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Forty years of research and development on forensic genetics: A bibliometric

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 Forensic Science International: Genetics 63 (2023) 102826

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Forensic Science International: Genetics

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fsigen

Forty years of research and development on forensic genetics: A

bibliometric analysis
Alessandro Stasi a, *, Tahir ul Gani Mir b, Alfonso Pellegrino c, Atif Khurshid Wani d,
Saurabh Shukla b
a
Mahidol University International College, 999 Phutthamonthon Sai 4 Rd, Salaya, Phutthamonthon District, Nakhon Pathom 73170, Thailand
b
Department of Forensic Science, School of Bioengineering and Biosciences, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara 144411, Punjab, India
c
Sasin School of Management, Chulalongkorn University, Chula soi 12, Wang Mai, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
d
Department of Biotechnology, School of Bioengineering and Biosciences, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara 144411, Punjab, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The current study aims to investigate the research publication trends in the field of forensic genetics using
Bibliometric analysis Bibliometric analysis. An extensive search of the Scopus database was conducted to identify scholarly articles on
Forensic genetics forensic genetics published between 1977 and 2022, and a data set comprising 2945 articles was obtained. The
Forensic science
analysis was carried out using VOSviewer, RStudio, MS Excel and MS Access to investigate the annual publi­
Genetics
Publication trend
cation trend, most productive journals, organizations/authors/countries, authorship and citation patterns, most
cited documents/articles and co-occurrence of keywords. The results revealed the first article in the field of
forensic genetics was published in 1977. By the end of 1999, only 15 articles were published. Since then, there
has been a considerable increase in the yearly number of publications and post-2006, there were more than 100
yearly published articles. USA, China, Spain, Germany and United Kingdom were found to be the most pro­
ductive countries. Among various organizations, the Institute of Legal Medicine, Innsbruck Medical University,
Austria was found to be the most productive organization. In terms of the number of publications and citations,
Morling N. was found to be the most prolific author. The highest number of articles were published in Forensic
Science International: Genetics, contributing about 34% of the total articles published in different sources/journals.
The document with the highest number of citations was “HOMER N, 2008, PLOS GENET”, with a total of 750
citations. The most frequent keywords were forensic genetics and forensic science, followed by STR, population
genetics, DNA, mt-DNA and DNA-typing. The results also revealed that there had been collaborative research
among countries, organizations and authors, which helps in the exchange of ideas across disciplines, developing
new skills, getting access to financial resources and generating quality results.

1. Introduction genetics [1–3].

When laws permit criminal investigators to collect, use, and store
biological samples from a variety of crime scenes and individuals, these
tools are more effective in assisting investigations and guaranteeing
arrests. Since its introduction in the late 1970 s and early 1980 s, the
importance of forensic genetics literature has increased rapidly. A
number of factors contributed to this development, including advances
in DNA technology, judicial acceptance of the reliability of DNA evi­
dence, the increasing use of DNA evidence in criminal investigations,
and the growing awareness of the potential applications of forensic
The study of forensic genetics has emerged as a standard of forensic
sciences since the initial use of blood group antigens for personalizing a
suspected culprit in a criminal case [4]. Globally, there have been im­
provements in science and the use of standardized STR multiplexes.
Y-STRs and mitochondrial sequencing can be used to help with more
specific investigations, such as finding offenders through their families
or identifying human remains [5]. There has recently been a substantial
increase in research and innovation concerning the interpretation of
genetic data in cases where crime scene DNA samples are available but
do not match database profiles obtained from known persons. The use of

