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Scientific & Technical 

Review Panel Final Report 

for 

2021-S-0006

Standard for the Use of 

GenBank for Taxonomic 

Assignment of Wildlife

Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) for Forensic Science
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STRP Final Report

2021-S-0006

Standard for the Use of GenBank for 

Taxonomic Assignment of Wildlife

Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) for Forensics Science

May 25, 2021

Disclaimer:

This report was produced by an independent Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP). The 

views expressed in the report do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. 

Government. Visit the OSAC website for more information on OSAC’s STRP process.

Scientific & Technical Review Panel Members

• Matthew Birck, U.S. Customs and Border Protection

• Jason Bundy, Florida Department of Law Enforcement

• Jane Moriarty, Duquesne University

• Adele Quigley-McBride, Duke University

• Ashley Spicer, California Department of Fish and Wildlife

• Dyan Straughan, USFWS
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Report Summary:

The Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP) for “Standard for the Use of GenBank for 

Taxonomic Assignment of Wildlife” is an independent panel appointed by the National Institute 

of Standards and Technology (NIST). A STRP is established with a range of experts to consider 

how well a standard meets the needs of the forensic science, law enforcement, and legal 

communities, and to recommend improvements to the standards under review. The STRP 

appreciates the efforts of Kelly Meiklejohn, Wildlife Forensic Biology Subcommittee member, 

while serving as the subcommittee liaison to this STRP during the review process. 

The STRP began its review process with a kickoff meeting on March 2, 2021 and concluded 

with this STRP final report. The panel reviewed the draft standard and prepared comments for 

the OSAC Wildlife Forensic Biology Subcommittee.

Report Components:

The STRP reviewed this draft standard against OSAC’s STRP Instructions for Review which 

include the following content areas: scientific and technical merit, human factors, quality 

assurance, scope and purpose, terminology, method description and reporting results. The details 

below contain a brief description of each reviewed content area and the STRP’s assessment of 

how that content was addressed in the Draft OSAC Proposed Standard. 

1. Scientific and Technical Merit: OSAC-approved standards must have strong scientific 

foundations so that the methods practitioners employ are scientifically valid, and the 

resulting claims are trustworthy. In addition, standards for methods or interpretation of 

results must include the expression and communication of the uncertainties in measurements 

or other results.

1.1. The STRP finds this standard to be scientifically sound and believes it will be

beneficial to the wildlife forensics community. 

2. Human Factors: All forensic science methods rely on human performance in acquiring, 

examining, reporting, and testifying to the results. In the examination phase, some standards 

rely heavily on human judgment, whereas others rely more on properly maintained and 

calibrated instruments and statistical analysis of data.

2.1. The STRP believes this standard describes a procedure and method that has 

some elements that rely on human judgment and the analyst’s discretion, but 

these elements are not extensive or major. The STRP believes that the team

responded to the human factors concerns sufficiently in this new version.

3. Quality Assurance: Quality assurance covers a broad range of topics. For example, a 

method must include quality assurance procedures to ensure that sufficiently similar results 
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will be obtained when the methodology is properly followed by different users in different 

facilities. 

3.1. The STRP finds the methodology in this standard to be sufficient for ensuring 

consistent results between laboratories. 

4. Scope and Purpose: Standards should have a short statement of their scope and purpose. 

They should list the topics that they address and the related topics that they do not address. 

Requirements, recommendations, or statements of what is permitted or prohibited do not 

belong in this section.

4.1. The STRP believes the scope and purpose of this document meets the criteria for 

this requirement.

5. Terminology: Standards should define terms that have specialized meaning. Only rarely 

should they give a highly restricted or specialized meaning to a term in common use among 

the general public.

5.1. The STRP discussed that the terms “intraspecific” and “interspecific” are 

common terms that did not require a novel definition. As such, they suggest 

removing these terms from the terminology section. The STRP will leave it to the 

subcommittee to decide whether to keep or remove these terms.

6. Method Description: There is no rule as to the necessary level of detail in the description of 

the method. Some parts of the method may be performed in alternative ways without 

affecting the quality and consistency of the results. Standards should focus on standardizing 

the steps that must be performed consistently across organizations to ensure equivalent 

results. Alternatively, standards can define specific performance criteria that are required to 

be demonstrated and met rather than specifying the exact way a task must be done. For 

example, it may be enough to specify the lower limit for detecting a substance without 

specifying the equipment or method for achieving this limit of detection.

6.1. The STRP believes that there are areas in the document in which the language 

used could be clearer and more defined, however, we believe this standard 

clearly describes a minimum framework from which separate organizations can 

follow and obtain consistent results. 

7. Reporting Results: Methods must not only be well described, scientifically sound, and 

comprehensive but also lead to reported results that are within the scope of the standard, 

appropriately caveated, and not overreaching.

7.1. The STRP believes this standard is rigorous where appropriate and meets all 

components described.