LIMS Stage Gating
Definition
A laboratory information management system function that prevents an examiner from advancing to the next examination stage until the current stage is documented and locked; the technical implementation mechanism for linear ACE-V and sequential unmasking in operational fingerprint laboratories.
- Mechanism
- Software lock preventing stage advancement
- Supports
- Linear ACE-V and sequential unmasking
- Field
- Fingerprint examination
Common questions
What problem does stage gating solve that a paper checklist does not?+
A checklist can be skipped or filled in retrospectively. A software gate physically blocks the examiner from opening the next stage's screen until the current stage's findings are saved and locked.
Does stage gating stop an examiner from ever revising an earlier conclusion?+
No, it prevents silent revision. A documented amendment is still possible, but it is recorded as a change rather than an untracked edit to the original entry.
Related terms
- Blind Verification
- The procedure in which a second fingerprint examiner independently performs the Analysis and Comparison stages without knowledge of the first examiner's conclusion....
- Confirmation Bias
- The cognitive tendency to search for, interpret, favour, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or...
- Contextual Bias
- The influence of case-relevant background information (suspect financial difficulties, police intelligence) on the direction of an examiner's technical analysis. Demonstrated experimentally for...
- Evaluative Reporting
- A framework for expressing forensic conclusions in terms of the probability of the evidence given the prosecution hypothesis versus the defence hypothesis...
- Linear ACE-V
- An implementation of ACE-V methodology that enforces strict sequential documentation: analysis of the latent mark must be completed and recorded before the...
- Mayfield Error
- The 2004 FBI misidentification of Brandon Mayfield as a contributor to a latent print from the Madrid train bombing, attributed by the...
- Sequential Unmasking
- An information-sequencing protocol in which the examiner receives the questioned material first, completes and documents the analysis before receiving the known standards,...
- SWGFAST
- Scientific Working Group for Friction Ridge Analysis, Study and Technology; the predecessor body to the OSAC Friction Ridge Subcommittee; produced documentation standards...
- Within-Expert Contradiction
- The finding, documented by Dror and Charlton (2006), that the same examiner can reach contradictory conclusions about the same mark-exemplar pair across...