I have finally embarked in earnest on the quest to unite ASMS and IUPAC to get the MS terms and definitions situation in order. It has been about a dozen years since there was a general agreement on MS terminology and there has been just a little bit of change in the field in the mean time. Fortunately, we in the mass spectrometry and analytical chemistry communities have quite a bit more information technology to draw on since the last terminology go round.
For starters, the IUPAC recommendations for MS terms can be found on line in Chapter 12 of the “Orange Book” entitled Compendium of Analytical Nomenclature. Be forewarned, though: the index in hypertext, but the text is in PDF so get ready for some downloads.
The Old ASMS Terms and Definitions glossary (that was on the ASMS website until June of 2000) can still be found in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. I took the liberty of copying the hypertext into a Quicktopic Document Review comment forum as a way to start discussion.
Other important documents are David Sparkman’s book “The Mass Spectrometry Desk Reference” and reviews of this book in The Journal of Chemical Education and Trends in Biotechnology. Phil Price’s JASMS article is “Standard Definitions of Terms Relating to Mass Spectrometry,” J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 1991, 2, 336, which can be found on the JASMS site if you can remember how to log on (I can’t).
I am an associate membership of the IUPAC Analytical Chemistry Division and an at-large member of the ASMS board. Feel free to contact me in either, both, or neither of these capacities at kmurray@ch335c.chem.lsu.edu. I will also post any feedback on the MS Blog if you like.
– Kermit Murray