Accreditation and Quality Assurance (Accred. Qual. Assur.; "ACQUAL") publishes conceptual and practice-oriented articles on all aspects relevant to quality, transparency and reliability of measurement results in chemical and biological sciences. This is aimed at disseminating knowledge and contributing to the elimination of conceptual and technical barriers to intercontinental understanding ("CBU" and "TBU"). It is in this context that ACQUAL asks the authors for clarity in the presentation of their results by following international conventions or by defining deviations without ambiguity. The journal aims at serving the information needs of researchers, practitioners and decision makers alike. It provides problem solving for improved measurement practice, covers aspects of related education and training, and fosters cooperation between national and international bodies operating in accreditation and quality assurance of measurements in chemical and biological sciences. Among the sections of the peer-reviewed journal are General Papers (research and development articles), Practitioner's Reports, and Reviews. The journal also offers a Discussion Forum for the exchange of views especially on contentious topics. Reports from International Bodies and on Legislation and Norms, on books and meetings, as well as News and Announcements provide current information. The journal is focusing on the following topics: - Accreditation - Quality assurance - Tools for quality control - Quality management - Metrology in chemistry - Traceability of measurement results - Measurement uncertainty - Comparability and equivalence of measurement results - Verification and validation - Calibration - Statistical simulations - Purity assessment - Sampling - Interlaboratory comparison (PT, EQA) - Reliability - Reference materials - Reference measurements, dissemination and propagation of reference values - Applied statistics for metrology - Concepts and terminology - Quantities and units and the application regarding measurements in environment, nutrition, consumer protection, geology, metallurgy, pharmacy, forensics, clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine, microbiology and in all other fields of chemical and biological sciences.