Editorial policy

Scope

This site publishes reference material on analytical testing methods and the documents they produce. It describes measurement techniques, their outputs and their limits. It is written for readers who encounter certificates of analysis and want to know what they establish.

What is out of scope, permanently

• Any statement about the effects of any substance on humans or animals.
• Dosing, administration, reconstitution, handling or storage guidance.
• Recommendations, rankings or comparisons of suppliers, brands or laboratories.
• Claims about the legal status of any substance in any jurisdiction.
• Sourcing information of any kind.

These exclusions are structural rather than editorial caution. This site is about a class of document and the chemistry behind it; the subjects above belong to other disciplines and to people qualified in them.

Sourcing

Technical claims describe standard, non-controversial analytical practice — the operating principles of chromatography and mass spectrometry, compendial test definitions, and the published content of accreditation standards. Where a figure is illustrative rather than measured, it is labelled as such on the page.

Fictional reference material

The records in the lookup tool, the annotated certificate and every laboratory name on this site are invented for teaching purposes. Lot identifiers are prefixed EXAMPLE- so that none can be confused with a real lot. No real product, supplier or laboratory is described, assessed or implied anywhere on this site.

Interest and funding

This reference is published and funded by VERAX Research, which supplies research compounds. That is a direct commercial interest in the subject matter, and it is stated here and on the disclosure page rather than left to be discovered.

What that interest does not extend to: no advertising is carried, no sponsorship is accepted, no affiliate relationship exists, no commission is earned, and no third-party laboratory or supplier has reviewed, funded or influenced any page. No page links to a product, including ours.

The standards described here are checkable against sources independent of the publisher — the operating principles of the techniques, compendial test definitions, and the published text of the accreditation standards. That is the appropriate remedy for an interested publisher: not a claim of neutrality, but material you can verify without trusting us.

Corrections

Errors are corrected on the page where they appear, with a dated note recording what changed. Substantive corrections are not made silently. A correction request should identify the specific sentence and the basis for the correction.