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: alessandro.sta@mahidol.edu (A. Stasi), mirtahirulgani@gmail.com (T.G. Mir), alfonsopellegrino86@gmail.com (A. Pellegrino),
atifkhurshid61200216@gmail.com (A.K. Wani), sau47bt@gmail.com (S. Shukla).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2023.102826
Received 27 May 2022; Received in revised form 31 December 2022; Accepted 2 January 2023
Available online 3 January 2023
1872-4973/© 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
A. Stasi et al.
"externally visible characteristics" (EVCs) [6], "biogeographic
ancestry-informative markers’’ (AIMs) [7], and "next-generation
sequencing" (NGS) or "massively parallel sequencing" (MPS) technolo­
gies to do more detailed genetic analyses [8] are all becoming more
common. Alongside these efforts, research on the development of new
statistical methods for analyzing forensic genetic data has also increased
[1]. This has included efforts to improve the accuracy of methods for
estimating population genetic parameters and also new developments in
DNA mixture analysis. The latter area is particularly important given
that complex DNA mixtures are often encountered in forensic casework
[9,10]. A key aspect of forensic genetics is the identification of the
sample origin. This information is largely carried by the genetic data in
the form of short tandem repeats (STRs), Y-chromosome, mitochondrial
DNA (mtDNA), and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). STR
profiling [11], SNP typing [12], Y-chromosome [13] and mtDNA anal­
ysis [14] are the preferred genome-centric methods in forensic genetics.
Two common cases that have expanded the applicability of forensic
genetics are the analysis of the anthrax outbreak in Ekaterinburg, Russia
[15] and seed pod DNA for the Phoenix murder case using Rapid
Amplification of Random DNA (RAPD) [16]. The use of forensic genetics
has become more paramount with the emergence of genome editing
technologies like CRISPR-Cas systems since it involves the engineering
of specific DNA segments, which could easily lead to alterations in the
parental DNA [17,18]. The creation of transgenics using different ge­
netic engineering tools is also a common security threat. Mir et al., has
comprehensively reviewed the use of genome centric CRISPR-cas9
technique and its possible dual use [19]. Another area of recent inter­
est in forensic genetics is genetic genealogy, which involves using ge­
netic information to trace a person’s ancestry and identify potential
relatives. This technique has been used to solve cold cases and identify
unknown decedents, and has received widespread media attention due
to its success in solving high-profile cases.
As such applications have become more widespread, new ethical
issues have emerged. From a more general standpoint, ethical concerns
about forensic genetics can be divided into two broad categories: those
related to the use of DNA samples and those related to the interpretation
of DNA test results. Ethical issues related to the use of DNA samples
include questions about how samples are collected and stored, who has
access to them, and how they may be used in the future. Ethical issues
related to the interpretation of DNA test results include questions about
how accurate and reliable tests are, who should interpret them, and
what implications they may have for individuals and society [20]. In
addition to these ethical concerns, there are also legal issues that arise
from the use of DNA samples and the interpretation of DNA test results
[19,21]. These include questions about how to ensure that DNA evi­
dence is admissible in court, what privacy rights individuals have with
respect to their DNA, and whether individuals should be required to
provide a sample for inclusion in a database [22–25].
Despite these concerns, forensic genetics continues to play an
important role in modern society, and it is essential for researchers,
policymakers, and practitioners to comprehend the numerous social,
ethical and challenges of DNA profiling and forensic genetics. In line
with these considerations, the present study was conducted to review
the extant literature on forensic genetics and analyze the research pro­
ductivity in this field during the period ranging from 1972 to 2022 using
bibliometric analysis. The study also aims to provide some guidance for
future directions by highlighting key themes that have guided research
to date. For these objectives to be achieved, the current study will
address the following research questions:
(1) What is the current status of research and the growth trend of
publications focusing on forensic genetics? Who are the most
influential authors? Which are the top publishing countries and
subject areas of study?
(2) What are the emergent themes in forensic genetics research?
2
Forensic Science International: Genetics 63 (2023) 102826
(3) What is the intellectual structure of the extant research on
forensic genetics?
(4) What are the potential research avenues in the area of forensic
genetics research?
2. Material and methods
2.1. Study design and search strategy
The present bibliometric study was carried out by analyzing articles
published in Scopus-indexed journals up to April 2022 (https://www.
scopus.com/). The Scopus index was utilized to identify all papers
published in forensic genetics. Scopus index, unlike Google Scholar, has
the ability to both identify a collection of published documents and
export the bibliographic information linked with them. In order to
ensure a higher degree of quality control, peer-reviewed journal publi­
cations were selected [26]. In identifying relevant papers, Scopus
database was preferred as it provided a larger number and variety of
forensic genetics sources than Web of Science and PubMed [27] and was
used in several bibliometric studies on forensic science [27–29]. The
literature survey was performed using the search term ‘forensic genetics’
in the title and abstract field. Only research articles published in sci­
entific journals were included in the analysis since we aimed to examine
the scientific information regarding the publication trends in the field of
forensic genetics. Scopus database was used because it is the largest
database of abstracts and citations of peer-reviewed literature in various
fields of study. Data were retrieved on the 29th of April 2022. The
following search query was run “(TITLE-ABS-KEY("Forensic genetics")
AND ( LIMIT-TO ( PUBSTAGE,"final")) AND ( LIMIT-TO ( DOCTYPE,
"ar")) AND ( LIMIT-TO ( LANGUAGE,"English")) AND ( LIMIT-TO (
