Analytical Chemistry 2.1

Reviewed by Wei-Cheng Hung, Assistant Professor, Southern Oregon University on 12/20/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The text does an excellent job of covering all key areas and concepts, making it a comprehensive resource for both students and instructors. It is well-organized, with material presented clearly and logically, allowing readers to follow along without feeling overwhelmed. The inclusion of an effective index and glossary is particularly helpful, as it enables students to quickly locate and review important terms. However, it might be beneficial to expand on some of the more challenging topics to ensure accessibility for students with diverse backgrounds. Additionally, while the content is thorough, covering all the material within a 10-week quarter term may be challenging; this ultimately depends on the instructor’s selection of topics. Overall, this text is a solid and accessible resource for learning analytical chemistry and serves as a valuable tool for preparing for the ACS exams.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The textbook is highly accurate in its presentation of foundational and mid-level analytical chemistry concepts. While it could benefit from updates on emerging technologies and deeper integration of real-world applications, it remains an excellent resource for both teaching and self-study. For courses requiring the latest instrumentation or more applied focus, supplementary material may be needed.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The book is thoughtfully structured, focusing on core principles of analytical chemistry while reinforcing foundational concepts from general chemistry, making updates relatively easy. Most topics and labs are based on traditional approaches, minimizing the need for frequent revisions. However, periodic updates could enhance the content by incorporating advancements in modern analytical tools, environmental applications, and data analysis methods. Overall, the book's design ensures long-term relevance while allowing for seamless adaptation to future developments.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is written in clear, accessible prose that makes it approachable even for readers without an extensive background in chemistry. Additional explanations and side graphs provide valuable support, helping readers grasp more challenging concepts. The text uses minimal jargon or technical terms, provided readers follow the chapters in order, which ensures context is consistently clear and easy to understand.

Consistency rating: 5

The textbook is highly consistent in its use of terminology and framework. The terminology remains uniform throughout and avoids confusion for readers as they progress through the chapters.

Modularity rating: 5

The textbook shows strong modularity and make it an excellent resource for flexible course design. The text is well-divided into manageable sections, with clear subheadings that help break down complex topics into smaller, digestible units. This organization allows instructors to assign specific sections at different points in the course without overwhelming students or disrupting the flow of content. Additionally, the text is not overly self-referential, meaning sections can be reorganized or taught independently of each other without causing confusion. This modularity makes the book adaptable to various teaching styles and course structures, enhancing its usability in diverse learning environments.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The book overall presents topics in a logical and clear progression that effectively supports student learning. The material builds upon foundational concepts, allowing readers to understand basic principles before advancing to more complex topics. Each chapter transitions smoothly into the next, creating a cohesive flow. While the organization follows a structure similar to most other textbooks, I personally found this arrangement helpful, and the students seemed to appreciate and enjoy the order as well.

Interface rating: 5

The text is generally free of significant interface issues and is easy to navigate and engaging for readers. Images and charts are clear and free from distortion, and the overall layout supports the content without causing distractions. However, the choice of color combinations, particularly the use of blue and green, could be more inclusive. These colors may present challenges for colorblind readers, and incorporating more colorblind-friendly options would enhance accessibility and improve the overall user experience.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Overall, there are no significant grammatical errors in the text. However, some exercise questions could be rewritten more clearly to help students better understand what is being asked. Often, students struggle to interpret the questions or know how to begin, even if the text is free of grammatical mistakes. Providing a bit more guidance in the questions would be beneficial, though this might also fall under the instructor's role to tailor the material to meet the students’ needs.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

I think the text is fairly neutral in terms of cultural sensitivity. However, I personally appreciate how Skoog et al.'s textbook introduces chemists from diverse races, ethnicities, and backgrounds worldwide. While it might be challenging to incorporate cultural sensitivity into a science textbook, adding examples like environmental monitoring or case studies could help. These additions would not only provide valuable context but also tie into themes of environmental justice that enhances the book’s relevance.

