AMC Technical Briefs
AMC Technical Briefs provide reliable and up-to-date technical information about aspects of analytical science for members of the Analytical Division and the wider analytical community. Areas covered by AMC Technical Briefs mainly reflect the activities of the various AMC Expert Working Groups and concentrate on items that are important for analytical scientists, currently topical, or not readily available from other sources.
AMC Technical Briefs are carefully drafted by expert working groups and then separately peer reviewed by the whole AMC before final approval and publication. Apart from their general application, they can comprise a very useful addition to CPD records.
AMC Technical Briefs published since 2012 are included in Analytical Methods and are freely available to download from the Journal site via the link below.
Please note that you can directly access the HTML version of the Technical Brief from Analytical Methods, but the PDF version may require you to sign in through your Personal UUÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ Publishing Account if you do not have access through your institution.
AMC Technical Briefs may be freely reproduced and distributed in exactly the same form as published here, in print or electronic media, without formal permission from the UUÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ of Chemistry. Copies must not be offered for sale and the copyright notice must not be removed or obscured in any way. Any other reuse of this document, in whole or in part, requires permission in advance from the UUÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ of Chemistry.
Related Links
(2012 – present)
Downloadable Files
Thermal desorption part 1: introduction and instrumentation
No. 97 - July 2020
An introduction to hand-held infra-red and Raman Instrumentation
No. 94, March 2020
Hand-held X-ray fluorescence spectrometry
No. 89 - April 2019
A ‘Periodic Table’ of mass spectrometry instrumentation and acronyms
No. 81 – August 2017
Electronic poster version of the Mass Spectrometry Periodic Table
No. 81 – August 2017
Portable X-ray fluorescence analysis
No. 41, June 2009
High-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS)
No 34, November 2008
No 29 April 2008
Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDXRF)
No. 21, September 2005
Experimental design and optimisation (5): an introduction to optimisation
No. 95 - April 2020
To p or not to p: the use of p-values in analytical science
No. 93, January 2020
The edge of reason: reporting and inference near the detection limit
No. 92, December 2019
Why do we need the uncertainty factor?
No. 88 - March 2019
No. 87 - March 2019
No. 82 - September 2017
No. 74 – May 2016
AMC Datasets—a resource for analytical scientists
No. 72 - January 2016
An analyst's guide to precision
No. 70 - August 2015
Using the Grubbs and Cochran tests to identify outliers
No. 69 - June 2015
Fitness for purpose: the key feature in analytical proficiency testing
No. 68 - June 2015
Unbalanced robust ANOVA for the estimation of measurement uncertainty at reduced cost
No. 64 - July 2014
The "Phase-of-the-Moon" paradox in uncertainty Estimation
No. 61 - March 2014
An introduction to non-parametric statistics
No. 57 - September 2013
What causes most errors in chemical analysis?
No. 56 - May 2013
Experimental design and optimisation (4): Plackett-Burman designs
No. 55 - March 2013
No. 53 August 2012
No. 52 - August 2012
Robust regression: An introduction
No. 50, January 2012
No. 49, March 2011; revised May 2011
Rogues and Suspects: How to Tackle Outliers
No 39, March 2009
Significance, importance and power
No 38, March 2009
Experimental Design and Optimisation (3): Some Fractional Factorial Designs
No 36, February 2009
Optimising your uncertainty - a case study
No. 32, July 2008
The standard deviation of the sum of several variables
No. 30 April 2008
No. 27, June 2007
Measurement uncertainty and confidence intervals near natural limits
No. 26A Former AMC Recommendation re-issued as a Technical Brief in September 2008
Experimental design and optimisation (2): handling uncontrolled factors
No. 26, December 2006
How good were analysts in the good old days before instrumentation?
