How to cite

Citing a specimen

Name the holding institution, the collection the record belongs to, and the catalogue number. Where an institution has supplied its own preferred wording, that wording appears on the record page and takes precedence over the pattern below.

Holding institution. Collection. Catalogue no. NNNN.

Worked example

Facultad de Medicina, UNAM. FAC MED (UNAM-MEX). catalogue no. UNAM-2.

The record this example was built from

If it helps your reader find the record, you may add the FOROST address for it after the institutional citation. Add it as a locator, not as the source.

Citing a search

Searches are plain links, so a result set can be cited by its address and reproduced exactly. Give the query as well as the address, and give the date you ran it: the underlying records are corrected and added to over time, so a count you report today may not be the count a reader gets.

https://v2.forost.org/search.php?q=perimortem%20sharp%20force%20cranium (accessed 2 November 2026)

The chips shown above your results record how the query was read. If you are reporting a count, say which interpretation produced it: two differently worded queries can resolve to the same search, and one wrong reading changes the number.

Citing the database itself

Cite FOROST when the database is what you are actually discussing: its coverage, its structure, its usefulness as a finding aid. For the specimens it indexes, cite their holders.

FOROST: Forensic Osteology Metabase. https://v2.forost.org (accessed 2 November 2026)

Images and permission

Photographs belong to the contributing institution or photographer, and any rights statement supplied with an image is shown beside it. Reproducing an image in a publication needs permission from the rights holder named there, not from FOROST.

If a record carries no rights statement, ask the holding institution before reproducing anything from it.