JFS FAQs

You must log-in to your AAFS account at accounts.aafs.org/sign-in to access your subscription. Once logged in, you will see a button, "Access the Journal of Forensic Sciences." That will take you directly to Wiley where you access thousands of articles. 

Non-members can obtain a JFS Digital Subscription through our publisher, Wiley. JFS subscription options for non-members can be accessed here. 

To ensure you receive the full benefit of your JFS Digital Subscription, and to enable real-time receipt of all your JFS content notifications (e-TOCs, Early View Articles, etc.), register for your JFS e-alerts. To activate your JFS e-alerts, please follow the easy "1, 2, 3" instructions provided here.

​​​​​​There are no fees to publish an article in JFS. However, for authors who would like to have their article freely available to everyone, including those who don't subscribe, JFS offers an Open Access option. Authors who choose to publish using Open Access will pay an article publication charge (APC). A list of benefits of publishing Open Access and APC pricing are available here.   

The only restriction JFS has on content length is for the abstract, which should not exceed 250 words. The length of the article itself varies submission to submission, with the manuscript type playing a role (i.e., Critical Review, Paper, Technical Note, Case Report). What is asked of the respective author(s) is that each article be of the shortest length required to contain all useful and relevant information. Supplemental information is published online and generally includes extended methods, datasets, statistical analysis and lab results, making it possible for other researchers to reproduce your findings.

​​​​​​New JFS articles are published in Early View as soon as the typesetting process of an accepted article has been completed and the author has provided corrections/signed off on the proof. Early View allows readers to access peer-reviewed articles faster, well before an article is allocated for an issue. The articles are searchable and can be cited by their digital object identifier (DOI).

JFS leadership realizes the importance of TAT, and efforts to improve TAT are continuous. JFS performance metrics: 

• Average days from submission to first decision:  37 days
• Average days from submission to final decision:  50 days
• Average days from final decision to online publication:  16 days 

Additional JFS stats are available here