Report of the CCU/CCQM Workshop on “The Metrology of Quantities Which Can Be Counted”

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper presented was well written, easy to read, and provided a reasonable level of detail.

I did not attend the meeting, but I found the report useful in understanding the content that was presented. I also thought that the report on the meeting was indeed interesting, and provided a good introduction to the topic. 

I would therefore suggest that there is good value in publishing this work, as it provides a good guide to those interested in this topic, so they can understand where more information  can be found.

It also provided a good overview of the challenges associated with the topic, which I found interesting and thought provoking.

I therefore have no concerns with recommending this paper for publication. 

Author Response

Thank you very much to the referee for their time in reading and assessing the report. I am glad it represents a useful output from the workshop. 

Reviewer 2 Report

I believe this document is of great importance to the Metrologic community. In general, de report describes very well what happen in the workshop.

Regarding the conclusions it would be important to refer the uncertainty issue and emphaticise the difference between the calculation of the number quantities in chemistry and the number quantities in physics.

There is a very important subject in biological measurements that were not addressed and this is counting colonies in microbiology. Even if there was no presentation about this some remarks could be done is this report.

A chapter for action should also be added that should be very clear what the community should do in the future.

Author Response

Thank you very much to the referee for their time in reading and assessing the report. I am glad it represents a useful output from the workshop. 

I have now added comments on the topics that the referee has requested, bearing in mind that this is a report of the meeting and it is not possible to refer to issues that were not discussed. Please note that information on counting colonies in microbiology was mentioned already in Section 2.2.4. 

At the end of the numbered conclusions (line 692) I have added:

"It was also remarked that further work remained to be done on understanding the calculation of uncertainty for number quantities, and also on distinguishing between the different challenges of defining and measuring these quantities in the physical, chemical and biological disciplines."

To address the requirements of the referee that these topics were mentioned. I also added in line 698:

"...and the relevant actions for the metrology community"

To address the referee's comment by specifying that the e-mail sent to delegates after the meeting emphasized both the next steps AND the actions for the metrology community.