Reviewed by Julie Vanegas, Assistant Professor, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on 11/8/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Throughout the book, every topic has a full explanation, which is imperative in order to provide guidance to both the student and the teacher at the same time. Furthermore, the exercises/examples are organized in such a manner that it is easy for the reader to understand and follow them.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

This is fantastic!
During my Analytical Chemistry class, I am using this book to explain a topic in a variety of ways that are not conventional in explaining topics. As a result of the exercises' accuracy and approach, there is nothing left to chance, which gives the student a chance to come up with alternative solutions to the problems.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

There are several topics in this book that can actually be dealt with in the classroom, so the content is practical.

Clarity rating: 4

It is the way in which he explains every topic and every exercise that made me choose this book as a teacher. This is a product I will continue to recommend to students for their individual work; the emphasis is on active learning.

Consistency rating: 5

It has been shown that organization and clarity are interconnected. There is a conceptual organization in this book. This is so students are able to apply their old background knowledge to the newly introduced topics in the book, which are explained in detail in this book.

Modularity rating: 5

In order to explain something meaningful in a meaningful way, the emphasis and change of color are two factors that are incredibly meaningful since they force us to stop, think, and explain what they are explaining.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The order in which the materials appear as explained above allows the student to connect the old knowledge with the new without having to work backwards from the beginning.

Interface rating: 5

As far as graphs, images, tables, and others are concerned, they do not contain any type of distortion or graphic visualization problems. Due to the fact that these pages offer options for engaging with books from a platform, they are a smart choice. This is because you provide us with options to work with books and respect their copyright. This is why I think that these pages provide us with options to work with books.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

It is imperative to note that the author uses correct language and grammar. I was very surprised by the amount of synonyms and antonyms that were incorporated to make this book useful on a number of levels. Throughout the book, the author uses the scientific method to explain each topic in a rich, comprehensive, and explanatory manner.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The book tells us about all the cases. references so that those who wish to do more research on the subject will be able to do so by using further references. In my opinion, there is nothing in the document that is not inclusive. As far as this point is concerned, I do not have an opinion on it. The author seems to have no preference in relation to gender, race, social group, or any of the other categories.

Comments

I believe this book would be perfect if more emphasis was placed on active learning. I think that the author makes comparisons all the time, but I believe that it would be beneficial to put them in context.

Reviewed by Graham Rankin, Adjunct professor, Western Oregon University on 3/8/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Although it is intended as a text for an analytical chemistry (wet chem!) course, it does briefly present some instrumental techniques. At over 1000 pages, I would have hoped it would cover those instrumental techniques in greater depth so that this text could be used for both traditional (gravimetric, titrations, etc) and an instrumental chemistry course, especially given the title of the print version "Modern Analytical Chemistry"

Content Accuracy rating: 5

No problems noted. This version (2.1) published in 2016 so starting to be a little dated. Version 2.2 may be coming out in the next year or so, based on time between 2.0 and 2.1 (7 years)

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

as mentioned above I expect a new edition in the next year or so. While a good understanding of equilibrium concentrations is necessary, the continued emphasis on gravimetric and titrimetric methods when most real world applications are instrumental methods seems less relevant these days.

Clarity rating: 4

This appears to be just an electronic copy of a traditional print book. Some hyperlinks are given to references, but use of multimedia an animation is limited. Links to videos of actual titrations showing color change at endpoints might be helpful for students who will need to perform that exercise in lab.

Consistency rating: 4

As another reviewer noted, some instrumental techniques are introduced but not covered in detail until several chapters (and 100s or pages) later.

Modularity rating: 4

As it appears to just be an electronic copy of a traditional printed text, it is divided into chapters that are more or less covering a single technique.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

As mentioned above, some topics are touched on, but not covered in depth until much later in the text. Might be better to save those methods until later.

Interface rating: 3

Could have used more hyperlinks to web sources (videos, animations, etc.)

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

None noted.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

Nothing to indicate this is just another text by a white male author.

