A Suggested Quality Assurance Protocol for Radiocarbon Dating Laboratories

Open Access

1 January 1990

journal article
other
Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Radiocarbon

Vol. 32 (3) , 329-334
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200012960

Abstract

The current intercomparison of data from ¹⁴C laboratories reveals significant variability among liquid scintillation laboratories, suggesting that identical samples submitted to different laboratories may yield values that differ by much more than expected on a purely statistical basis. Erroneous dates (recently corrected) by a well-established ¹⁴C laboratory give rise to further concern for quality ¹⁴C data. Thus, it is incumbent on each laboratory to develop and implement a quality assurance and control (QA/QC) program in order to ensure accuracy of results and to alert lab personnel to problems.

Keywords

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:

High-Precision Calibration of the Radiocarbon Time Scale, AD 1950–500 BC
Radiocarbon, 1986
Discussion Reporting of ¹⁴C Data
Radiocarbon, 1977