ASMS 1980

28th ASMS Conference, May 25 - 30, 1980, New York, NY pp. 751-753[1]

Report on Meeting of Committee III on Nomenclature New York, May 26, 1980

32 members attended.

The Chairman reminded the meeting that, following the reactivation of the Committee, a Workshop was held at the Seattle meeting in 1979. Several recommendations were made to the Directors and they decided as follows

1. That every assistance be given to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry in formulating nomenclature, especially when this has interdisiplinary implications.
2. That ASMS should give a lead in recommending terms that are of use mainly or exclusively in mass spectroscopy and that a start should be made as soon as possible in cataloguing terms (and any recommended abbreviations).
3. That lists of such terms should be issued on a regular basis by ASMS.
4. That a preliminary list of terms for selected areas should be generated by the appointed Chairman and circulated to ASMS members, before the New York meeting, for their comments.
5. After the New York meeting, the Nomenclature Committee will make recommendations for acceptance to the ASMS Board of Directors. If the Board agrees, the recommended term or definition can be issued; if not, the term will need to be reconsidered (or dropped). 6. That all recommendations should be in the English language. Terms accepted by the Board of Directors should be circulated for information to all other National Mass Spectroscopy Groups.

A preliminary list of terms covering suggested nomenclature for the fields of (i) ionization (ii) ion/molecule processes and (iii) types of ions, had been prepared by the Chairman and circulated to all members. A variety of comments had been received which were read to the members present at the meeting. In some cases, alternative terms to those on the list had been suggested; some additional terms had also been put forward.

A helpful letter had been received. from the Chairman of ASTM Committee E-14 enclosing a draft of their 'Standard Recommended Practice for combined Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometer Terms' for comments. After a full discussion, it was decided unanimously that no term should be on the recommended list unless it was defined. For many of the terms the definition could be very short. There was no lack of volunteers to write the definitions.

It was reported to the meeting that an independent group had met recently and had decided upon the nomenclature (and abbreviations) that they would use in future in the area of instrumentation. The Chairman suggested that he should write to the convener of this meeting to see how many of these terms could be recommended.

The Committee then decided on the following actions

1. Lists of terms should be generated, and definitions written, to cover the various areas as follows :

a) Ionization nomenclature. Probe methods.

Harry J. Svec

b) Ion/molecule processes. Scanning methods.

Robert K. Boyd and Ray E. March

c) Types of ions.

Norman Foster

d) Mass analysis

Herman Curtis

e) Detection of ions. Instrumentation. Sample introduction.

John Roboz

f) Vacuum system.

Mike Story

g) Data systems. Data manipulation.

Alan Carrick

The Chairman will send copies of his preliminary list of.terms to the people concerned with a), b) and c) and copies of all comments received to each volunteer. Definitions will be sent to the Chairman by September 1, 1980 so that he can edit them to a uniform style.

The edited definitions and terms wili be circulated to all members before the meeting in Minneapolis in 1981 so that they may send any comments they may have to the Chairman. Depending upon the comments received, the Chairman will prepare three lists of terms for consideration by Committee III on Nomenclature at the Minneapolis meeting.

1. Terms recommended for approval.
2. Terms not recommended.
3. Terms for which further discussion is necessary.

It is hoped that, fo1lowing our Committee's meeting at Minneapolis, a 'final list of recommended terms can be prepared for submission for approval to the ASMS Directors.

2. The Chairman will write to the independent group who have decided on the nomenclature they are intending to adopt, asking for a copy of their decisions. He will send this, as appropriate, to the volunteers who are writing our definitions. It is hoped that, in future, groups wishing to make progress in nomenclature will be persuaded that it is in the best interests of all, if they work through Committee III.

3. When the list of definitions is circulated to ASMS members, they will be asked to suggest additional terms that need definition and other areas of mass spectroscopy to be covered.

It was emphasized that it is not the purpose of the Committee to legislate against the use of any expression couched in generally accepted English. Thus it might be expected that, in.many cases, alternative expressions would be accept.able. For example, both 'collisional activation' and 'collision induced dissociation' might appear as recommended terms.

On the other hand, the increasing use of invented jargon and the unnecessary use of abbreviations was deplored. The primary purpose should always be clarity rather than brevity and to make mass spectrometric papers understandable to the widest possible audience. Members-were reminded of the recommendation made at last year's Workshop that no abbreviation should ever be used in a paper unless it needs to be employed at least five times.