Vol.
30 No. 6
November-December 2008
A Glossary of Concepts and Terms in Chemometrics
Chemometrics has been defined (by the International Chemometrics Society) as “the science of relating measurements made on a chemical system or process to the state of the system via application of mathematical or statistical methods.” With the advent of analytical instrumentation that provides many data during the course of a measurement, and increased computing power to deal with those data, chemometrics has become a recognized subdiscipline within chemistry.
Those in this growing discipline come from the fields of statistics and mathematics through to spectroscopy, process control, environmental chemistry, and clinical chemistry. There are many text books, university courses, and two journals dedicated to the subject. However, due its fast growth, the terminology for chemometrics has been coined in an ad hoc way, even resulting in the swapping of some terms for concepts (e.g., “scores” and “loadings”). The sector is also fiercely independent and any attempt to codify terminology can only be accomplished with the participation of all players.
This project proposes to approach the problem via a public wiki site, following the lead of Kermit Murray’s project on mass spectrometry. Using previous compilations as a starting point, the task group will post suggested definitions, and allow the community to comment and change (not indelibly). At the end of the consultation period, the task group will try to compile the results and publish IUPAC recommendations.
This project is a scoping exercise to determine if the “wiki” approach is likely to succeed, and to determine how the glossary can be cross referenced. Later projects will concentrate on finalizing the glossary, and perhaps writing a chapter of the Orange Book.
The first task group meeting took place during the CAC2008 conference in Montpellier, France (2 July 2008). The task group chair addressed a plenary session of the conference to announce and publicize the project. The second and final face-to-face meeting will be at the General Assembly in Glasgow in 2009.
For more information and comments, contact Brynn Hibbert <[email protected]>.
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