Abstract
Several trends have been evident during the review period. There was a marked decrease in the number of papers describing applications of chemometric procedures, speciation using gas chromatography (though not speciation using liquid chromatography) and solid sampling using arcs and sparks. The number of publications describing applications involving some form of sample pretreatment, either on-line or batch, such as matrix removal, preconcentration or vapour generation, was similar to previous years. Similarly, applications involving lasers maintained their popularity. There were very few novel developments in instrumentation, with the only significant trend of note being that towards miniaturisation.