the OSAC 

homepage at www.nist.gov/forensics/

osac and insert your e-mail address in the 

brown box on the left side of the screen.

As an outreach effort to increase 

participation with Standards 

Development Organizations (SDOs), 

NIST met with multiple organizations 

to discuss OSAC activities and 

the potential for OSAC standards 

submissions. These organizations 

include the American Dental 

Association, College of American 

Pathologists (CAP), the National Fire 

Protection Agency (NFPA), and ASTM 

International. 

Recently, the American Academy of 

Forensic Sciences (AAFS) received 

$1.5M, over a four-year period, from 

the Laura and John Arnold Foundation 

to become an accredited SDO, as well, 

in order to create standards in support 

of the National Institute of Standards 

and Technology (NIST) OSAC. AAFS 

is working to apply to the American 

National Standards Institute (ANSI) to 

become an ANSI Standards Developer 

(ASD) and to generate American 

National Standards. Once recognized, 

AAFS will be among the list of relevant 

SDOs that OSAC may turn to in order 

to develop needed forensic science 

standards. For more information, visit: 

http://news.aafs.org/aafs-news/

aafs-receives-funding-to-become-anaccredited-standards-developmentorganization-sdo/.

Additionally, The International 

Organization for Standardization (ISO) 

has recently converted its Project 

Committee to a formal Technical 

Committee (TC). ISO TC 272 Forensic 

Sciences will develop standards and 

guidance in the field of forensic science. 

This includes the development of 

standards that pertain to laboratory and 

field based forensic science techniques 

and methodology in broad general areas 

such as the detection and collection 

of physical evidence, the subsequent 

analysis and interpretation of the 

evidence, and the reporting of results 

and findings. For more information, 

visit: http://www.iso.org/iso/home/

standards_development/list_of_iso_

technical_committees/iso_technical_

committee.htm?commid=4395817.

Please contact forensics@nist.gov if 

you know of or are an SDO which would 

be relevant to the OSAC. 

All standards descriptions are

from www.astm.org, 

accessed July 30, 2015.
6

and impact on the forensic 

community. Multiple levels 

of the OSAC evaluate the 

standards and guidelines 

against these criteria. If criteria 

are amply met, OSAC proceeds 

to issue a notice of intent that 

includes an open comment 

period to solicit further feedback 

from all stakeholders. OSAC 

reviews and adjudicates all 

public comments received and 

then incorporates that feedback 

into their final vote on whether 

or not the standard/guideline 

should be included in the 

registry. 

It is worth noting that there 

will still be existing standards 

and guidelines that are not 

recommended and/or approved 

for the registries, but that does 

not necessarily mean that the 

OSAC is invalidating their use. 

The absence of a standard 

or guideline simply means 

that it has either not been 

recommended yet, or it might 

have only met a portion of the 

criteria. 

The OSAC Registry Approval 

Process of Published Standards 

and Guidelines is now available 

for use by the OSAC. OSAC 

subcommittees have already 

begun to submit standards 

and/or guidelines to this review 

process. OSAC registries will 

be published once the first 

set of standards have been 

approved, and will continue to 

be populated throughout OSAC 

operations. 

... Continued from page 1

Recent and Upcoming Meetings

• Human Factors Committee at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

on July 26-27, 2015

• Legal Resource Committee at NIST on July 27-28, 2015

• Quality Infrastructure Committee at NIST on July 27-28, 2015

• Chemistry Scientific Area Committee (SAC) at NIST on July 27-28, 2015

• Crime Scene SAC at NIST on July 27-28, 2015

• Forensic Science Standards Board (FSSB) at NIST on July 29-30, 2015

• Physics SAC in Sacramento, CA during International Association for 

Identification (IAI) meeting on August 2-3, 2015

• Digital SAC in Sacramento, CA during IAI meeting on August 3rd & 5th, 2015

• Biology SAC meets in Grapevine, TX during International Symposium on Human

Identification (ISHI) on October 13th & 15th, 2015

• Forensic Science Standards Board (FSSB) at U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

Special Testing Laboratory on December 3-4, 2015 

• Full OSAC Meeting in the DC metro area on January 25-29, 2016 

• January 25th – FSSB Meeting 

(8:30 AM – 5:00PM)

• January 26th – 5 SACs and 3 Resource Committee Meetings 

(8:30 AM – 5:00PM)

• January 27th – 24 Subcommittees and 3 Resource Committee Meetings 

(8:30 AM – 5:00PM)

• January 28th – 24 Subcommittees and 3 Resource Committee Meetings 

(8:30 AM – 5:00PM)

• January 29th – 1⁄2 day 24 Subcommittee Meetings 

(8:30 AM – approximately 1:00PM)

• OSAC Public Reporting at American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS)

in Las Vegas, NV on February 22-23, 2016. (5 SAC Chairs & 24 Subcommittee Chairs 

or their designees will present)
7

OSAC Vacancies

There is one vacancy on each of the following OSAC units: 

• Quality Infrastructure Committee

• Human Factors Committee

To apply, visit https://nist.gov/forensics/osac-application.cfm. For more information, go to 

www.nist.gov/forensics. Sign up for news alerts and OSAC updates by submitting your 

email address in the sign-up box on the left side of the 

web page.

