Advances in Forensic Medicine and Postmortem Diagnosis
A special issue of Diagnostics (ISSN 2075-4418).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 362
Special Issue Editor
Interests: personal identification; virology; geographic estimation; DNA typing; age estimation; stable isotope; computed tomography; machine learning; forensic anthropology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue aims to promote the scientific foundations and practical applications of forensic medicine and postmortem diagnosis. With rapid advances in molecular biology, imaging technologies, and computational analytics, modern forensic science has entered a new era of precision and integration. This Special Issue focuses on innovative methodologies, validation studies, and case-based applications that enhance the accuracy, reliability, and efficiency of postmortem examination and cause-of-death analysis in medico-legal practice.
The core of postmortem diagnosis involves establishing identity and determining cause of death, processes that are often complementary. Identity matching (one-to-one comparison) determines whether a biological or physical sample (e.g., DNA, fingerprints, dental records, or facial images) originates from a specific individual. Biological profiling, on the other hand, seeks to infer traits—such as age, stature, ancestry, and craniofacial morphology—to narrow down potential identities. Cause-of-death analysis integrates findings from autopsy, histology, toxicology, and imaging to reach a medical conclusion. Integrative studies that bridge these diagnostic approaches are particularly encouraged.
The scope includes postmortem imaging, forensic DNA analysis and next-generation sequencing, forensic anthropology and odontology, toxicological analysis, AI-assisted diagnostic systems, and techniques for examining decomposed or damaged remains. Contributions addressing interdisciplinary collaboration and quality assurance in forensic medicine are also welcome.
By bringing together cutting-edge research and expert insights, this Special Issue aims to foster dialogue between academia and practitioners, establishing new global standards and methodologies in forensic pathology and postmortem diagnosis.
Prof. Dr. Hiroshi Ikegaya
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diagnostics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- forensic pathology
- postmortem diagnosis
- cause of death
- postmortem imaging
- forensic DNA analysis
- forensic anthropology
- toxicological analysis
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