Writing and Publication

I wanted to share a peer-reviewed journal article I wrote that was recently accepted into the Forensic Science International: Digital Forensics journal.  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2666281723000501

When I was a student, I hated writing research papers as much as many of you do. However, I learned that was nothing compared to the amount of writing I had to do as a police officer and a detective. You will do more and more writing as you advance through college and your career. You will get better at it as you go along, and it actually does get easier. The material may be more difficult and complex, but you will feel better about the act of writing itself. Writing with Academics standards is strict and rigid for a reason. Advancements in science, medicine, and law occur because of these rigid standards. The process also involves other professionals judging and critiquing your work. Debating and disagreeing with each other is not only normal, but it is also a requirement in science.

That is why we should embrace the critiques and criticisms of others in our professional work. Those critiques are part of the process and not something we should avoid as long as they are professional and thoughtful. In addition to be a police officer and investigator, I also am a researcher in the field of digital forensics. I have testified in court on numerous occasions regarding that and perform digital forensics for all kinds of investigations, including many murder investigations. I also do research on devices and write papers and how-to manuals on how to do those things. Those manuals are used by forensic experts all over the world. 

Here is the recent article I wrote about performing digital forensics on Amazon devices. The article is half legal and half digital forensics. In other words, I describe what evidence is likely to be found on these devices, how to draft probable cause affidavits to seize and search those devices (search warrants), and I provide detailed diagrams and videos on how to disassemble and use a microscope to extract data from these devices.

My research was part of a grant from Homeland Security and the Airforce and was a collaboration between researchers at Texas A&M. and me. For the article to be accepted into this particular journal, it must pass their standards for submission and pass a peer review process in which it is scrutinized by others in the field. Only 22% of submissions are accepted by this journal.

That rigorous process of challenging other people's conclusions or methods is what makes the work more accurate and scientific. All of that is pretty much to opposite of the way we do things on social media, where discussion, differing opinions, and disagreement are not allowed.  Our justice system and our scientific system is an adversarial systems because that is what makes things more accurate. 

All of this is why I encourage my students to write, create, and disagree respectfully with each other. Do all of that and still be friends. We do not destroy or cancel each other personally - we challenge and critique each other's work. 

Keep up the good work you guys are doing in this class and other classes and remember those standards and be respectful to each other while disagreeing with them.

Here is the link to the journal article. It will be in the June edition of the journal, but for 50 days, the paper can be viewed and downloaded for free or without having to create an account. 

For those of you who take CRIJ 1306 or CRIJ 2323, the paper has much information about how to formulate probable cause in the digital world. However, the information is good for all classes. If you like digital forensics, there is some cool stuff in here for that. 

By the way, I do not have a PhD! So the reference to "Dr. Lorenz" is incorrect.

Thanks,

Scott Lorenz