Current events

From MS Terms

All terms | IUPAC 2013 | Gold Book terms | Orange Book terms | Acronyms | Deprecated terms | Obsolete terms | Draft definitions | Stub pages

February 2024

Page moved to kermitmurray.com domain and updated with mobile device-friendly skin.[1]

June 2022

ASMS poster on resolution and resolving power.[2] See also ASMS 2022 Resolution.

July 2019

Mobile device capabilities enabled. Moved to new server.

June 2018

More than 10 million page views!

February 2016

More than 1000 terms in Category:Mass spectrometry terms.

October 2015

MS Terms website passes 5 million visits.

September 2015

K. K. Murray "The term 'multiple reaction monitoring' is recommended" Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 2015, 29, 1926-1928; http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rcm.7297 is online.

July 10, 2014

This wiki has been up for 10 years!

June 10, 2013

ASMS 2013 Poster, MP 364: Final Report on the IUPAC Recommendation on Definitions of Terms Relating To Mass Spectrometry, Kermit K. Murray; Robert K. Boyd; Marcos N. Eberlin; G. John Langley; Liang Li; and Yasuhide Naito.

June 6, 2013

Definitions of terms relating to mass spectrometry (IUPAC Recommendations 2013) published online in Pure and Applied Chemistry.

March 6, 2013

Definitions of Terms Relating to Mass Spectrometry (IUPAC Recommendations 2013), accepted for publication in Pure and Applied Chemistry.

June 20, 2012

Revision 7 of Standard Definitions of Terms Related to Mass Spectrometry submitted to Pure and Applied Chemistry.

February 17, 2011

Revision 6 of Standard Definitions of Terms Related to Mass Spectrometry submitted to Pure and Applied Chemistry.

March 20, 2010

Glossary of Terms for Separations Coupled to Mass Spectrometry published in the Journal of Chromatography.

July 7, 2009

MS Terms Wiki back online.

March 20, 2009

Revision 5 of Standard Definitions of Terms Related to Mass Spectrometry submitted to Pure and Applied Chemistry.

December 10, 2008

Revision 4 of Standard Definitions of Terms Related to Mass Spectrometry submitted to Pure and Applied Chemistry.

October 6, 2008

Revision 3 of Standard Definitions of Terms Related to Mass Spectrometry submitted to Pure and Applied Chemistry.

May 14, 2008

Revision 2 of Standard Definitions of Terms Related to Mass Spectrometry submitted to Pure and Applied Chemistry.

November 8, 2007

Revision 1 of Standard Definitions of Terms Related to Mass Spectrometry submitted to Pure and Applied Chemistry. Wiki closed to further comments.

May 31, 2006

Presentations at the 2006 ASMS Conference

  • Poster
Standard Definitions of Terms Related to Mass Spectrometry (PDF Handout)
Poster #8
Monday - Thursday
  • Interest Group Meeting:
Convention Center Room 618
Wednesday, May 31
12:15 - 1:30

April 23, 2006

Standard Definitions of Terms Related to Mass Spectrometry submitted to Pure and Applied Chemistry.

March 22, 2006

The SecondDraft (PDF): IUPAC Standard Definitions of Terms Relating to Mass Spectrometry is now available.

June 12, 2005

From the San Antonio American Society for Mass Spectrometry National Meeting, June 4 - 9:

Draft (PDF): IUPAC Standard Definitions of Terms Relating to Mass Spectrometry
Poster: Standard Definitions of Terms Relating to Mass Spectrometry
Poster (PDF): Standard Definitions of Terms Relating to Mass Spectrometry
Workshop: Mass Spectrometry Terms

Comments on the ASMS 2005 Poster

I presume the words mass spectroscopy will be deleted from all descriptions of mass spectrometry'.
Quasi-molecular ion? Does it come from a quasi-molecule?
Resolving power is m/Δm! Because in all other kinds of spectra its Freq/ΔFreq. Mass Spec shouldnt be different! Resolution is peak witdth or distance between two peaks of the same height and width as in optical spectra.
Error in the mass resolution panel both resolution and resolving power are defined as m/Δm
"Correction: thomson is not unitless. Considering m/z to be unitless is bad metrology and bad terminology. It is equivalent to defining the meter to be a unitless quantity. I could write at length on this.
"How about relative resolution or relative resolving power to be m/Δm and absolute resolution to be Δm. That leaves resolution and resolving power as ambiguous, i.e. to mean either Δm or m/Δm."
"What is the correct nomenclature for multipoles? E.g. octapole, octopole, octupole?"

