Forensic statistics analysis toolbox (FORSTAT): A streamlined workflow for forensic statistics

Abstract

The evaluation of genetic markers for use in forensics is essential for their application in human identification or kinship testing. This evaluation is still largely done in the MS Excel tool Powerstats v1.2 which requires large time and labour inputs. Here we present FORSTAT v1.0 (available at https://fdl-uwc.shinyapps.io/forstat/), a webtool that processes diploid data in a timely fashion and reduces analyst error by reducing responsibilities. FORSTAT is shown to overcome the limitations of Powerstats v1.2, drastically reduce analysis time and display the least inconsistencies between analysts.