Comments

I think I covered everything already

Reviewed by Patricia Flatt, Professor, Western Oregon University on 2/15/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This textbook provides a great introduction to analytical chemistry for undergraduate chemistry majors. It focuses on topics such as experimental design, sampling, calibration strategies, standardization, optimization, statistics, and the validation of experimental results. It is very comprehensive in the areas of analytical chemistry covered and includes standard method development and the use of common chemical instrumentation to solve problems. The chapters each include summaries with key words, and problem sets. The only thing lacking are slide decks.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Techniques and topics are covered in depth with a high level of accuracy. I could not find obvious errors in the content within chapters.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

This textbook looks like it can be robust and long lasting. Many of the techniques in analytical chemistry are standard techniques used throughout the field and are highly applicable. They are also broken down into chapter sections. Should newer techniques need to be added to an existing section or require the creation of an additional chapter, this could be easily added at a later time.

Clarity rating: 4

The text within each chapter is well written and easy to follow. The chapters are also arranged in a logical order that follows easily for classroom discussion. Some of the textbook figures are a bit complicated or could be made in a way that would be more useable for a presentation.

Consistency rating: 5

The writing throughout the chapters is very consistent and follows the same format for the presentation of topics. Each chapter has content sub-sections followed by end of the chapter problems and then the chapter summary and key words.

Modularity rating: 5

The text for this book is divided into chapters that reflect smaller packets of analytical chemistry. Within each chapter, it is divided further into smaller subsections that break content into logical reading blocks for students.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

This textbook is very logically designed with early chapters focused on basic analytical tools that provide a strong foundation for the techniques presented in later chapters. Topics include gravimetric, titrimetric, spectroscopic, electrochemical, chromatographic, and kinetic methods.

Interface rating: 4

The text appears to transition between sections easily and without a lot of delay or problems displaying figures. However, some of the figures are quite large and cannot be easily displayed in powerpoint slide format to be used in lecture.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I have not found any grammatical or technical errors within the text.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This textbook only focuses on chemical techniques, methods, and tools and does not really focus on the scientists that made discoveries. Thus, there is really no cultural materials presented at all.

Comments

Overall, I think this is a great option for use in my analytical chemistry classroom that is comprehensive and on par with commercial textbooks in this field. It will decrease student costs and increase textbook availability for my students. I'm really happy that it is available! It's one of the few OER textbooks available on this topic.

Reviewed by Jason Parsons, Associate Professor, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on 11/19/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The book provides a great alternative to comparable to the print textbooks I have used in the past for teaching Analytic chemistry. I have just started using Harvey this year and I highly recommend the book for the analytical chemistry. The text covers all the content in an undergraduate analytical chemistry course and the necessary fundamental contention to make it an excellent book and is at an appropriate level. The book also does an excellent job introducing the spectroscopic and chromatographic topics.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

I have not noticed any errors and the content does align very well with the available print textbooks. In addition, the content is accurate and it does provide some great examples.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The topic covered is one of the most fundamental areas of chemistry which covers titrations, equilibrium, calculations among other calculations and statistics. The book will be valid for years to come. The examples are good and are reflective of analytic chemistry.

Clarity rating: 4

The book is written very clear and no excess jargon is used

Consistency rating: 5

Very consistent.

Modularity rating: 4

Like most textbooks in chemistry it can be taught in sequence or out of sequence without the previous chapter being necessary for the next chapter.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The content arrangement of any analytic textbook. I did not see any major issues in the organization of the content.

Interface rating: 4

I have not had issues with the interface to textbook and none of my current students have complained.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

I have not noticed any major grammatical errors in the text, it is very well written. There are some minor typos which are present in any book.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

It is a chemistry textbook and provides great fundament information in analytical chemistry. It is a technical book and is culturally neutral

Comments

It is a great text for introduction analytical chemistry and provides great examples for the students. The book also a good foundation of knowledge for the students taking analytical chemistry.