No. 25, October 2006
Experimental design and optimisation (1): an introduction to some basic concepts
No. 24, June 2006
Mixture models for describing multimodal data
No. 23, March 2006
Uncertainties in concentrations estimated from calibration experiments
No. 22, March 2006
The estimation and use of recovery factors
No. 21A Former AMC Recommendation re-issued as a Technical Brief in September 2008
No. 19A Former AMC Recommendation re-issued as a Technical Brief in September 2008
What is proficiency testing? A guide for end-users of chemical data
No 18A. Former Background Paper reissued as Tachnical Brief 18A, July 2008
GMO Proficiency testing: Interpreting z-scores derived from log-transformed data
No. 18, December 2004
No. 17, July 2004
Proficiency testing: assessing z-scores in the longer term
No. 16, April 2004 revised April 2007
Is my uncertainty estimate realistic?
No. 15, December 2003
A glimpse into Bayesian statistics
No. 14, October 2003
No. 12, March 2003
Understanding and acting on scores obtained in proficiency testing schemes
No. 11, December 2002
Fitting a linear functional relationship to data with error on both variables
No. 10, March 2002
No. 9, February 2002
No. 8, August 2001
Robust statistics: a method of coping with outliers
No. 6, April 2001
What should be done with results below the detection limit?
No. 5, April 2001Representing data distributions with kernel density estimates
No. 4, Revised March 2006
No. 3, Revised December 2005
The zL-score--combining your proficiency test results with your own fitness for purpose criterion
No. 2, Revised December 2005
What’s novel in the new Eurachem guide on uncertainty from sampling?
No. 96 - April 2020
The role of accreditation in ensuring sampling quality
No. 90 - June 2019
Beam sampling: taking samples at the micro-scale
No. 84 - February 2018
Representative sampling? Views from a regulator and a measurement scientist
No. 73 June 2016
Sampling theory and sampling uncertainty
No. 71 - November 2015
Sample stability studies for environmental analysis
No. 65 - January 2015
How continuous should 'continuous monitoring' be?
No. 47, March 2010
The Duplicate Method for the estimation of measurement uncertainty arising from sampling
No. 40, June 2009
Measurement Uncertainty arising from sampling: the new Eurachem Guide
No 31, July 2008
Analytical and sampling strategy, fitness for purpose, and computer games
No. 20, August 2005
Terminology - the key to understanding analytical science. Part 21: Sampling and sample preparation
No. 19, March 2005
What is uncertainty from sampling, and why is it important?
No 16A. Former Background Paper reissued as Technical Brief 16A, July 2008
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in cultural heritage
No. 91 – November 2019
Analytical pyrolysis in cultural heritage
No. 85 - October 2018
Identification of plastics in cultural heritage collections by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)
No. 83 - January 2018
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) in cultural heritage
No. 80 – July 2017
X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of porcelain: Background paper
No. 77 – March 2017
UV-visible-NIR reflectance spectrophotometry in cultural heritage: Background paper
No.75 – July 2016
Raman spectroscopy in cultural heritage: Background paper
No. 67 - May 2015
Heritage Science – an introduction
No. 66 - February 2015
No. 60 - March 2014
Estimating sampling uncertainty – how many duplicate samples are needed?
No. 58 - January 2014
Revision of the International System of Units (Background paper)
No. 86 - March 2019
No. 76 – October 2016
No. 13, September 2003
dPCR – the digital polymerase chain reaction
No. 79 – June 2017
PCR - the polymerase chain reaction
No. 59 - January 2014
iImmunoanalysis - Part 2 : Basic Principles of ELISA
No. 45, February 2010
Immunoanalysis - Part 1 : What are antibodies
No 44, February 2010
The characterisation of nanoparticles
No. 48. December 2010
Analysis of asbestos-containing materials by light microscopy
No. 43, October 2009
DNA - an analytical chemist's view
No 35, Re-issued March 2009
Standard additions: myth and reality
No 37, March 2009
Checking the quality of contracted-out analysis
No. 54 - September 2012
Quality Control of routine sampling in chemical analysis
No. 51 - August 2012
Internal quality control in routine analysis
No. 46, February 2010
The importance, for regulation, of uncertainty from sampling
No. 42, October 2009
MCERTS: The Environment Agency's Monitoring Certification Scheme
No 33 October 2008
Test for 'sufficient homogeneity' in a reference material
No 17A, Former AMC Recommendation re-issued as a Technical Brief in September 2008
Using analytical instruments and systems in a regulated environment
No. 28, September 2007
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