ABSTRACT
A collaborative study is the validation of an analytical method by several laboratories. Collaborative studies are generally considered the ultimate in method validation and are required by most organizations before a method is accepted as official, final. Collaborative studies are also termed interlaboratory studies, round robins. The objective of a true collaborative study is to evaluate a given protocol so that all variables are held as constant as possible. In a true collaborative study, where the objective is to evaluate the method performance, the statistical evaluation summarizes the precision, accuracy, and any other performance measures and then attempts to evaluate potential sources of error. The collaborative study reported by Delfino and Easty focused on the analysis of Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) in paper mill effluents. The collaborative study, was operating at the lower limit of instrumental sensitivity where precision is poor and also employed samples containing about 80 PCB congeners in a matrix containing many other chlorinated compounds.
