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EnglishAre the Resources in the Analytical Sciences Digital Library Peer-Reviewed?
Updated
Yes. The Analytical Sciences Digital Library (ASDL) describes itself as a collection of peer-reviewed resources for teaching analytical chemistry, and its materials are contributed by analytical sciences educators and researchers. That peer-review label is the main reason to treat ASDL as a citable, quality-controlled source rather than a random file dump—but it applies to the library's reviewed instructional materials, not to every page or link you might click through to.
What "peer-reviewed" covers here
ASDL's own description of itself is explicit: peer-reviewed labware, courseware, videos, web resources, and active learning materials intended to complement analytical chemistry courses. The review is tied to the instructional resource, so the relevant question when you use something is whether the specific item was reviewed, not whether the whole site carries a blanket guarantee.
The library also states that its resources have been contributed by analytical sciences educators and researchers since 1998, and that ASDL editors develop and share material. Two separate roles are worth distinguishing:
- Contributors supply the labs, modules, datasets, and activities.
- Editors select, develop, and share the breadth of material that appears in the library.
Peer review sits between those two: it is the step that turns a submitted teaching resource into a library item.
Why the review matters for teaching materials
Teaching resources fail in ways that are easy to miss until you are standing in front of a class:
- A procedure that works on the author's instrument but not on yours.
- A dataset with an error that sends students to the wrong conclusion.
- An activity whose stated learning objective does not match what students actually practice.
Peer review is a filter against those problems. It does not certify that a lab will run identically in your setting, but it means another qualified person in the field looked at the content before it was published. For a curriculum decision—adopting a module, assigning a dataset, replacing a lab—that is a meaningful difference from an unreviewed web page.
How to use the review status when choosing resources
| Situation | What the peer-review label tells you | What you still need to check |
|---|---|---|
| Adopting a learning module or e-book | Content passed review by the analytical sciences community | Fit with your course level and sequence |
| Adding a remote lab or e-labware | Reviewed as instructional material | Compatibility with your instruments and software |
| Assigning a dataset or problem set | Reviewed for instructional use | Whether the data matches your learning objectives |
| Following an external web resource | Listed by ASDL, but review status may differ from a full module | Treat linked external sites on their own merits |
The practical rule: use the peer-reviewed status to narrow your shortlist, then verify fit yourself. Review is a quality signal, not a substitute for testing a lab in your own course.
Where the review comes from
ASDL is supported by the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (ACS), and the library has operated as a community effort since 1998. That backing explains the review model: resources are vetted within the same community that uses them, rather than by a separate publishing staff. If you want to know whether a specific item was reviewed, the item's own listing is the place to confirm it—the library's peer-reviewed framing describes the collection, and individual entries carry their own provenance.