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Quantifying Uncertainty in Analytical Measurement, 2nd Edition (2000)

NOTE: This version of "Quantifying Uncertainty in Analytical Chemistry has been superseded by the Third Edition, published in 2012. The third edition can be found here.

Contents

This guide was produced by a joint EURACHEM/CITAC Measurement Uncertainty Working Group in collaboration with representatives from AOAC International, IAEA, and EA. Production of the guide was in part supported under the contract with the UK Department of Trade and Industry as part of the National Measurement System Valid Analytical Measurement (VAM) Programme.

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 received on the contents of the first edition, many significant changes and improvementswere made in this second edition. The most important change dealt 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 showed that in many cases such data gives all, or nearly all information required to evaluate the uncertainty. The format of the guide was 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, was completely new and covers the process of method validation and conduct of experimental studies to determine method performance and their relationship to uncertainty estimation. A new section on traceability was also added. The chapter on uncertainty estimation in the previous guide was 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 were completely revised and new ones added. They are 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.

Availability

You may download the guide from this website at no cost (pdf, 730kB).  Printed copies may still be available while stock lasts 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 the UK NMS Chemical and Biological Metrology programme publications page.

Translations

The 2nd edition (2000) was translated into Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Swedish. The 1st edition (1995) was translated into Czech, Lithuanian, Russian and Spanish.

Different language versions of the 2nd edition available on this site are

The Portuguese version can, in addition to the link listed above, be found on the Eurachem Portugal website. For details about the translation of the 2nd edition of the Guide into Russian please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 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.

* Originally published on the INRIM website (at http://www.inrim.it/biblio/eurachem/index_i.shtml) - search http://www.inrim.it for current link. 

Details
Category: Withdrawn and superseded guidance
Last Updated: Tuesday, 23 May 2023 16:02