SRCTYPE,"j")))” resulting in total of 2945 documents published from
1977 to 2022. The results were exported and checked for duplicates
using Zotero (v.6.0.7). After checking duplicates (no duplicate found), a
total number of 2945 articles were used for data analysis (Table 1).
2.2. Data analysis
For bibliometric analysis, the present work employed VOSviewer
(version 1.6.18) software, open-source Biblioshiny (RStudio- version
2022.02.2), MS Access and MS Excel. Biblioshiny conducts scientific
mapping analysis using the primary functions of the bibliometrix
package. The VOSviewer software shows different bibliographic data on
maps that are easy to understand. Co-authorship, citation, bibliographic
coupling, keyword co-occurrence, or a co-citation map based on
bibliographic data are some of the most common maps created with this
software. The Three-field plot analysis representing author, country and
source relationship was prepared using Biblioshiny.
Table 1
Main information about data generated from the Scopus database.
Description Results
Documents 2945
Sources 210
Average citations per document 17.52
Average citations per year per document 1.919
References 60360
Author’s Keywords 5523
Authors 8117
Single-authored documents 132
Multi-authored documents 2813
Authors of single-authored documents 105
Authors of multi-authored documents 8012
A. Stasi et al.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Yearly trend of growth and distribution of publications in Forensic
genetics
The growth in the number of publications within a discipline can be a
useful way to understand the trends and developments within that field.
Analyzing this trend can give insight into future research direction and
help identify ways to tackle new challenges.
We studied a year-on-year comparison of publication numbers to
assess the research trend with regard to the expanding scenario of
traceability in forensic genetics research (Fig. 1). The data revealed that
the first article on forensic genetics was published in 1977. Since then,
only three articles were published until 1990, and from 1991 until the
end of 1999, only 15 articles were published, with no more than 4 ar­
ticles per year. There was a slight increase in the number of publications
from 2000 until 2006, with no more than 30 articles each year. How­
ever, there has been a considerable increase in the number of published
articles from 2007 to the present, with more than a hundred articles each
year. The highest number of publications (308 articles) related to
forensic genetics were published in 2015, followed by 2019, 2020, and
2021 with 279, 266, and 243 articles, respectively. There have been 68
papers published so far this year alone (2022). As the graph indicates,
the number of cumulative publications has increased exponentially
since 2007; therefore, it is worthy to say that the emerging field of
forensic genetics has been significantly attracting the interest of re­
searchers throughout the globe.
3.2. Publication distribution on the basis of the number of articles by
countries and organizations
The total number of publications (2945) came from 136 countries,
out of which the United States (US) has the highest number of publi­
cations (604 articles, i.e., 20.53% of the total publication), followed by
China with 397 articles, Spain with 293 articles, Germany with 280
articles, United Kingdom (UK) with 237 articles and Italy with 223 ar­
ticles (Table 2, Fig. 2). These are the only 6 countries with more than
200 articles published in the field of forensic genetics. Following that, 8
countries (Portugal, Denmark, Australia, Brazil, Netherlands, Austria,
Japan, and Poland) have published 100–200 articles and 47 countries
Fig. 1. Yearly Publication Distribution and Growth Trend.
3
Forensic Science International: Genetics 63 (2023) 102826
have published a minimum of 5 articles but not more than 100 articles.
Overall, out of 136 countries, only 61 countries have published a min­
imum of 5 articles and the remaining 75 countries have published less
than 5 articles. The results indicated that economically developed
countries had published most of the articles, and research collaboration
was profoundly among developed countries (mostly among the USA and
European countries). China (2nd highest number of articles) was found
to be the only Asian country among the top 10 countries showing in­
terest in forensic genetic research. Moreover, single country publica­
tions (SCPs) and multiple country publications (MCPs) were analyzed to
determine the intra and inter-collaboration of various countries to
publish articles in the discipline of forensic genetics (Fig. 3). USA and
Spain had the highest number of MCPs as compared to other countries.
China had the 2nd highest number of articles in the discipline of forensic
genetics and maximum of SCPs as compared to other countries.
Collaborative research across countries can also be measured using
the Total Link Strength (TLS) (Table 1). According to the data obtained
from TLS analysis, the US had the highest collaborative research with
TLS of 9856 for all 604 published articles. About 60 countries have
published articles in collaboration with the US. TLS of 5980 put Ger­
many in second position and Spain in third place, with a TLS of 5763.
The TLS score and the Country Cooperation Network Map demonstrate
that the United States, Germany, Spain, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark,
UK, and China are the topmost important research partners for most
countries (Fig. 4).
The data also revealed that articles published by the US had got
maximum number of citations (16690 citations; average citation per
document 27.63), followed by Germany with 8464 citations (average
30.64), Spain with 7290 (average 24.88) and the United Kingdom with
7261 citations (average 30.64). Austria and Netherlands hold 5th and
6th place in terms of the number of citations. Interestingly, China which
holds 2nd place in terms of the number of documents, holds 7th place in
terms of the number of citations (3975 citations; average citations
10.01). Austria, Netherlands, Denmark, the UK, and Germany hold the
top five positions in terms of average citations per document (Table 2).
Moreover, the organizations with a minimum of five publications in
the field of forensic genetics were analyzed. It was found that out of
7349 organizations, only 77 meet thresh hold with a minimum of 5
articles published. Among these 77 organizations, only three have
published more than 50 articles, eight have published 20 articles and the
A. Stasi et al. Forensic Science International: Genetics 63 (2023) 102826

