Ethical Challenges in Forensic Science in the 21st Century

Dear Colleagues,

Ethical challenges within the many subdisciplines of forensic science have long been acknowledged by practitioners and researchers alike. However, the rise of new technologies, methodologies, storage techniques, and large-scale databases has raised ever-increasing ethical concerns over recent years. The dynamic and ever-evolving nature of forensic science has meant that previous volumes solely devoted to ethics in forensic science have become outdated and do not address current issues within the discipline. More recent publications devoted to ethics in forensic science are scattered across different journals and volumes within subdisciplines. This is problematic as it creates research silos whereby the wider forensic science community may be unaware of ethical challenges and associated solutions within related topic areas. This Special Issue aims to redress this issue.

This Special Issue is dedicated to current ethical challenges in forensic science. We invite contributors from all subdisciplines within forensic science to publish original research on ethical issues in, but not limited to: forensic biology, forensic anthropology and archaeology, disaster victim identification, forensic toxicology, digital forensics, wildlife crime, bias, environmental forensics, quality assurance, biometrics and forensic databases, and forensic psychology. This list is not exhaustive and it is acknowledged that the majority of forensic science disciplines require ethical consideration, albeit to different extents. Due to this, we encourage contributions from all appropriate disciplines. Original research, reviews, and short communications are welcome for submission.

Dr. Kirsty Squires

Prof. Dr. Claire Gwinnett

Guest Editors

Dr. Kirsty Squires
Prof. Dr. Claire Gwinnett
Guest Editors

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Forensic Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1000 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.

• • Ethics • Forensic science • Bioethics • Credibility • Morality and conduct