International Survey of QA/QC Practices in GC–MS Metabolomics

85 laboratories from 27 countries participated in a survey characterizing quality assurance and quality control practices for gas chromatography–mass spectrometry metabolomics. The survey, conducted by the Metabolomic Quality Assurance and Quality Control Consortium, reveals that over 90% of labs use internal standards and perform regular leak checks. A strong consensus on critical practices provides evidence-based recommendations for high-quality GC–MS metabolomics.

Use Cases

• Benchmarking laboratory QA/QC protocols based on the reported adoption rates of practices like internal standards and leak checks.
• Designing standardized reporting guidelines for metabolomics studies based on the identified consensus practices.
• Evaluating the prevalence of analytical techniques like multidimensional chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry across the field.
• Informing instrument procurement and method development decisions based on the survey's characterization of common laboratory setups.

Strengths

• Survey responses from 85 laboratories across 27 countries, providing a broad international perspective.
• Specific metrics on practice adoption, such as >90% of labs using internal standards and >50% routinely monitoring method blanks.
• Detailed breakdown of analytical techniques, including that 24% of participants used multidimensional chromatography.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data scale is limited to 51.8 KB, indicating a small, survey-summary dataset rather than raw experimental data.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

International survey conducted by the Metabolomic Quality Assurance and Quality Control Consortium (mQACC).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-24 20:30:38; freshness should be verified.

Geography

27 countries