Table 2
Top countries with a minimum of 5 published in the field of forensic genetics (61 countries found out of 136). The Total link strength in the table indicates the total
strength of the co-authorship links of a given country with other countries.
S. No Country Documents %age of Documents Citations Average Citation Total Link Strength

1 United States 604 20.53 16690 27.63 9856

2 China 397 13.49 3975 10.01 3728
3 Spain 293 9.96 7290 24.88 5763
4 Germany 280 9.52 8468 30.24 5980
5 United Kingdom 237 8.06 7261 30.64 4082
6 Italy 223 7.58 3325 14.91 2276
7 Portugal 192 6.53 3431 17.87 3328
8 Denmark 179 6.08 5928 33.12 4301
9 Australia 172 5.85 3389 19.7 2724
10 Brazil 151 5.13 2064 13.67 2705
11 Netherlands 143 4.86 5234 36.6 4520
12 Austria 118 4.01 5275 44.7 4719
13 Japan 112 3.81 1641 14.65 874
14 Poland 104 3.54 1782 17.13 1360
15 New Zealand 95 3.23 2534 26.67 2253
16 Switzerland 94 3.2 1823 19.39 1924
17 Norway 84 2.86 2753 32.77 2533
18 Sweden 71 2.41 1515 21.34 1117
19 South Korea 70 2.38 1853 26.47 1046
20 Argentina 64 2.18 817 12.77 1079
21 Other 41 countries 848 28.82 15887 18.73 -

Fig. 2. Countries with the highest number of documents and their citation trend.

remaining organizations have published 5–20 articles. It was found that given in Table 3.
the Institute of Legal Medicine, Innsbruck Medical University, Austria had
published the highest number of publications (76 articles) with the
3.3. Author and co-author relationship
highest number of citations (2629 citations; Average citation= 34.59)
(Table 3). Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenha­
The most prolific authors in forensic genetics were identified based
gen, Copenhagen, Denmark and West China School of Basic Science and
on the total number of publications and the metrics of citations received.
Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China hold 2nd and 3rd
It was found that out of 8117 authors, only 30 authors had more than 30
place respectively in terms of the number of articles published by an
articles published in the field of forensic genetics. The analyzed data
organization. Center of Excellence in Genomic Medicine Research, King
showed that Morling N. had published the highest number of articles
Abdul-Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia holds 6th rank in terms of the
with the highest number of citations (134 articles; 4828 citations), fol­
number of publications; however, in terms of citations (1505 citations,
lowed by Parson W. (101 articles; 4221 citations), Carracedo A. (88 ar­
Average citations = 44.26), it has got 2nd place followed by West China
ticles; 4188 citations), Budowle B. (85 articles; 2672 citations), Gusmão
School of Basic Science and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu,
L. (74 articles; 1829 citations) and Phillips C. (72 articles; 3085 citations)
China with 865 citations (Average citations =14.91). The top organi­
(Table 3). In relation to the number of citations, although Morling N.,
zation with the highest number of published articles and citations are
Parson W., and Carracedo A. hold the top 1st, 2nd and 3rd rank,

4
A. Stasi et al. Forensic Science International: Genetics 63 (2023) 102826

Fig. 3. Inter and Intra collaboration of various countries. MCP indicates collaboration among different countries, while SCP indicates the production of a single
country. Countries were selected based on the corresponding author’s country.

Fig. 4. Network visualization of Collaborative research across countries in the field of forensic genetics (Countries with a minimum of five publications were taken
into consideration). The different colors in the figure represent clusters. A cluster is a set of closely related nodes (items). Each item in a network is assigned to exactly
one cluster. The color of an item is determined by the cluster to which it belongs. The Lines between items represent links and the distance between two items
approximately indicates the relatedness of the items.

respectively; however, Schneider P.M. (9th rank in the number of pub­
lications; 54 articles) holds 4th rank in the number of citations (3213
citations) followed by Kayser M (7th rank in the number of publications;
55 articles; 3088 citations) and Phillips C. M (5th rank in the number of
publications; 72 articles; 3085 citations) (Table 4).
The production of authors over time was also analyzed to understand
the spatial and temporal evolution of forensic genetic research around
the world (Fig. 5). Morling N. was found to be the leading author based
on the number of articles published between 1997 and 2021, with the
highest number of publications (17 articles) in 2015. Parson W. started
research in forensic genetics in 2008 and is continuously contributing to
the discipline of forensic genetics. Carracedo A., with the 3rd highest
number of publications, started contributing to forensic genetics in
1998. Among the top 20 productive authors, Budowle B. started working

5
A. Stasi et al. Forensic Science International: Genetics 63 (2023) 102826

Table 3 Table 3 (continued )

