An interpretation of ISO guidelines for the certification of geological reference materials

Recommendations for the certification of reference materials, as published by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), are reviewed a nd proposals made as to how they can be adapted for the certification of ne w geological reference materials. Whilst acknowledging the important contri bution made by the large number of existing matrix-matched geological refer ence materials, it is recommended that future characterisation programmes s hould follow the ISO guidelines for certification, not the least so that la boratories can readily use the resultant samples to establish the traceabil ity of geoanalytical results.