Science and Justice 55 (2015) 89

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Science and Justice journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scijus

Editorial

If you have something to say, you can say it…

News reports of violence in Paris, Nigeria, and the Middle East have not provided an optimistic start to the New Year. These events invoke a desire to do something meaningful to help, and a simultaneous sense of helplessness. Much of the violence that we read and hear about from our own countries and elsewhere derives from the notion of freedom of expression and of speech. These events have forced us to debate whether there are boundaries to these freedoms, and if so, where exactly they lie. As forensic and crime scene scientists and investigators, these issues affect us in two pertinent ways. First, the incidents of violence themselves are the places we and our colleagues must work — they are complicated (often multiple) scenes which stretch our abilities and resources. They may be physical sites, as with the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices, or they may be digital sites, such as the Sony hacking, but each requires thorough and objective investigation. The Charlie Hebdo and the Sony incidents while very different in context, are related in that they were both attempts to suppress freedom of expression. And this is the second way in which such events impact on readers of this Journal: within these covers, we expect to be able to disagree with each other as we strive to move the discipline forward. Scientific advancement, as has been said many times before, relies on debate and the objective testing of ideas and methods. Some of this can get quite heated and passionate because it is undertaken by humans who invest much of themselves into their research. We only have to look at the recent discussions that have taken place in Science & Justice to see the importance of this freedom. At the end of 2014, Willis [1] was able to openly question whether accreditation (the ‘must-have’ for all forensic sciences…) was really all that useful; while Buckleton et al. [3], Risinger et al. [2] and Berger and Stoel [4] were all able to actively debate points raised in previous Editorials of this journal. Further, the whole peer review process, a cornerstone of this academic Journal, is another aspect of this principle. It is a process

which explicitly solicits objective and independent views on a piece of work; it actively encourages and relies upon the freedom to express one's opinions. We keep the process anonymous so that the reviewers can be totally free to express their opinion without fear of repercussion. One of the interesting aspects of being able to supervise this process is seeing wildly differing opinions of the same piece of work — and watching the ensuing debate as a consensus is reached. Of course, the nature of the peer review process is something which itself should be debated, and we should do that at another time. It may not always be a perfect process, but the Journal has the concept of freedom of expression and speech woven into it throughout. Science & Justice seeks to provide a place for presenting new and exciting research and ideas, and allowing them to be debated and argued. This process not only gives our work academic rigor, but also provides solidity for when we take it into the criminal justice system. Science & Justice and science and justice, are only possible with this freedom.

References [1] S. Willis, Accreditation — straight belt or life jacket? Sci. Justice 54 (6) (2014) 505–507. [2] D.M. Risinger, W.C. Thompson, A. Jamieson, R. Koppl, I. Kornfield, D. Krane, J.L. Mnookin, R. Rosenthal, M.J. Saks, S.L. Zabell, Regarding Champod, editorial: “research focused mainly on bias will paralyse forensic science”, Sci. Justice 54 (6) (2014) 508–509. [3] J. Buckleton, I. Evett, B. Weir, Letter to editor in response to editorial by Risinger et al, Sci. Justice 54 (6) (2014) 510. [4] C. Berger, R. Stoel, Letter to the Editor, 2014. 510–511.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2015.01.004 1355-0306/© 2015 Forensic Science Society. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tim Thompson Editor-in-Chief

If you have something to say, you can say it….

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