Spectroscopy's editors gather 143 evergreen articles from 2026, including tutorials, terminology guides, technique reviews, application surveys, peer-reviewed research and the magazine's long-running columns, and organize them by subject so readers can build lasting knowledge one topic at a time.
This article curates the evergreen content Spectroscopy published in 2026: 143 articles whose value does not depend on a news cycle or a conference date. The collection spans fundamentals and terminology, chemometrics and artificial intelligence, molecular, atomic and X-ray techniques, portable instrumentation, application areas from clinical diagnostics to cultural heritage, curated literature reviews, quality and compliance, and the history of the field. Each section summarizes what its articles cover and links directly to them, giving students, practitioners and laboratory managers a structured reading path through a year of the magazine's most durable work.
Spectroscopy publishes hundreds of articles each year. Many are tied to a moment: a conference session, an award, a product launch or a week's research news. A smaller set is written to last. These are tutorials that explain how a technique works, guides that define its vocabulary, reviews that map where a method stands, and columns that teach spectral interpretation or laboratory compliance one installment at a time.
For this collection, the editors reviewed every 2026 article on Spectroscopy Online and selected 143 that meet that standard. Interview clips, event coverage, weekly roundups, short news items and sponsored content were set aside. What remains is organized below by subject rather than by date or author, so a reader interested in Raman instrumentation, atomic methods or chemometrics can find every relevant piece in one place. Five terminology and X-ray features scheduled for November and December 2026 are included and marked as forthcoming.
The year's most reusable content teaches the basics: what the terms mean, how the measurements work and how to read a spectrum.
A series of terminology guides gives readers a shared vocabulary across chemometrics, instrument components, imaging, molecular spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy, alongside two glossaries that connect classical chemometrics to machine learning and generative AI.
Hands-on articles walk through method selection, sampling and data quality: when to choose infrared spectroscopy, how IR and Raman microspectroscopy characterize polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, how to handle autofluorescence in Raman measurements, and how to troubleshoot recovery and memory effects in ICP-MS. Practical tutorials on LIBS in the geosciences and on correlating particle morphology with Raman identification round out the set.
A five-part set explains the physics behind ATR: the evanescent field, the light–matter interaction at the crystal, behavior below the critical angle, and how energy transfers across the crystal–sample interface.
The IR Spectral Interpretation Workshop column continues its systematic tour of functional groups, covering organic nitrogen compounds, branched and cyclic alkanes, and the peak positions of substituted benzene rings.
Data analysis was a defining theme of 2026, from the statistical roots of chemometrics to deep learning on spectra.
These articles trace chemometrics from classical statistics to present practice, revisit principal component analysis and classical least squares, reexamine the refractive-index side of Beer's law, and present original research on removing sample-repack variation from NIR diffuse-reflection calibrations.
A connected series positions AI as the next layer on top of chemometrics and examines how generative models are changing calibration and interpretation. Peer-reviewed work applies convolutional neural networks to spectral matching and uniform experimental design to Raman bioprocess calibration, and a review surveys AI in materials discovery.
Vibrational and electronic spectroscopy saw rapid change in hardware, sensitivity and spatial resolution.
Three broad reviews summarize recent advances in vibrational and molecular spectroscopy and identify the field's main focus areas.
Raman coverage spans chip-scale instrumentation, AI and coherent detection, clinical and life-science uses, and column installments on β-amyloid insulin and the Raman spectra of glass.
Infrared articles ask whether the moving mirror is obsolete, follow FT-IR past the diffraction limit with photothermal and quantum cascade laser methods, review applications, and track microspectroscopy below the micron scale.
NIR features follow the technique's move into small, connected instruments and into the body, bioreactors and the biosphere, including the long effort toward noninvasive glucose sensing.
UV–vis spectroscopy is traced from quantum dots to AI-driven process analyzers, and thermally activated delayed fluorescence is introduced as a tool for time-resolved imaging.
Elemental analysis advanced on several fronts at once: instrumentation, sample introduction, plasma methods and X-ray techniques.
Reviews describe a new generation of smaller, smarter atomic instruments and how product roadmaps align technical breakthroughs with beta validation.
Articles cover single-particle ICP-MS for environmental work, electrothermal vaporization into ICP-OES, microwave digestion for biological tissues, and the analytical challenge of fluorine.
LIBS articles review recent advances and report research on technetium-99 in molten salt systems, uranium hexafluoride plasmas for nuclear safeguards, and fiber-laser LIBS for aluminum alloys.
X-ray coverage ranges from a survey of techniques across science and industry to attosecond sources and handheld analyzers, with an interlaboratory study of micro-XRF for forensic tape evidence.
Several features examine how miniaturized and field-deployed spectrometers, including those on drones and wearables, are moving analysis out of the laboratory, and what still limits them.
Application reviews and research articles show where spectroscopy is solving real problems.
Coverage includes vibrational spectroscopy for type 2 diabetes, a three-part study of red blood cell remodeling, the personalized optical digital twin, and submicron IR for microplastics in biological samples.
Environmental articles address microplastics and nanoplastics, methane detection, soil contamination, Earth observation, oceanography, and IR/NIR environmental applications.
These pieces cover spectroscopy in modern agriculture and food analysis, ammonia measurement in livestock production, the cannabis laboratory, and NIR detection of citrus disease.
Lithium-ion battery analysis is reviewed from research to manufacturing, alongside trace elemental analysis of battery materials, carbon nanotubes and graphene, and nanoparticle characterization.
Forensic articles review current trends and present peer-reviewed methods for differentiating fibers and automotive coatings.
Spectroscopy and mass spectrometry in space exploration and meteorite research are surveyed.
Portable Raman in archaeology, ancient Egypt, and the four-part Spectroscopy Around the Globe series on Giza, Stonehenge, Lascaux and Angkor Wat show spectroscopy's role in cultural heritage.
The Top 10 series identifies the most influential recent papers by technique and application, covering Raman, FT-IR and NIR in biomedical and biopharmaceutical work, vibrational and atomic spectroscopy in environmental analysis, and molecular spectroscopy in forensics, with a collected overview.
Regulated laboratories will find guidance on analytical instrument qualification and computerized system validation, and the Focus on Quality column's practical installments on computer software assurance, user requirements, analyst training and leveraging supplier software development.
The year also looked back at the people who built the field and forward at how its practitioners are trained.
Articles revisit C.V. Raman's discovery and legacy, chronicle the James L. Waters Symposium, and remember Ramon M. Barnes, Peter R. Griffiths and John Philip Walters.
Features assess the spectroscopy job market and the decline of hands-on training, and describe efforts to close the gap.
Taken together, the 143 articles in this collection form a working reference for the field as it stood in 2026. Readers new to spectroscopy can start with the terminology guides, tutorials and ATR fundamentals. Practitioners can go straight to the technique and application sections for their own work, and laboratory managers will find the quality and compliance columns directly useful.
Several threads run through the year. Chemometrics and artificial intelligence are converging. Instruments are getting smaller and moving into the field. Spectroscopy is taking on a larger role in clinical, environmental and materials problems. Because these articles were chosen for lasting value, they should remain useful well beyond 2026. The editors will continue to add new tutorials, reviews and columns to this body of work in the year ahead.