Top organizations with a minimum of 5 published in the field of forensic genetics S. Organization Country Documents Citations Average
(77 organisations found out of 7349). No. Citation
S. Organization Country Documents Citations Average Forensic Science
No. Citation South Australia,
1 Institute of Legal Austria 76 2629 34.59 Adelaide
Medicine, 17 Erasmus Mc Netherlands 16 180 11.25
Innsbruck Medical University Medical
University Center Rotterdam
2 Faculty of Health Denmark 58 865 14.91 18 Zurich Institute of Switzerland 15 140 9.33
and Medical Forensic Medicine,
Sciences, University of
University of Zurich
Copenhagen, 19 Department of New 14 424 30.28
Copenhagen Statistics, Zealand
3 West China School China 53 289 5.45 University of
of Basic Science Auckland,
and Forensic Auckland
Medicine, Sichuan 20 Other 57 - 425 10322 24.29
University, organizations
Chengdu
4 Forensic Science United 37 697 18.83
Program, The States
Pennsylvania State Table 4
University Leading authors with more than 30 publications in the field of forensic genetics.
5 Institute of Forensic Spain 37 1007 27.97 The Total link strength in the table indicates the total strength of the co-
Science, University authorship links of a given researcher with other researchers.
of Santiago de
S. Author Documents Citations Average Total Link
Compostela
No. Citation Strength
6 Center of Saudi 34 1505 44.26
Excellence in Arabia 1 Morling N. 134 4828 36.03 2461
Genomic Medicine 2 Parson W. 101 4221 41.79 1966
Research, King 3 Carracedo A. 88 4188 47.59 2004
Abdul-Aziz 4 Budowle B. 85 2672 31.44 998
University, Jeddah 5 Gusmão L. 74 1829 24.72 905
7 Institute of Portugal 28 739 26.39 6 Phillips C. 72 3085 42.85 2273
Molecular 7 Børsting C. 63 1794 28.48 1489
Pathology and 8 Kayser M. 55 3088 56.15 1106
Immunology of The 9 Amorim A. 54 785 14.54 307
University of Porto, 10 Schneider P. 54 3213 59.50 1603
Porto, M.
8 Department of Denmark 28 437 15.60 11 Hou Y. 53 835 15.75 608
Mathematical 12 Lareu M.V. 53 1967 37.11 1420
Sciences, Aalborg 13 Li C. 52 494 9.50 426
University, Aalborg 14 Wang Z. 49 615 12.55 535
9 Esr, Private Bag New 22 679 30.86 15 Zhang S. 46 373 8.11 376
92021, Auckland Zealand 16 Gill P. 45 2424 53.87 953
10 School of Biological Australia 35 549 15.68 17 Buckleton J. 42 1108 26.38 806
Sciences, Flinders 18 Taylor D. 41 876 21.37 715
University, 19 Bright J.-A. 39 925 23.72 763
Adelaide 20 Salas A. 37 1633 44.14 651
11 Institute of New 21 169 8.05
Environmental Zealand
Science and on forensic genetics earliest from 1994 until the present (2022), with an
Research Limited,
increased number of publications (11 articles) in 2009.
Auckland
12 Faculty Of Germany 20 657 32.85 The collaborative research among authors was measured using the
Medicine, TLS (Table 4). The data showed Morling N. with the highest TLS of 2461,
University of followed by Phillips C., Carracedo A., and Parson W. with TLS of 2273,
Cologne, Cologne 2004 and 1966, respectively. This suggests that these authors are the
13 Center For Human United 18 334 18.55
Identification, States
most prolific researcher in the field of forensic genetics with strong
University of North networking and collaboration skills (Fig. 6).
Texas Health
Science Center
14 DNA Diagnostic Brazil 18 528 29.33 3.4. Sources of publication
Laboratory, State
University of Rio The relation between sources and citations illustrates the reputed
De Janeiro, Rio De journals that authors choose to publish their research. Table 5 provides a
Janeiro
15 National Center for United 17 584 34.35
list of the most prominent journals that have published research articles
Forensic Science, States in the context of forensic genetics. As per the data, the most preferred
University of journal for publishing studies on forensic genetics has been Forensic
Central Florida, Science International: Genetics. The journal has published the highest
Orlando
number of articles and has received the highest number of citations
16 Australia 17 510 30
(1021 articles: 27497 citations). Forensic Science International: Genetics
Supplement Series ranks 2nd in the number of publications (541 articles),
followed by International Journal of Legal Medicine (269 articles) and

6
A. Stasi et al. Forensic Science International: Genetics 63 (2023) 102826

Fig. 5. Contribution of top 20 authors over different years (Red lines). The size of Dots indicates the number of publications over different years, and the color of dots
(light to dark) indicates total citations (TC) per year.

Fig. 6. Network visualization of Collaborative research among authors in the field of forensic genetics (Authors with a minimum of thirty publications were taken
into consideration). The different colors in the figure represent clusters. A cluster is a set of closely related nodes (items). Each item in a network is assigned to exactly
one cluster. The color of an item is determined by the cluster to which it belongs. The Lines between items represent links and the distance between two items
approximately indicates the relatedness of the items.

Forensic Science International (199 articles). Legal Medicine and Journal of
Forensic Sciences rank 5th and 6th with 164 and 110 articles, respec­
tively. In terms of citations, the International Journal of Legal Medicine
ranks 2nd, Forensic Science International ranks 3rd, Forensic Science In­
ternational: Genetics Supplement Series ranks 4th, and the Journal of
Forensic Sciences ranks 5th (Table 5). Out of the first top ten journals, six
are published by Elsevier. It is therefore worthy to say that the authors
prefer Elsevier journals over other publishers. Forensic Science Interna­
tional: Genetics (highest number of articles) and Forensic Science Inter­
national: Genetics Supplement Series (2nd highest number of articles) are
the companion journal of Forensic Science International (4th highest
number of articles). These Three journals have contributed to about 59%
of all the publications in the field of forensic genetics. Forensic Science
International: Genetics alone has published approximately 34% of all the
articles published. Moreover, the number of documents was found to be
positively correlated (0.28) with the impact factor. Thus, it is worthy to
say that the authors prefer to publish their findings in high-impact
journals.
3.5. Document and citation relationship
The relation between journal articles and citations received is critical

