IUPAC

The aim of this project is to provide guidelines for reporting of analytical data taking into consideration the specific issues of collecting environmental samples and the related variation with regard to sampling and field conditions. The project will contribute to uniformly reporting of data, allowing for comparative analysis enabling proper interpretation of the data.

The project aims at developing and publishing of a document that

1. gives advice on which details to report at minimum about the analytical and computational procedures including all treatments since sampling, necessary to demonstrate the validity of the results;
2. provides guidance about the information to be added about the sampling procedure, in order to document the origin of the sample and its degree of representativity;
3. defines the information to be recorded and reported that is considered necessary for a sufficient description of the sample;
4. proposes all factors to be reported that have likely had an impact on the actual concentration of the analyte.

The project has been reactivated in July 2000. A draft report is available.

Project completed - IUPAC Technical Report published in Pure Appl. Chem. 75(8), 1097-1106, 2003.