Texas Forensic Science Commission
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.
The OSAC Registry includes two types of standards:
- Published standards. These are fully developed standards that have been published by a standards developing organization (SDO).
- OSAC Proposed standards. These are new or revised standards that have been drafted by OSAC and sent to an SDO to be further developed and published. These proposed standards have undergone the same rigorous technical review as the published standards on this Registry. To help fill the standards gap during the time it takes for an SDO to complete the standards development process, OSAC encourages the forensic science community to implement these high-quality proposed standards. An OSAC Proposed Standard may be revised during the SDO development process, and once available, the SDO published standard will replace the OSAC Proposed Standard on the Registry.
This section of the database provides information to the public regarding which OSAC Registry Published Standards have been implemented by laboratories accredited by the Texas Forensic Science Commission. The information provided here is maintained by the laboratories included in this database.
You may access the OSAC Registry and learn more about standards development here: https://www.nist.gov/organization-scientific-area-committees-forensic-science/osac-registry
Please click the following link for a description of why OSAC Registry standards are important, including helpful support tools for implementation and action on standards: https://www.nist.gov/organization-scientific-area-committees-forensic-science/osac-registry-implementation