7
A. Stasi et al. Forensic Science International: Genetics 63 (2023) 102826

Table 5
Top 20 sources/journals with the highest number of publications in the field of forensic genetics.
S. No. Sources/ Journals Publisher Documents Citations Average Citations Impact Factor (2021)

1 Forensic Science International: Genetics Elsevier 1012 27497 27.17 4.88

2 Forensic Science International: Genetics Supplement Series Elsevier 541 1946 3.60 0.18
3 International Journal of Legal Medicine Springer 269 5352 19.90 2.68
4 Forensic Science International Elsevier 199 4819 24.22 2.39
5 Legal Medicine Elsevier 164 1432 8.73 1.37
6 Journal of Forensic Sciences Wiley-Blackwell 110 1780 16.18 1.83
7 Genes MDPI 40 222 5.55 3.88
8 Science And Justice Elsevier 37 486 13.14 2.12
9 Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine Elsevier 31 162 5.23 1.61
10 Annals of Human Biology Taylor & Francis 25 120 4.80 1.53
11 Croatian Medical Journal Medicinska naklada (Croatia) 24 421 17.54 1.35
12 Forensic Science, Medicine, And Pathology Springer 20 201 10.05 2.00
13 Z Zagadnien Nauk Sadowych Instytut Ekspertyz Sądowych 20 31 1.55 -
14 Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences Taylor & Francis 18 63 3.50 1.08
15 Electrophoresis Wiley-Blackwell 17 541 31.82 3.53
16 Molecular Genetics and Genomic Medicine Wiley-Blackwell 17 53 3.12 2.18
17 American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 16 144 9.00 0.53
18 Frontiers In Genetics Frontiers 14 53 3.79 4.27
19 Forensic Sciences Research Taylor & Francis 13 61 4.69 2.54
20 New Genetics and Society Taylor & Francis 12 102 8.50 2.18

in determining the quality and scope of the publication. An increased

Table 6
number of citations received by a specific article is an indication that the
Top 20 articles in the field of forensic genetics with the highest number of
publication has been recognized by other scholars on the same subject.
citations.
In this study, articles with a minimum of 100 citations were selected. It
was found that out of the total 2945 articles, only 72 articles have S. Document Total Average References
No Citations citations per
received a minimum of 100 citations. As per data, the article HOMER N, year
2008, PLOS GENET [30] has received the highest number of 750 cita­
1 HOMER N, 2008, PLOS 750 50 [30]
tions (Table 6). In this study, a theoretical framework for resolving
GENET
mixtures was developed by high-density single nucleotide poly­ 2 MARICIC T, 2010, PLOS 341 26.2308 [31]
morphism (SNP) genotyping microarrays. Experiments were carried out ONE
to demonstrate the rapid and robust determination of whether or not 3 GUSMÃO L, 2006, 331 19.4706 [32]
individuals fall within an assayed mixture. The results showed that it FORENSIC SCI INT
4 PARSON W, 2007, 280 17.5 [33]
was possible to find very small amounts of a person’s DNA in very FORENSIC SCI INT GENET
complicated mixtures. 5 WILLUWEIT S, 2007, 272 17 [34]
As per data, 2nd and 3rd highest number of citations were received FORENSIC SCI INT GENET
by articles authored by MARICIC T, 2010, PLOS ONE [31] and GUSMÃO 6 PHILLIPS C, 2007, 264 16.5 [35]
FORENSIC SCI INT GENET
L, 2006, FORENSIC SCI INT [32] with 341 and 331 citations, respec­
7 GILL P, 2006, FORENSIC 261 15.3529 [36]
tively. Among all the articles, only the first three articles have crossed SCI INT
the 300 mark of citations. The next eight articles (4th – 11th in terms of 8 WALSH S, 2013, FORENSIC 250 25 [37]
the number of citations) have received 200–300 citations and the SCI INT GENET
remaining articles have received less than 200 citations. To sum up, the 9 BØRSTING C, 2015, 245 30.625 [8]
FORENSIC SCI INT GENET
documents HOMER N, 2008, PLOS GENET; MARICIC T, 2010, PLOS 10 WALSH S, 2011, FORENSIC 229 19.0833 [38]
ONE; and GUSMÃO L, 2006, FORENSIC SCI INT were the most signifi­ SCI INT GENET-a
cant publications that had a major influence on the field of forensic 11 LOREILLE OM, 2007, 209 13.0625 [39]
genetics. FORENSIC SCI INT GENET
12 KAYSER M, 2015, 197 24.625 [40]
FORENSIC SCI INT GENET
3.6. Co-occurrence of author keywords 13 PECHAL JL, 2014, INT J 196 21.7778 [41]
LEG MED
14 DROR IE, 2011, SCI 185 15.4167 [42]
The term "co-occurrence" refers to the occurrence of similar key­
JUSTICE
words across several publications in close proximity to one another, as 15 PARSON W, 2014, 184 20.4444 [43]
well as the frequency with which they appear. Effective titles, well- FORENSIC SCI INT GENET
formatted abstracts, and well-chosen keywords are the foundation of 16 TAYLOR D, 2013, 177 17.7 [44]
highly cited publications. Using the correct keywords makes it easier for FORENSIC SCI INT GENET
17 BALLANTYNE KN, 2012, 176 16 [45]
other researchers to identify the publication. In our study, keywords
FORENSIC SCI INT GENET
with a minimum of twenty occurrences were taken into consideration. It 18 KIDD KK, 2006, FORENSIC 175 10.2941 [46]
was found that out of 5523 keywords, only 80 met the threshold. Among SCI INT
these keywords, "forensic genetics" was the most frequent keyword (590 19 PURPS J, 2014, FORENSIC 171 19 [47]
SCI INT GENET
occurrences) within all the articles, followed by forensic science, STR,
20 KAYSER M, 2009, 169 12.0714 [48]
population genetics, DNA, mt-DNA and DNA-typing (Fig. 7). FORENSIC SCI INT GENET