Reviewed by Anna Cavinato, Professor, Eastern Oregon University on 1/5/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The textbook provides an excellent online alternative to other analytical chemistry books. I have used this book and its previous edition for the last five years and I strongly recommend it. The book offers a comprehensive coverage of analytical topics with great emphasis on sampling and statistical analysis of data. It also includes coverage of spectroscopic and chromatographic topics which makes the book useful for instrumental analysis courses as well.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The book is very accurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The content is definitely relevant and reflects current practices in the discipline. I particularly like the use of examples of analysis type of problems derived from the scholarly literature.

Clarity rating: 4

The book is very clear and all terminology is adequately explained. However, I typically have to narrow down for students the coverage of a given topic as the author's discussion often goes beyond the scope of what I can cover in 10 weeks of instruction.

Consistency rating: 5

The book consistency is excellent.

Modularity rating: 5

The book is organized in chapters that can be individually downloaded as pdf files. Thus an instructor has great flexibility in choosing which parts of the book to utilize. Each chapter is further organized with headings and subheadings, making the reading very straightforward.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The author does an excellent job in organizing any topics in a logical fashion. My only word of caution is that there is a lot of information that the instructor needs to sort out ahead of time to guide students to most important outcomes.

Interface rating: 5

The interface is flawless.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The book is very well written and free from grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text is by no means insensitive or offensive. It is hard to be inclusive when discussing topics in analytical chemistry. There are no references to a variety of races, ethnicity or backgrounds.

Comments

This is an excellent textbook that provides a comprehensive coverage of any topic one would want to address in an analytical chemistry course. After using this textbook for several years, I am very thankful that my students can access such high quality publication at no cost!

Reviewed by Dane Scott, Assistant Professor, East Tennessee State University on 10/30/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This textbook is excellent as it is extensive for an introductory or basic course in analytical chemistry. This text with more detail could also be a comprehensive reference text. The topics covered are designed to allow instructors to customize sections taught as covering all of this material in one semester as stated is not possible. Having said that, I chose the section on acid base equilibrium to review. I appreciate the author for covering strong acid and weak acid titrations graphically and showing how pH values are calculated. However, calculating pH for titrations involving polyprotic acids is not discussed. The titration curve is shown and only the important species before and after equivalence points are discussed. Also, pH for salts of diprotic acids is not discussed. While I feel that many areas are well explained in great detail with excellent real figures, I feel this topic is not as comprehensive as it could be. Finding the pH of H2A and NaHA systems needs to be included. It is also important to note that many key spectroscopy techniques are included. This is ideal as one text may be used for both Quantitative and Instrumental Analysis covering topics on the ACS Analytical exam in one semester. However, I do not see any sections devoted to discussing noise in instrumentation. As a specific example, I reviewed the atomic absorption section. This does discuss flame atomic absorption. However, there is no discussion on why the hollow cathode lamp is modulated to a higher frequency or a discussion on the importance of a lock in amplifier. To be comprehensive, I feel this material should be included. Many instrumental methods are employed with microscope applications using fiber optics. I feel discussion on the use of fiber optics in instrumentation will permit modernizing the traditional instrumental topics covered.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I do not see any issues with accuracy in the sections that I reviewed.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The goal of this as a reference text seemed to present several topics and allow the instructor to select topics to cover. This text does that for introductory courses in Quantitative and Instrumental courses.

Clarity rating: 5

This text is very easy to read and understand. All individuals should appreciate that. The examples, practice exercises and problems are easy to recognize, follow understand meaning this is a clear text to learn from.

Consistency rating: 4

The text is consistent in format. It would be nice in the table of contents to see major headings consistently aligned.

Modularity rating: 4

As with Organization, I really think that for example, Chapter 6, should be divided into separate chapters. A lot of information and different titration methods are discussed in the same section making re-organization and realignment difficult.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

As I reviewed the chapter on titrations (6), I found the information clear and presents a lot of material in the same breath so to speak. This chapter is about 110 pages. Some topics, such as complexometric and redox titrations, need their own chapter. This will permit breaking up the material into sections that the instructor can either gloss over or not cover. While this can be done with the text in its current form, it makes the text more difficult to read from a student’s perspective following which sections may or may not be covered.

