NCSL International Position Papers

 NCSLI Position on NIST Numbers

 It is the position of the National Conference of Standards Laboratories (NCSL) that:

Test report numbers issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the United States Department of Commerce are intended to be used solely for administrative purposes. Although they are often used to uniquely identify documents which bear evidence of traceability, test report numbers should not be used nor required as proof of the adequacy or traceability of a test or measurement.

It should be noted that nationally and internationally recognized standards dealing with test and measurement quality requirements such as ANSI/NCSL Z540-1-1994, ISO 100012, ISO/IEC Guide 25, and the ISO 9000 series do not require the use or reporting of NIST Test Report Numbers to establish traceability. A definition of traceability appears in the International Vocabulary of Basic and General Terms in Metrology, 1993, Section 6.10.

NCSL International Position on the Use of the International System of Units [SI]

It is the position of NCSL International that the International System of Units [SI] as defined by the CIPM, International Committee of Weights and Measures [Comité International des Poids et Mesures]1 will be used in the publication of its technical documents such as documentary standards, Recommended Practices [RPs], and Recommended Intrinsic/Derived Standards Practices [RISPs].

Within the limitation of legal regulations, NCSL International also encourages the use of SI system in everyday practices and communications.

Domestic national interpretations of the CIPM documents are recognized as acceptable for use in each respective country. As an example, in the United States of America, the acceptable interpretation is NIST Special Publication 811, 1995 Edition, by Barry N. Taylor entitled, Guide for the use of the International System of Units [SI] or its future editions.

1 Bureau international des poids et mesures, Le Système international d’ unités (SI) 7th edition 1998, ISBN 92-822-2154-7 [or future editions]