3.7. Three-field plot analysis representing author keywords-sources-

countries analyze the relationship between author keywords, sources and coun­
tries. As depicted in Fig. 6, ‘forensic genetics’ is the most prevalent
Three-field analysis was performed using Biblioshiny (RStudio) to keyword connected strongly with sources Forensic Science International-

8
A. Stasi et al. Forensic Science International: Genetics 63 (2023) 102826

Fig. 7. Network visualization of keywords (keywords with a minimum number of 20 occurrences were taken into consideration. The different colors in the figure
represent clusters. A cluster is a set of closely related nodes (items). Each item in a network is assigned to exactly one cluster. The color of an item is determined by
the cluster to which it belongs. The Lines between items represent links and the distance between two items approximately indicates the relatedness of the items.

Genetics, International Journal of Legal Medicine and Forensic Science in­
ternational and countries like China, USA, Spain, Germany and Italy
(Fig. 8). The graph also highlights ‘forensic science’ as the second most
prevalent keyword associated strongly with Forensic Science Interna­
tional- Genetics, International Journal of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sci­
ence international and countries like China, USA, Spain, Germany and
Italy. STR, population genetics, DNA, mt-DNA and DNA-typing are some
other common keywords associated with sources and countries, as
depicted in Fig. 8.
3.8. Limitations
Our search for relevant literature was limited to the Scopus database,
which is a limitation of our paper. Although this database provides
relatively thorough coverage of scientific contributions, it does not
include all pertinent forensic genetics literature documents. Thus, the

Fig. 8. The three field plot analysis depicting Author keywords (left), Sources (middle), and Countries (right). The lines and boxes demonstrate the association
between the three variables. The height of the boxes and the thickness of the connecting lines show the strength of association between variables.

