The Analytical Methods Committee (AMC) is the technical arm of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Analytical Division. The AMC’s Technical Briefs are a useful, practical source of information on statistical tools for analytical chemists, as well as providing guidance on specific analytical techniques. Recent topics include the use of non-parametric statistics, immunoassays and the characterisation of nanoparticles.
The brief that I’ve referred to most frequently during training sessions for clients is headed: ‘Is my calibration linear?’ and was published in 2005. It warns against over-reliance on the correlation coefficient as a means of evaluating the linearity of detector response, and offers some useful tips on how to evaluate linearity robustly. All the AMC’s technical briefs are available free of charge here.