The Scientific Profiles of Documented Collections via Publication Data: Past, Present, and Future Directions in Forensic Anthropology

Abstract

Human osteological documented collections (DCs), also referred to as “identified collections”, are a valuable resource in biological and forensic anthropology, as they offer the possibility for hypothesis-driven research on sex and age-at-death estimation methods, human variability, and other morphometric-based parameters of individual identification. Consequently, they feature in many publications addressing the forensic sciences. The paper aims to explore the scientific profiles of DCs via publication using bibliometric data. The Dimensions databases were used to select the DC-related keywords in the title and abstracts of the publications. The search result analysis and extraction were conducted using VOSviewer. A total of 376 articles were found, published between 1969 and 2021 (November). The number of publications has increased over the years, specifically after 2011. The results show that most of the publications are associated with countries such as the United States and Portugal (the latter highlights the University of Coimbra), that the research tends to focus on human biological profiling (e.g., age, sex assessments), and that the journals with the highest numbers of publications were related to forensic sciences. This analysis shows a positive correlation between DC publications and the growth of forensic anthropology in recent years, with a slight shift towards the leading institutions that publish DC-based research. Hence, we can anticipate a change in the institutional leading profiles in the years to come.

Inter-population differences in acetabular senescence: relevance in age-at-death estimation

“…Despite CTs procedures can be convenient and advantages to reduce the time-consuming process of maceration in some cases, standard tools are still meaningful and opportune for working with fully skeletonized remains, found periodically in forensic cases but as a daily basis in bioarcheology contexts. Thus, these collections are still fundamental to provide information and knowledge to researchers in order to enable a better comprehension of the poorly understood progression of skeletal senescence [ 133 ]. As documented collections continue to be amassed in Africa, Asia, and South America, they provide the perfect opportunity for continued research in inter-population differences outside of the standardized US and/or Eurocentric research [ 134 – 142 ].…”

Topical Collection “The Rise of Forensic Anthropology and Documented Human Osteological Collections”

“…The findings of Alves-Cardoso and Campanacho [3] revealed existing connections between DHOCs and forensic anthropology worldwide. As collections serve as the bases for developing new methods in forensic anthropology, in the last few years, forensic anthropology growth has also promoted the creation of new DHOCs.…”

“…They offered new perspectives, reinforcing the need for modern human samples of references to test established methods and develop new ones based on updated methodological approaches. Thus, three decades later, there has been a significant increase in documented collections worldwide [3], diversified in nature, e.g., not all documented collections are composed of osteological remains, some are virtual collections [4], and others are histological [5]. Documented Human Osteological Collections (DHOCs) are valuable due to the biographical data associated with each skeleton, or skeletal remains (if incomplete).…”

To Replicate, or Not to Replicate? The Creation, Use, and Dissemination of 3D Models of Human Remains: A Case Study from Portugal

“…One of the strongest arguments for implementing 3D replicas of human remains is that of preservation-using 3D replicas of human bones prevents bone damage from frequent handling. Human osteological collections can be damaged and lose elements over time, especially in collections heavily used in teaching and research, such as documented collections [18][19][20][21]. The use of 3D has also become popular in research and teaching and will undoubtedly continue to be so since it has become embedded in popular culture via television programs, e.g., Meet the Ancestors, To the Ends of the Earth, and Secrets of the Dead [20] (p. 140), as well as in popular science magazines such as National Geographic.…”