Metrology, being the science of measurement and its application, covers the experimental production and the use of quantity values in all disciplines of science and engineering, including chemistry and, not least, analytical chemistry. The metrological concepts to be applied in all sciences are defined in the 3rd edition of the International vocabulary of metrology – Basic and general concepts and associated terms (VIM) (Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology JCGM 200:2012 BIPM, Sèvres), however, the various disciplines have specialized tasks and typical laboratory procedures to meet the metrological challenges in their fields. This requires IUPAC to identify and define dedicated concepts to ensure consistent application and terminology and, therefore, these Recommendations aim at providing such concepts and terms to complement the VIM in the field of analytical chemistry.
Recommendations are given for metrological terminology and concerning the terminology of quality assurance in analytical chemistry. Terms draw on the extensive quality literature, particularly from ISO.
Keywords: Analytical chemistry; calibration; conformity assessment; interlaboratory comparison; internal quality control; measurement; measurement uncertainty; metrology; quality assurance; quality control; validation
Public review ended 31 Dec 2020
IUPAC Recommendations published in PAC, AOP 6 Aug 2021; vol. 93, no. 9, 2021, pp. 997-1048.