Academic Forensic Pathology

About Academic Forensic Pathology

Overview

Academic Forensic Pathology (Acad. Forensic Pathol.; ISSN 1925-3621) is a peer-reviewed, electronic-only scholarly journal devoted to the practice and science of forensic pathology. Published quarterly by SAGE Publishing and officially sponsored by the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) Foundation, the journal serves as a dedicated venue for research, case-based scholarship, and professional discourse in medicolegal death investigation.

The journal defines forensic pathology as the medical subspecialty in which practitioners observe, document, and interpret the medicolegal significance of injuries and diseases in both living and deceased humans. Its readership includes forensic pathologists, medical examiners and coroners, death investigators, toxicologists, forensic anthropologists, neuropathologists, legal professionals, and trainees working at the intersection of medicine and the law.

Launched in 2011 as an electronic journal, Academic Forensic Pathology has published continuously since its first volume. The journal moved to SAGE Publishing with the NAME Foundation as its official sponsoring organization in 2019, joining SAGE's portfolio of medical and criminology journals. It operates a triple-blinded peer review process and is indexed in major biomedical databases including Scopus and PubMed. In Journal Citation Reports the journal carries an Impact Factor of 1.1, as published on SAGE's official media page.

Articles from the journal are archived in full text in PubMed Central (PMC), deposited courtesy of SAGE Publications, giving authors broad, durable visibility. The journal regularly publishes original research articles, case reports and case series, reviews, technical notes, editorials, and official position papers of the National Association of Medical Examiners — documents that carry direct practical weight for death investigation practice.

Journal at a Glance

Aims & Scope

Academic Forensic Pathology is committed to publishing high-quality, timely, and relevant peer-reviewed scholarship of importance to the practice of forensic pathology. Its scope spans the full breadth of medicolegal death investigation and the many disciplines that support it — from the autopsy suite and the histology laboratory to the courtroom.

The journal's published scope statement indicates that it will consider manuscripts on any aspect of:

• Death investigation and medicolegal certification of death
• Forensic medicine, including sexual assault and rape examination
• Autopsy pathology and forensic histopathology
• Forensic toxicology
• Forensic imaging and radiology
• Forensic anthropology and forensic neuropathology
• Cardiovascular and pulmonary pathology of medicolegal relevance
• Other subspecialty organ and tissue pathology with medicolegal significance
• Medical jurisprudence
• Forensic photography
• Forensic sciences, including DNA biology, chemistry, entomology, and botany
• Any other area with obvious relevance to the practice of forensic pathology

Article types published in the journal include original research articles, case reports and case series (a historically central genre in forensic pathology, explicitly encouraged by the editor), systematic and narrative reviews, technical notes on new examination devices and procedures, editorials, and official NAME position papers and guidelines — such as the NAME position paper on the investigation and certification of deaths in people with epilepsy, published simultaneously in Academic Forensic Pathology (Volume 8, 2018) and Epilepsia.

The journal follows the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (the ICMJE Recommendations), as stated in SAGE's official journal description.

Editorial Leadership and Board

The Editor-in-Chief of Academic Forensic Pathology is Dr Christopher Milroy (Christopher M. Milroy, MBChB MD LLB BA LLM FRCPath FFFLM FRCPC DMJ), as listed on SAGE's official media page for the journal and confirmed in his signed editorials published in the journal. In a 2020 editorial he described the journal's online-first character and its encouragement of case reports alongside detailed studies, thanking authors, reviewers, and SAGE staff for sustaining the journal.

The journal's founding editorial board was introduced in 2011 in a dedicated "Biographies for the Editorial Board" feature published in the journal itself (Volume 1, 2011). The founding board members, with their roles at that time, were:

This roster reflects the journal's founding leadership in 2011, as documented in the journal's own pages; the current editorial board is maintained on the journal's homepage on the SAGE Journals platform. Readers should consult the live editorial board page for the most up-to-date membership.

Peer Review Process

Academic Forensic Pathology operates a triple-blinded peer review process, as stated in SAGE's official description of the journal. In triple-blinded review, the identities of the authors are concealed from the reviewers, the identities of the reviewers are concealed from the authors, and the handling editor's identity is also concealed from both parties during the review — a model intended to minimize bias in editorial decision-making.

As with other SAGE journals, manuscripts are screened by the editorial office for scope fit and basic compliance before being assigned to reviewers with relevant subject expertise. Authors are generally asked to suggest potential reviewers and to identify any conflicts of interest at submission, per the journal's submission guidelines. Decisions — accept, minor or major revision, or reject — are communicated through SAGE's online manuscript submission and peer review system. Because forensic pathology is a relatively small specialty, the journal draws on a focused pool of expert reviewers, which authors should keep in mind when estimating timelines; the journal does not publish a guaranteed turnaround time.

Indexing and Abstracting

Academic Forensic Pathology is indexed and abstracted in the following services, based on Scopus-based journal directories, the NLM catalog, and library title lists:

• Scopus (Elsevier) — coverage from 2011 (Volume 1) to the present
• PubMed — NLM catalog record 101596736
• PubMed Central (PMC) — full-text articles deposited courtesy of SAGE Publications
• Research4Life — coverage from Volume 1, Issue 1 (2011) to the current issue, via SAGE Publishing
• UGC CARE (reported by Scopus-based journal directories)

The journal also carries a Journal Impact Factor in Journal Citation Reports (1.1, per SAGE's official journal media page), indicating coverage in the Web of Science Core Collection citation indexes. Because the journal's content is deposited in PubMed Central, articles are freely discoverable through PubMed and Google Scholar regardless of the journal's subscription model.

