Consider the Needs of all Interested Parties

From the analyst s viewpoint, the more demanding the acceptance criteria, the higher the risk of run failure the severity of these problems increases with the number of compounds to be analyzed by a given method, since failure to meet the established run acceptance criteria for 

These generalizations are easy to understand for a trained analyst but are often difficult for a client whose main concern is to ensure that he/she is not in breach of 

F nre 9.1 Terminolt y suggested for communication of the degree of confidence concerning analyte identification to a client. At present no quantitative confidence limits and levels can be assigned to these descriptors. However, in this regard it is advisable to avoid the use of absolute terms such as detected , positive identification and absent . Reproduced from Bethem, J. Amer. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 14, 508 (2003), copyright (2003), with permission from Elsevier. 

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