The Catalog of External Standards and Guidelines is a 

collection of standards, guidelines and other documents 

applicable to forensic science. None of the documents 

in the catalog has been developed by OSAC (the 

Organization of Scientific Area Committees). The catalog 

was compiled by NIST staff in early 2015 for OSAC 

members to assess existing standards, guidelines and 

best practices that are already publicly available. 

OSAC committees may propose standards and 

guidelines from the catalog to submit for inclusion in 

the OSAC Registry of Approved Standards or OSAC 

Registry of Approved Guidelines. They may also develop 

new standards and guidelines for the OSAC registries 

to replace current documents in the catalog. They may 

also develop entirely new and original standards and 

guidelines.

The catalog is available to download as a sortable 

Excel spreadsheet file1 (link opens an Excel file). It 

contains the titles and source information for more than 

700 standards, guidelines and related documents. The 

catalog also lists web addresses for documents that are 

available online.

If you know of any existing standards or guidelines 

that are not included in this catalog, or have any other 

questions, please contact us at forensics@nist.gov.

1 http://www.nist.gov/forensics/osac/upload/Forensic-Standards-andGuidelines-Catalog-2015.xlsx

Resources for OSAC and the Forensic Community

 Latent Fingerprint Feature Examples, Credit: ANSI-NIST-ITL 
8

Date Event

Aug 2010 White House National Science 

and Technology Council 

Subcommittee on Forensic 

Science (SoFS) proposes that 

a Scientific Working Group 

Program Management Office 

be established and run by the 

NIST in order to coordinate the 

activities of individual SWGs

Feb 2013 DOJ and NIST announce 

plans to form the National 

Commission on Forensic 

Science (NCFS), as a federal 

advisory commitee to DOJ, and 

to establish scientific guidance 

groups that will be administered 

by NIST

June 2013 NIST meets with the chairs 

of current Scientific Working 

Groups (SWGs) to discuss 

potential structures for an 

organization to house the 

guidance groups

Sept to Nov 

2013

NIST gathers information 

from a public Notice of Inquiry 

regarding guidance groups; 82 

responses are received

Dec 2013 NIST planning team develops a 

proposed infrastructure for the 

guidance groups

Jan 2014 Discussions are held 

between NIST planning team 

and forensic professional 

organizations including AAFS, 

AFTE, ASCLD, IAI, NAME, and 

SOFT

Date Event

Feb 2014 At the first NCFS meeting, 

NIST announces a proposed 

structure for the scientific 

guidance groups called the 

Organization of Scientific Area 

Committees (OSAC)

Feb 2014 NIST planning team met with 

representatives of forensic 

science accreditation bodies

Feb 2014 At the American Academy 

of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) 

meeting in Seattle (and via 

webcast), NIST provides a 

detailed description of the 

planned OSAC structure 

Mar 2014 

to 

Nov 2014

Outreach presentations sharing 

planned OSAC structure are 

given at numerous scientific & 

professional meetings

April & May 

2014

Initial 30-day application period 

results in over 1300 applicants 

to positions within OSAC

June 2014 NIST planning team meets 

with representatives of various 

Standards Development 

Organizations (SDOs)

June 2014 Forensic Science Standards 

Board (FSSB) membership 

appointed

July 2014 Legal Resource Committee 

(LRC), Quality Infrastructure 

Committee (QIC), and Human 

Factors Committee (HFC) 

membership appointed

Date Event

Aug 2014 First FSSB in-person meeting 

occurs

Sept 2014 Membership appointed for five 

Scientific Area Committees 

(SACs)

Sept 2014 Applications received for digital 

evidence subcommittee

Oct 2014 Membership appointed for 23 

OSAC subcommittees

Dec 2014 Membership appointed for 

digital evidence subcommittee

Dec 2014 OSAC Catalog of External 

Standards and Guidelines 

issued, consisting of more than 

700 existing forensics-related 

standards and guidelines for 

consideration by the OSAC 

subcommittees

Jan 2015 First in-person subcommittee 

meetings held

Feb 2015 First public SAC meetings 

held, and subcommittee chairs 

provided details on the Priority 

Action Reports.

July 2015 Quality Infrastructure 

Committee and the Forensic 

Science Standards Board issue 

a detailed review and approval 

process to route existing 

standards and guidelines for 

placement on the registries. 

Subcommittees begin routing 

packets for review and public 

comment.

OSAC Accomplishments:

QIC Chair Karen Reczek explains registry approval process at resource committee meetings.