3rd Edition - Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence - Federal Judicial Center

Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals - decided in 1993 - was a true landmark case.  The Supreme Court ruling changed the terrain, provided a reference point for those who proposed that a court consider scientific opinion testimony, and guided those who opposed or sought to limit its use.  On paper it was a plaintiff's win: the aggressive argument by the pharmaceutical industry that only consensus or "generally accepted" opinion testimony is admissible.

Rejection of the "general acceptance" test was important but the signal more widely embraced by an increasingly conservative judiciary was the injunction that judges should be "gatekeepers"  who would verify that opinion testimony was reliable - i.e. its conclusions were reached by the methods of science.  Judges had long possessed that power, but it was rarely enforced.  But after Daubert a receptive audience of conservative judges embraced the role and acted aggressively to bar expert testimony that might earlier have been admitted with minimal judicial scrutiny. - GWC

Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, 3rd Edition
Federal Judicial Center

Table of Contents


Introduction, 1
Stephen Breyer


The Admissibility of Expert Testimony, 11
Margaret A. Berger


How Science Works, 37
David Goodstein


Reference Guide on Forensic Identification Expertise, 55
Paul C. Giannelli, Edward J. Imwinkelried, & Joseph L. Peterson


Reference Guide on DNA Identification Evidence, 129
David H. Kaye & George Sensabaugh
Reference Guide on Statistics, 211
David H. Kaye & David A. Freedman


Reference Guide on Multiple Regression, 303
Daniel L. Rubinfeld


Reference Guide on Survey Research, 359
Shari Seidman Diamond


Reference Guide on Estimation of Economic Damages, 425
Mark A. Allen, Robert E. Hall, & Victoria A. Lazear


Reference Guide on Exposure Science, 503
Joseph V. Rodricks


Reference Guide on Epidemiology, 549
Michael D. Green, D. Michal Freedman, & Leon Gordis


Reference Guide on Toxicology, 633
Bernard D. Goldstein & Mary Sue Henifin


Reference Guide on Medical Testimony, 687
John B. Wong, Lawrence O. Gostin, & Oscar A. Cabrera


Reference Guide on Neuroscience, 747
Henry T. Greely & Anthony D. Wagner


Reference Guide on Mental Health Evidence, 813
Paul S. Appelbaum


Reference Guide on Engineering, 897
Channing R. Robertson, John E. Moalli, & David L. Black


Appendix A. Biographical Information of Committee and Staff, 961