Interface rating: 5

There are no interface issues with the version I looked at both on a computer and mobile device.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

The grammar is well done with the exception of some verb tense issues as pointed out by other reviewers.
This text is well written.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This text stays focused on scientific topics and is appropriate for any culture.

Reviewed by Alycia Palmer, Analytical Laboratory Instructor, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 7/19/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This textbook is comprehensive for undergraduate courses in quantitative analysis and instrumental analysis. The chapter arrangement is logical and the linking feature in the PDF makes navigation to each page easy. There is no glossary to search for key terms, but this is easily done using the search feature in a PDF viewer.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content is accurate and makes for an excellent reference book for students. Many primary articles containing actual data are used as examples and end-of-chapter problems.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

I really like that the author includes how to do statistics and data analysis in Word and R. Because screen images of the software are not included, this information will not be obsolete and will be easy to update with new editions of Word.

Clarity rating: 5

The language of the text is very easy to read, even for non-scientists. When esoteric vocabulary is necessary, it is defined or linked to a location in the text where there is more information. There are ample graphs to explain statistics performed on sets of data. The figures of instruments and their components are not taken by a professional photographer, but they still clearly show each component and are labeled well.

Consistency rating: 5

Both the formatting and flow of adding new information is consistent. When new vocabulary is first presented, it is defined. When these terms are mentioned again, the text links the reader back to the original definition in case more information is needed. In the later chapters when new instruments are discussed, each is evaluated based on its precision, sensitivity, and selectivity as well as cost.

Modularity rating: 5

The text is easily divisible and does not contain large portions of text. Subheadings frequently introduce new themes and continue the flow of the chapter.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The content is laid out coherently. Content for a quantitative analysis course is covered in the first chapters, and content for instrumental analysis is toward the end.

Interface rating: 4

Navigating a PDF is never as convenient as flipping the pages of a hard-copy book. With that said, this textbook could be easier to navigate if the table of contents included links to subsections.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

There are very few grammatical errors and formatting of chemical equations and chemical formulas were all very consistent and of textbook quality.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This textbook appears to be inclusive to people of all cultural backgrounds.

Reviewed by Patrick McVey, Assistant Professor, Marian University on 3/15/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Analytical chemistry 2.1 is exactly what it should be: a textbook for a first semester analytical chemistry course. It doesn't add extraneous details or information that would confuse the first-semester analytical student and punts these topics to an instrumental or advanced analytical course appropriately. For example, instrumental methods such as mass spectrometry are omitted from the text. I found this to be a good thing (even as a mass spectrometrist). The authors basically rewrote commonly used analytical texts, supplemented them with extra examples and descriptions of concepts, and made it more applicable to the introductory analytical chemist. A good example is the text's description of an interferometer, which can be a confusing topic for students. Other texts I have used have horrendous explanations of how an interferometer works, which only confuse students. This text supplies a succinct overview with all necessary information about constructive versus destructive interference and how we take advantage of that in FTIR. With that being said, a few things are overlooked. For example, the titrations chapter is inferior to other texts. The text seems to skip over weak base-strong acid titrations, and doesn't do a great job with examples for weak-with-strong titrations in general. Most other chapters seem sufficient in their comprehensiveness at an appropriate level for the intended audience.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

No accuracy issues were found while reading the text.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Analytical methods are always advancing, especially when it comes to chemical instrumentation. Since the bulk of instrumentation is avoided in this text, and its focus is on foundational analytical chemistry concepts, its relevancy should hold true.

Clarity rating: 5

All terminology is defined appropriately, with a chapter dedicated to some analytical terms the student may be unfamiliar with. This is important, as the student is generally unfamiliar with these terms, even though many are introduced previously in courses such as general chemistry. The text doesn't assume the reader has previous knowledge of technical terminology and describes such things effectively.

