Warning Flag for "Questionable Quant results" when Normalized Atomica Data Shown

[SXFiveFEJohn]

This happens periodically, someone (usually material scientist) says "I only care about atomic percents" and if I am not present, they leave with what I consider unpublishable data (the analytical totals are not in the sweet zone of 98.5/99-101). We've talked about this a few times over the years, but nothing ever gets done about it. This is a touchy subject, I understand, but we need to try to bring up the level of understanding of our students and users, who may never read a electron microprobe book or take a class.

So here's my suggestion: in the window (and printout) where normalized atomic compositions are displayed, insert a column (I'd say at the far left, after the line number, so it is immediately obvious) labeled "analytical total" (with a hover box explaining what it means to the unaware).

What say you all?

[Probeman]

This happens periodically, someone (usually material scientist) says "I only care about atomic percents" and if I am not present, they leave with what I consider unpublishable data (the analytical totals are not in the sweet zone of 98.5/99-101). We've talked about this a few times over the years, but nothing ever gets done about it. This is a touchy subject, I understand, but we need to try to bring up the level of understanding of our students and users, who may never read a electron microprobe book or take a class.

So here's my suggestion: in the window (and printout) where normalized atomic compositions are displayed, insert a column (I'd say at the far left, after the line number, so it is immediately obvious) labeled "analytical total" (with a hover box explaining what it means to the unaware).

What say you all?

I agree that educating users is a hassle, but what else can one do?

I will note that PFE always outputs elemental weight percents to the log window (in addition to atomic percents if those are specified), and in the Analyze! window the average analytical total is visible, as shown here:



I think your idea would not help much.   How about just checking the Output Wt. % Totals checkbox in the User Specified Output, so they *always* get actual totals output to Excel (in addition to atomic percents)?
john