Eurachem Guides & other Documents

Return to the guides, documents and links overview

Eurachem Guides Eurachem Documents Links to other Documents					Quantifying Uncertainty in Analytical Measurement, 2nd Edition (2000)

The first version of this guide, which was published in 1995, has been very well received. It has been very widely used and two successful workshops on its utilisation have been held since its publication. Following from these workshops and the many helpful comments the working group has received on the contents of the first edition, many significant changes and improvements have been made in this second edition. The most important change deals with the use of method performance data and in particular the use of method validation data, from both collaborative validation studies and from in-house studies. The new sections dealing with the use of method performance data show that in many cases such data gives all, or nearly all information required to evaluate the uncertainty. The format of the guide is very similar to that of the first edition with chapters 1 and 2 dealing with the scope and the concept of uncertainty as before. Chapter 3, Analytical Measurement and Uncertainty, is completely new and covers the process of method validation and conduct of experimental studies to determine method performance and their relationship to uncertainty estimation. There is also a new section on traceability. The chapter on uncertainty estimation in the previous guide has been considerably expanded and split into four separate chapters, dealing with the four steps involved in estimating uncertainty. Step 1 deals with the specification of the measurand, Step 2 with identifying the uncertainty sources, Step 3, which has been considerably expanded to cover the use of existing method validation data, deals with quantifying the uncertainty and Step 4 covers the calculation of the combined uncertainty. The examples have been completely revised and new ones added. They are now all in a standard format, which follow the four steps described above. They all utilise the cause and effect diagram as an aid to identifying the sources of uncertainty and to ensuring that all the significant ones are included in the evaluation of the uncertainty. In addition a web site has been set up (http://www.measurementuncertainty.org) which contains an indexed HTML version of the Guide. This site hosts a discussion forum on the application of the guide and has a section for the publication of additional examples.

Availability: You may download the guide from this website at no cost (pdf, 730kB) or order a printed hardcopy from the Eurachem Secretariat, price per copy: 35 Euro, plus postage & packing (5 Euro for EU customers, 10 Euro for European non-EU customers, and 15 Euro for customers from other countries, for 1-3 copies). For UK prices and orders please contact VAM.

Translations: The 2nd edition (2000) has been translated into Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Swedish, and is intended to be translated into German. The 1st edition (1995) has been translated into Czech, Lithuanian, Russian and Spanish. The Italian translation can be downloaded from the Istituto di Metrologia G. Colonnetti site (www.imgc.cnr.it/Mchimica/Eurachem/QUAM_italiano.pdf). For details about the translation of the 2nd edition of the Guide into Russian please contact Dr. Rouvim Kadis from the D. I. Mendeleyev Institute for Metrology. For details about the other translations please contact the Eurachem representative in the respective country or the Eurachem Secretariat.

Eurachem Home | © Eurachem 2002