Consistency rating: 5

The text provides chapters on a general chemistry review of topics, analytical vocabulary, and statistical methods that provide a foundation consistently used throughout the text. No issues here.

Modularity rating: 5

This is probably the best part of the text, and what makes it ideal for an undergraduate analytical chemistry course. The text is broken down logically with each topic comprehensive yet succinct. The chapters build within themselves effectively, and are organized into "bite-sized" pieces that are, once again, perfect for undergraduate consumption. If I could change one thing I would put the kinetic review in the actual chapter as opposed to an appendix. While yes this SHOULD be a review from general chemistry in my experience students will not access information that isn't directly put into the chapter. While I could certainly try and force them to go to back of the book, it just seems unnecessary to add a short appendix when the information could be put into the chapter and only add a couple of pages.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

Overall the organization in the text makes a lot of sense, and I prefer it to other analytical chemistry texts. This is especially true within each chapter where the flow of topics build upon one another exceptionally. I like the foundation built with the first few chapters (typical in analytical chemistry texts) that then shifts to the general chemistry review/expansion and on to actual analytical chemistry methods of analysis. I will say that I don't understand why collecting/preparing samples isn't introduced earlier. It's possible the author wanted it to be right before the text transitions to methods of analysis, but I'd introduce it earlier in my class. You could make a similar argument for developing a standard method, that it should be introduced earlier in the text maybe before chapters 8-13, however the way it is written relies on knowledge from the previous chapters for student clarity and understanding. I really like the idea of the chapter, as well as the content, but wish it was written to be chapter 8 instead of 14. This will make it difficult to get to in the curriculum and may delegate it to a second semester course such as Instrumental.

Interface rating: 5

Figures, images, and text were all crisp and clear. No issues navigating throughout the text. There are some minor editing issues (see chapter 4 in the table of contents) but they don't seem to be related to any display problems.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

A score of "3" is probably a bit harsh, as the text overall is well-written, but there were a number of noticeable grammatical errors in the text. These ranged from misspelled words to subject-verb disagreements or the use of singular versus plural nouns. Most are minor and don't take away from the text, such as "...you might considering using Calc..." doesn't necessarily change the meaning of the sentence, but may impact a student's perception of the text's validity. This is especially true if it's a common theme throughout the text.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Not applicable to this type of text, but references a number of different authors from varying backgrounds.

Comments

I intend to use this textbook in my fall 2019 analytical chemistry course. I hope to submit a second review after that semester to give a more thorough account of its effectiveness, as a read-through without direct application in a course can only supply so much information in my opinion. One final thing I wish the authors would change is the front cover! My students thought the word art on the front was, in their words, hilarious. Just a thought!

Reviewed by Richard Lahti, Associate Professor and Chair, Minnesota State University Moorhead on 1/1/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

Analytical Chemistry 2.1 covers a number of important analytical chemistry topics. It does not, however, cover mass spectroscopy, IR nor NMR, nor does it claim to. In fact, it says on page 8:
"Modern methods for qualitative analysis rely on instrumental techniques, such as infrared (IR)
spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry (MS). Because these qualitative applications are covered adequately elsewhere in the undergraduate curriculum, they receive no further consideration in this text." Thus, if students take analytical chemistry after an organic chemistry class where these topics are adequately covered, then this text would be complete and adequate. If not (or perhaps if your analytical class had a large number of transfers from a 2-year college where they did not have some of these, and you wished to have these as part of your references) you will need to select another book or supplement. In my case, MS was very important so my rating is lower - in truth, probably 3.5. If this was not necessary for you, then probably a 4 or even a 5 would be appropriate.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

No meaningful errors found. Yes, it is accurate and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

Yes. It is relevant. It does a good job with the fundamental theory behind most of the analytical techniques and instrumentation, and these are timeless. It does cover the details of applications to the specific historical development of instruments and how newer instruments and techniques addressed issues with older approaches. As some areas will develop faster than others, it might be necessary to supplement with articles if a particular cutting edge approach in HP-LC was desired, for instance.