Impact Metrics

Citation metrics for Academic Forensic Pathology, each attributed to its source:

A note on interpreting these figures: metric values differ slightly between directories because they snapshot different citation years. The Journal Impact Factor of 1.1 is the figure SAGE itself publishes for the journal. The Scopus CiteScore has been reported in the 1.0–1.2 range in recent compilations, and the journal sits in the third quartile (Q3) of the Scopus "Pathology and Forensic Medicine" subject category. As a specialist journal serving a small field, its citation profile should be compared with other forensic pathology and medicolegal journals rather than with broad-scope medical journals.

Publication Ethics

According to SAGE's official journal description, Academic Forensic Pathology follows the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). These recommendations cover authorship criteria, disclosure of conflicts of interest, protection of research participants, data sharing, and the responsibilities of editors, reviewers, and publishers.

Authors submitting to the journal should expect standard scholarly publishing ethics requirements: original work not under consideration elsewhere, accurate attribution of all contributors, disclosure of funding sources and competing interests, and appropriate ethical approvals for any research involving human subjects or human tissue — particularly relevant in a journal that publishes autopsy-based research and case reports, where privacy and consent considerations are paramount. The journal's full editorial policies, including its complaints and appeals procedure, are set out in the submission guidelines published on the SAGE Journals platform.

Open Access Policy

Academic Forensic Pathology is a hybrid journal: it is published on a subscription basis, with authors able to choose open access publication for their articles through SAGE's SAGE Choice program. Library title lists published by SAGE consortia (e.g., the CRKN–SAGE and IReL–SAGE title lists) classify the journal as "Hybrid," and SAGE's open-access title data lists a CC-BY license option for the journal (Academic Forensic Pathology, ISSN 1925-3621).

Separately, the National Association of Medical Examiners Foundation — the journal's official sponsoring organization — has offered members a free subscription to Academic Forensic Pathology as a membership benefit (announced for 2020 Foundation memberships), reflecting the journal's role as the Foundation's sponsored publication.

Note: a specific article processing charge (APC) for the open access option could not be confirmed from an official SAGE page at the time of writing (third-party directories report figures around USD 3,500, which is SAGE's standard hybrid APC — authors should verify the current fee on the journal's SAGE page before submitting).

Submission Guidelines

Manuscripts are submitted to Academic Forensic Pathology through the online submission system linked from the journal's homepage on the SAGE Journals platform (journals.sagepub.com/home/afp). Prospective authors should read the journal-specific submission guidelines published there before preparing a manuscript, as formatting, reference style, and article-type requirements are set per journal.

Practical points for prospective authors, drawn from the journal's published policies:

• Scope fit: the journal covers the full range of forensic pathology and medicolegal death investigation (see Aims & Scope above). Manuscripts outside this scope are likely to be desk-rejected.
• Article types: original research, case reports and case series, reviews, technical notes, editorials, and official society papers. Case reports are explicitly welcomed — the editor has noted their foundational role in forensic pathology literature.
• Peer review: triple-blinded; authors should anonymize manuscripts as instructed in the guidelines.
• Ethics and disclosure: follow the ICMJE Recommendations — declare authorship contributions, conflicts of interest, funding, and ethical approvals for human-subject or human-tissue research.
• Open access choice: authors may select subscription or SAGE Choice open access (CC-BY) publication; confirm the current APC with SAGE.
• NAME members: members of the NAME Foundation should check current membership benefits for journal access.

Because submission systems, guidelines, and fees are updated periodically, always verify current requirements on the official journal homepage rather than relying on third-party summaries.

History

Academic Forensic Pathology was founded in 2011 as an electronic-only, quarterly journal, with Volume 1 appearing that year. It was established as the publication of the National Association of Medical Examiners Foundation and was published in its early years by Academic Forensic Pathology International, operating from its own online platform.

From the outset the journal positioned itself as an academically rigorous, practice-oriented venue for the forensic pathology community — publishing original investigations, case-based scholarship, technical advances, and official NAME documents such as position papers with direct bearing on death investigation practice. Its founding editorial board, introduced in a dedicated biographical feature in Volume 1 (2011), drew heavily on senior leadership of the American medicolegal death investigation community, including past presidents of NAME.

A significant milestone came in 2019, when the NAME Foundation became the official sponsoring organization of Academic Forensic Pathology and SAGE Publishing took over publication of the journal. The NAME Foundation's official announcement noted that the journal — formerly the official journal of NAME — had built "an eight-year track record of outstanding articles having direct impact to forensic pathology" at the time of the transition. Under SAGE, the journal joined the SAGE Journals platform (journals.sagepub.com/home/afp), gained deposit of its full text in PubMed Central, and continued quarterly electronic publication.

By 2026 the journal had reached Volume 16, with SAGE's journal catalog listing content available from 2011 and the latest issue as Volume 16, Issue 3 (September 2026). The journal's DOI prefix moved to SAGE's 10.1177 prefix, and its back content is hosted on the SAGE platform. Throughout its history the journal has remained focused on its founding mission: high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship of direct relevance to the practice of forensic pathology.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who publishes Academic Forensic Pathology?
SAGE Publishing, with the National Association of Medical Examiners Foundation as the official sponsoring organization (since 2019). It was formerly the official journal of NAME.

What is the journal's Impact Factor?
1.1 in Journal Citation Reports, according to the figure published on SAGE's official journal media page.

Is the journal open access?
It is a hybrid journal: subscription-based with an optional SAGE Choice open access route (CC-BY license available). NAME Foundation members have received free access as a membership benefit.

What is the ISSN?
1925-3621 (electronic). The journal is published electronically only.

Who is the Editor-in-Chief?
Dr Christopher Milroy.

Where is the journal indexed?
Scopus, PubMed, PubMed Central, and Research4Life, among others; it carries a Journal Impact Factor in Journal Citation Reports.

How often is it published?
Quarterly — four electronic issues per year.