On the difficulties of being rigorous in environmental geochemistry studies: some recommendations for designing an impactful paper

Abstract

There have been numerous environmental geochemistry studies using chemical, geological, ecological, and toxicological methods but each of these fields requires more subject specialist rigour than has generally been applied so far. Field-specific terminology has been misused and the resulting interpretations rendered inaccurate. In this paper, we propose a series of suggestions, based on our experience as teachers, researchers, reviewers, and editorial board members, to help authors to avoid pitfalls. Many scientific inaccuracies continue to be unchecked and are repeatedly republished by the scientific community. These recommendations should help our colleagues and editorial board members, as well as reviewers, to avoid the numerous inaccuracies and misconceptions currently in circulation and establish a trend towards greater rigour in scientific writing.

Potentially toxic elements in groundwater: a hotspot research topic in environmental science and pollution research

“…Concerning the research of PTEs in groundwater, many geoscientists around the world are focusing their study on (a) natural and/or anthropogenic influences using multivariate statistics and stable isotopes, (b) spatial distribution and vulnerability assessments through modern geographical information system (GIS) tools, (c) PTE removal from the aqueous solution and remediation techniques, (d) health risk assessments, (e) drinking and irrigation suitability, (f) geochemical modeling conceptualization, and (g) calculation of PTE-based indices to quantify their impact in groundwater quality. However, one of the most significant issues that the scientific community face, even today, is the misused of the chemical element's speciation, which is very often confused with other terms (i.e., chemical element's fractionation), leading to misunderstandings, inaccurate results, and incorrect conclusions among the scientific community (Pourret et al 2020a). The chemical form of an element provides information about mobility, effect, and toxicity to living organisms and the environment, and the determination of chemical element's speciation is of great importance for ES field and, in particular, in the ESPR studies that are usually neglected due to its difficulty to measure it, and it is expensive (Pourret and Husthouse, 2019).…”

The ‘europium anomaly’ in plants: facts and fiction

“…We draw attention to the possibility of this problem and recommend being cautious, recognizing its potential occurrence and to take appropriate measures during analysis. The use of material reference certified for REE (Gills 1995) may be part of the solution and making analytical data available considering FAIR principles (Pourret et al 2020) another part. Further, we also propose that FAIR principles should be used to document laboratory methods.…”

Heavy metal: a misused term?

“…and Pourret [19] proposed to ban this term from the scientific literature. Eventually, Pourret and Hursthouse[20] and Pourret et al [21] proposed to replace the term with "potentially toxic elements". Indeed, due to their persistence and indestructible nature (only changes in their chemical species can occur), most of them are unfortunately able to definitively pollute groundwater [22] or soils [23].…”