SWG (Scientific Working Group)
Definition
US discipline-specific committees that produced best-practice guidelines for forensic science from the 1990s onward. Most SWGs were absorbed into or superseded by OSAC after 2014.
- Origin
- United States, from the 1990s
- Function
- Discipline-specific best-practice guideline committees
- Fate
- Mostly absorbed into or superseded by OSAC after 2014
Common questions
Why were most SWGs replaced by OSAC rather than continuing alongside it?+
OSAC was created to centralise and standardise forensic guideline development under a single organisational structure with formal consensus-body processes, addressing criticism that the older SWGs varied in rigor and transparency between disciplines. Folding them into OSAC aimed to give the guidelines more consistent scientific vetting.
Do SWG guidelines still carry any weight in casework today, given most were superseded?+
Some legacy SWG documents remain referenced where OSAC has not yet issued a replacement standard for that discipline, and older casework or validation studies may still cite them. Where an OSAC-approved standard exists, it is generally treated as the current authority instead.
Related terms
- ENFSI
- European Network of Forensic Science Institutes: the voluntary network of national forensic institutes across Europe and neighbouring regions, focused on method harmonisation,...
- ILAC
- The International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation, the global network of accreditation bodies. ILAC's Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) means a result produced by an...
- INTERPOL
- International Criminal Police Organization: the intergovernmental body, headquartered in Lyon, that facilitates police cooperation across 196 member countries through databases, communications infrastructure,...
- OSAC
- Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science: established by NIST and DOJ in 2014, it develops consensus forensic standards through structured...
- SDO
- Standards Development Organisation: a body with formal processes for publishing consensus standards. ASTM International, ANSI, and BSI are examples. OSAC submits its...