REFERENCE DATA SETS FOR CHEMOMETRICAL METHODS TESTING

There is a need for the chemometrics community to have sets of referen ce data that have known or well characterized properties. These data s ets can then be used to test the utility and efficiency of new methods such that they can be compared with previous results on the same data . A depository for such data sets has been established by the Editors of Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems with several data s ets being the initial entries. These data include several sets for pat tern recognition studies (Italian olive oils and human thyroid functio n test results) and the simulated data sets created for testing models that apportion airborne particulate matter mass to particle emission sources (receptor models). The criteria and procedures for the additio n of new data sets to the collection are presented along with the mech anism for obtaining such data and restrictions on their use.