9
A. Stasi et al.
knowledge base of forensic genetics is wider than what we have por­
trayed in this study. This restriction of our work was partially alleviated
by the use of co-citation analysis, which incorporates all documents in
the studied reference lists. This enables us to capture a larger portion of
the forensic genetics literature than the database documents alone.
There is, however, a possibility that alternative review methods (e.g.,
mining, context analysis) may yield slightly different results when
compared to the one described here. Therefore, the outcomes of this
assessment should be considered as an exploratory study that paves the
way for future research in this area. Future studies could extend the
current analysis by using alternative bibliometric methods or expanding
the range of keywords used.
The authors have chosen to focus on analyzing Scopus publications
rather than well-established databases such as PubMed for several rea­
sons. Firstly, Scopus has a "cited references" feature, which allows users
to see which other publications have cited a particular work since its
publication. This was very helpful for including a much broader variety
of papers in our co-citation analysis, as the total number of publications
analyzed was significantly greater than the number returned by a Scopus
search alone. PubMed records do not have a similar feature, making it
difficult to conduct a co-citation analysis. Additionally, Scopus com­
prises documents from other databases such as MEDLINE and EMBASE,
among others. Lastly, recent findings have raised concerns about the
presence of predatory journals in PubMed, which can be cause for alarm.
Therefore, it is essential for the authors to ensure that our review in­
cludes only carefully peer-reviewed journal papers that have not been
compromised by the outputs of predatory journals with questionable
peer review procedures.
It is also important to note that the authors conducted a search for
forensic genetics publications on the PubMed database, and although
the number of publications was higher (n = 4023), the main research
patterns were similar to those observed within the Scopus knowledge
base. There were 4023 works on forensic genetics published, primarily
articles. Both the quantity and quality of literature increased starting in
2007–2008. The journal with the most publications was Forensic Sci­
ence International-Genetics, and 60.83% of its publications were sup­
ported, primarily by the Institute of Legal Medicine at the Innsbruck
Medical University (457 publications). Current research hotspots
included STR, SNP, and InDel polymorphisms, linkage genetic markers,
mtDNA genetic markers, epigenetic markers, RNA genetic markers, chip
technology, and omics research techniques. Additionally, within the
PubMed database, we can observe the rapid growth of forensic genetics
in parallel with the advancement of forensic science in universities. The
number of forensic genetics publications in PubMed by scholars has
increased rapidly, which contributes positively to the development of
basic research and the overall improvement of forensic genetics
globally.
It is also important to note that while a search on the PubMed
database for forensic genetics publications yielded a higher number of
publications (n = 4023), the main research patterns were similar to
those observed within the Scopus database. The majority of the 4023
works on forensic genetics were articles, and both the quantity and
quality of literature increased starting in 2007–2008. The journal with
the most publications was Forensic Science International-Genetics, with
60.83% of its publications being supported primarily by the Institute of
Legal Medicine at the Innsbruck Medical University (457 publications).
Current research hotspots included STR, SNP, and InDel polymorphisms,
linkage genetic markers, mtDNA genetic markers, epigenetic markers,
RNA genetic markers, chip technology, and omics research techniques.
Additionally, we can see the rapid growth of forensic genetics in parallel
with the advancement of forensic science in universities through the
increased number of forensic genetics publications in PubMed by
scholars, which contributes to the development of basic research and the
overall improvement of forensic genetics globally.
10
Forensic Science International: Genetics 63 (2023) 102826
4. Conclusion
Bibliometric analysis is an effective tool to analyze the current
research activities and scientific trends in a particular area of study. The
current bibliometric study was conducted to investigate the recent
research trends in the field of forensic genetics. The data (2945 articles)
was obtained from the Scopus database and analyzed using the software
Vosviewer, RStudio, and MS Office. It was found that the study in the
field of forensic genetics began in the year 1977. However, the study on
the stated topic began gaining significant attention post-2006. Only 18
research articles were published from 1944-to 1999 and 109 articles
were published from 2000-to 2006. Post-2006 to the present, there have
been more the 100 articles published each year. The research in the field
of forensic genetics was found to be prevalent in most developed na­
tions. As expected, the United States was found to be the nation with the
highest number of publications followed by China, Spain, Germany, and
the United Kingdom, respectively. With regard to the organisations, the
Institute of Legal Medicine, Innsbruck Medical University Austria has the
highest publications (76 articles) followed by the Faculty of Health and
Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark (58
articles) and West China School of Basic Science and Forensic Medicine,
Sichuan University, Chengdu, China (53 articles). The first three organi­
sations were the only three with more than 50 articles published in the
field of forensic genetics. Morling N., Parson W., Budowle B., Gusmão L.
and Phillips C. were the top five influential authors with the highest
number of publications. Various countries, organisations, and authors
have Collaborated to increase the quality of their research work.
Forensic Science International: Genetics has remained one of the most
preferred sources/journals by the authors to publish their findings. The
journal has published about 34% of the total articles in the field of
forensic genetics. Forensic Science International: Genetics Supplement Se­
ries, International Journal of Legal Medicine and Forensic Science Interna­
tional sources with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th highest number of articles,
respectively. Among these publications, the article by HOMER N, 2008,
PLOS GENET [30] has got the highest number of citations, followed by
MARICIC T, 2010, PLOS ONE [31], and GUSMÃO L, 2006, FORENSIC
SCI INT [32] respectively. These three documents had been most
influential in the field of forensic genetics, with only articles having
more than 300 citations. Following the author-keyword analysis in the
current bibliometric study, the frequency of keyword search was of the
order; forensic genetics > forensic science > STR > population genetics
> DNA > mt-DNA > DNA-typing. This shows that most of the published
articles are related to the application of STR, population genetics, DNA,
mt-DNA, and DNA-typing in the field of forensic genetics. After
analyzing keyword frequency. Current study has shown that there is a
lack of research on the ethical and legal implications of forensic genetics.
Based on these findings, future research avenues that other researchers
may undertake include investigating the ethical implications of DNA
profiling and exploring the legal issues that arise from the use of DNA
samples. Genetic research should take into account the ethical, legal,
and social implications of its findings and be conducted in a way that is
responsive to the needs and concerns of the public. In doing so, the
research community can help ensure that genetic information is used in
a way that is respectful of individual rights and promotes the public
good.
In this study, an effort has been made to highlight the research trends
and advancements in forensic genetics throughout the world. Re­
searchers all over the globe have been showing significant interest to­
wards research in forensic genetics, as seen by the gradual growth in
publications over the years. Nevertheless, forensic genetics is still an
emerging field in the forensic science discipline and there is a need for
further studies to explore this field for the sake of effective and suc­
cessful forensic investigations. The majority of the articles have been
published by developed countries such as the USA, China, Germany,
Spain, and the UK. Also, the majority of research collaboration was
found among developed countries. Therefore, more efforts should be
A. Stasi et al. Forensic Science International: Genetics 63 (2023) 102826

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