Preface

What can be added to a topic described in almost 10,000 papers and 15 monographs? An electronic image. Also, being one’s own publisher, editor and referee lends an unprecedented sense of freedom in the choice of scope, form, materials and expression of opinion, that would not be possible within the established conformity of scientific publishing. Free from the constraints of black and white print, one can exploit the power of colors and image. To those of you who will be tempted to follow bravely into the new world of self e-publishing I feel obliged to issue a warning. There is no way back! 

There turned out to be no way back to me, since what you just read is the Preface to the 1st edition of this tutorial, written 10 years ago. Much has changed since then; there are now almost 20,000 papers and 20 monographs published on FIA and related techniques. There are new tools and techniques widely accepted by research and applications community – Sequential Injection Chromatography  and “lab-on-valve” format, for both flow and sequential injection. And the world of publishing, as we know it, is changing under our feet. As I write this, the very last fully printed issue of Analytical Chemistry is on my desk. Without a doubt, Journals printed on paper will be soon extinct. Being one’s own e-publisher may have a renewed appeal to those who dare. Many copies of the previous editions of this Tutorial have been requested and distributed worldwide, free of charge, by courtesy of FIAlab Instruments. It has been a privilege to be asked, and a pleasure to give permission to reproduce figures from this work, in numerous Ph.D. theses, presentations, and other publications.

                                                                                                                             Jarda Ruzicka