Clarity rating: 5

Yes, very easy to read. Students should be able to read it and learn from it.
Yes, vocabulary words are defined, and there is no unexplained jargon.

Consistency rating: 5

Yes, there is a high degree of internal consistency. No problems noted, such as when one chapter seems to take after one approach and different chapter, another, due to differences in the way each sub-field handles a certain concept.

Modularity rating: 4

Maybe too much foreshadowing? For example, chapter 12A gives an overview of separations, and 12A4 gives an intro to electrophoresis. But electrophoresis is not actually handled until 60+ pages later. In my opinion, the intro in 12A4 was too long to be an intro given all of GC and LC was in between. But once you get used to it, it is not a problem.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Yes the topics are organized in an appropriate manner so that one topic builds off of the next. For example chromatography (chapter 12) follows and builds off of liquid-liquid extractions (chapter 7).
Some chapters could be moved around as desired, but his order makes sense.

Interface rating: 5

I viewed this as a PDF on a desktop and laptop PC. Everything displayed fine, even if I resized the window. I didn't (as I assume my students will) try to read this on my cellphone or smartwatch, and can make no guarantees about that.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Everything looked good to me. No noticeable errors, and certainly none that impacted understanding.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The text is culturally neutral. The text covers chemistry and chemical techniques. Most of the end of chapter questions deal strictly with analysis of data. Some of these are written in such a way to make it a-cultural (not "Jose wishes to monitor" but "You have been asked to monitor". Many of these questions directly reference literature. I suppose someone could argue that the literature is dominated by dead White European Males and so does not make adequate use of inclusive examples, and in that light I will give it a 4, but I prefer his approach and think it is far more appropriate.

Comments

I think the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. If I was asked to rate the book overall, I'd go a solid 4.3-4.5. The science is good, the writing is good, the graphics are good, the sample questions are good, and probably for most analytical chemistry classes, the content is appropriate because they cover the missing content (IR, MS, etc.) in a prior class.
I do wish that some materials (PowerPoints, test bank, etc.) were available, but it is a solid textbook.

Reviewed by Andre Venter, Associate Professor , Western Michigan University on 12/10/18

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The text includes all the relevant topics that are typically included in Introductory Analytical course work. Topics are discussed in enough detail to fill out the course without needing to add in too many additional sources. As a plus, an extensive and useful list of Additional Resources were provided at the end of the book, arranged by chapter and topic. The text is relatively easy to navigate using either the Brief Table of Contents and the Detailed Table of Contents both of which is readily accessible from every other page using hyperlinks. While, no glossary or Index is provided, one could find easily specific terms using the Find function in Acrobat or other PDF reader.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

I did not find any factual mistakes in the sections that i studied, however a few typos were present and scattered throughout the text.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

For the classic part of the textbook there were few problems and modern recommendations by IUPAC and other governing bodies were implemented throughout. However, some of the technique descriptions could be updated. For example, no mention was made of UPLC, which is fast replacing HPLC as the method of choice for liquid chromatography. Such additions can easily be made though, or information can be supplemented by the instructor.

Clarity rating: 5

I found this book to be much more approachable and it made for a far more engaging read than our current textbook (Skoog). I liked the historical perspective and the practical introduction to each section, illustrated by using real life examples or problems.

Consistency rating: 5

No problems with consistency presented themselves to me.

Modularity rating: 5

While this textbook combines wider ranges of topics together in single chapters than I'm used to from comparable texts, it does make use of extensive subsections in each chapter. This actually serves to present the connections between techniques or applications that might otherwise become fragmented if they are locked away in separate chapters e.g. dealing in the same chapter with monoprotic, diprotic and complex formation equilibria.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The book is laid out in a fairly typical sequence, and follows my current lecture schedule very well. In fact, I would have to jump between chapters less than with our current textbook for this class.