March 27, 2005

The poster presentation from the ACS Spring 2005 Meeting in San Diego has been posted.

November 23, 2004

The MediaWiki software was updated. Settings were changed to require user login prior to editing. This will make it easier to track the edits and comments.

November 17, 2004

Poster and abstract from the BMSS 2004 Meeting posted.

September 22, 2004

The msterms.com main page moves from PHPNuke to MediaWiki format. The Wiki approach seems to be a good one for collaboration on the mass spectrometry terms project. The forums page (running under PHPbb) has been extracted and now exists as a stand-alone general forum. The old site still exists, but the information is being ported over to the new format site.

June 23, 2004

Report from the MS Terms and Definitions Workshop posted.

June 2, 2004

An e-mail discussion list for mass spectrometry terms has been created. To subscribe send an e-mail message to majordomo@msterms.com with the word 'subscribe msterms-l' as the first and only line in the message.

May 31, 2004

The IUPAC project "Standard definitions of terms relating to mass spectrometry" was introduced at the 2004 American Society for Mass Spectrometry meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, May 23 to 27, 2004. A poster presentation entitled "Updating the List of Terms and Definitions for Mass Spectrometry" was on display all week. A workshop was held on Tuesday, May 25 with presentations by Phil Price, Kermit Murray, David Sparkman, and Randy Julian. A web version of Kermit Murray's presentation "IUPAC Project 'Standard definitions of terms relating to mass spectrometry'" is online. After the Workshop, the IUPAC Task group for the project met for the first time to outline the scope of the project and assign initial tasks and responsibilities.

May 18, 2004

The MS Terms Project has a brief write-up in the May-June Chemistry International publication.

March 25, 2004

Statistics on Parent-Daughter vs. Precursor-Product

March 6, 2004

This project now has a number and a page at IUPAC:

Project: 2003-056-2-500

March 5, 2004

The CAD vs. CID argument, some data on use in the literature.

December 15, 2003

As of December 15, 2003, the domain msterms.com is up and running. The site is using PHPNuke for content management and PHPbb for the discussion forums. Some features require logging on for access. This is a fast and painless process and, if you have cookies enabled on your browser, you only need to log on once.

If you have e-mail comments about this site, send them to kkmurray@lsu.edu, otherwise, give the forums a try.

Kermit Murray

September 26, 2003

Project proposal Standard Definitions of Terms Relating to Mass Spectrometry submitted to IUPAC.


Conference Schedule

American Society for Mass Spectrometry Conference, Nashville, Tennesee, USA, May 23 - 27, 2004

Workshop Report
Workshop Presentation (Murray)
MS Terms Poster

British Mass Spectrometry Society Meeting, September, 2005

BMSS 2004 Meeting Poster and Abstract

American Chemical Society Conference, San Diego, USA, March 2005

American Society for Mass Spectrometry Conference, San Antonio, Texas, USA, June 2005

World Chemical Congress, Beijing, China, August, 2005

British Mass Spectrometry Society Meeting, September, 2005

American Society for Mass Spectrometry Conference, Seattle, Washington, USA, May, 2006

International Mass Spectrometry Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, August 2006

Drafts of the Mass Spectrometry Terms Document

Working drafts were distributed and posters were presented at ASMS meetings in 2004 (with workshop), 2005 (with workshop), and 2006, BMSS meetings in 2004 and 2005, ACS in spring 2005, World Chemical Congress, Beijing, China, August, 2005, and the International Mass Spectrometry Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, August 2006. Public discussion is now closed and the mass spectrometry terms document is undergoing peer review as a submission to Pure and Applied Chemistry. It has been submitted to PAC eight times between 2006 and 2012 and is currently undergoing review of its seventh revision.

  • IUPAC Task Group MS Terms Third and Final Public Draft
External review submit draft of August 2006.
  • IUPAC Task Group MS Terms Second Public Draft
Pre-review draft March 2006.
  • Second Public Draft (ASMS Version)
Draft of May 2006 - reformatted from March 2006.
  • First Public Draft
Presented at the 2005 American Society for Mass Spectrometry meeting June 2005.
April 23, 2006
  • PAC Revision 1
November 8, 2007
  • PAC Revision 2
May 14, 2008
  • PAC Revision 3
October 6, 2008
  • PAC Revision 4
December 10, 2008
March 20, 2009
  • PAC Revision 6
February 17, 2011
June 20, 2012