Interface rating: 5

On a computer screen the pdf works very well with Acrobat, and with a slightly bigger desktop-screen, single page view worked great. On a 13" laptop this was still possible although text then became a little strenuous to read. Navigation was easy using the Acrobat functionalities that were seamlessly integrated. I was easy to jump forward to a figure or other relevant section and then right back to where i had left off. The hyperlinks to the Table of Contents was also very useful to jump between sections with ease.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

There were minor typos throughout, but not overly frequently. This, for the most part, did not detract from the book.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The book called on examples from a variety of possible application fields such as environmental, medicinal, industrial etc etc which will stimulate all students irrespective of their particular motivation to study chemistry.

Reviewed by Susan Marine, Professor (full), Miami University on 8/2/18

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This book conveys many important aspects of analytical chemistry that are often glossed over in other texts (e.g., method development and validation, QA/QC, detailed statistical analysis). The author chose not to include interpretation of IR and NMR because those topics are covered in detail in other courses (i.e., Organic Chemistry). Electrochemical methods are covered in greater detail than in other introductory analytical textbooks. Additional Resources are provided for all chapters, and 18 appendices provide required data and information.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content is accurate, error-free, and unbiased. Several inconsequential typographical errors exist.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Most of the text covers time-honored content; explanations are clear and will not change with time. References to Excel and R software are vague enough to remain current; exact keystroke instructions would be quickly out of date.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is written clearly in understandable prose. Terms and abbreviations are defined. Examples are worked and explained in great detail, showing all mathematical steps, followed by practice exercises and detailed answers.

Consistency rating: 5

Several basic tools and techniques are provided in Chapter 2 and used throughout the textbook. The consistency aids understanding and facilitates problem solving. All chapters are written using the same format.

Modularity rating: 5

The text is divided into 15 chapters, each of which contains 8-10 major parts. Each part is further subdivided for ease of reading and finding material. The Table of Contents is detailed, very helpful, and links to the listed page. The pdf format with numbered pages helps access desired locations. The textbook contains more material than can be covered in one semester and is designed to be tailored by the instructor.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics are arranged in the textbook in a logical, clear fashion. The text modularity allows the instructor to change the order if desired.

Interface rating: 4

Internet Explorer and Foxfire display the pdf text correctly; links work well; images are not distorted. That is not the case when Chrome was used: text ran off the page, text appeared overlapped, some links did not work, not all text appeared.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text contains a few typographical errors but no grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The scientific text contains no cultural references and is not offensive in any way. There are no photographs or mention of people. Rating this topic is not applicable.

Comments

I look forward to using this textbook next semester.

Reviewed by Luke Miller, Instructor, Portland Community College on 6/19/18

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Harvey’s Analytical Chemistry 2.1 is very thorough and extensive its scope of material covered. Also, the end of each chapter of the text has a list of key terms. There is not an index and/or glossary for the entire text, but it is a searchable PDF, which makes finding terms and topics easy.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content is accurate, error-free, and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The text is up to date an even includes methods for use with Excel and R. Harvey also includes his email address for readers to provide feedback and suggestions.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is very well written and assumes a sufficient background in general and organic chemistry. The margins of the text are filled with extra helpful information or reminders that go along with the body text.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

Modularity rating: 5

The text has many divided sections that are each easily accessed through the hyperlinked table of contents. The exhaustive text is designed for instructors to easily pick and choose which specific topics they would like to cover.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion that is very similar to other analytical chemistry texts

Interface rating: 4

All of the images, graphs, and tables display clearly. The text is a 1122 page pdf, which can sometimes be difficult to quickly and easily navigate. However, this problem is diminished by the hyperlinks in the table of contents and throughout the text.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text contains no grammatical errors and is well written.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The author uses examples and references in the text from others with a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

Comments

Harvey’s text is very in depth, thorough, and approachable. It would work very well as an undergraduate textbook. Additionally, the text has very well outlined lab procedures and spreadsheet methods that make this text an excellent companion resource for an analytical chemist in an industry position.