Ensuring Traceability in Nontargeted HRMS Annotation Workflows: An Urgent Call for Editorial Standards

Untargeted high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) is widely used in metabolomics, exposomics, and chemical monitoring. However, compound annotation, a central element for interpreting untargeted data, is frequently reported without sufficient information to allow independent evaluation. This communication examines current annotation practices in untargeted HRMS studies and remarks the increasing lack of standardized reporting of metadata, structural identifiers, and confidence criteria. Annotations are often reduced to compound names and exact masses, sometimes relegated to Supporting Information or omitted entirely, despite their central role in data interpretation. Although several community initiatives and guidelines have proposed reporting recommendations and identification confidence frameworks, their application and enforcement remain inconsistent. As a result, annotation traceability is often insufficient to support reproducibility, interstudy comparability, or long-term data reuse. These limitations affect downstream applications, including meta-analyses, automated data mining, and regulatory-relevant fields such as food safety and exposure assessment. This article argues that improving annotation traceability is essential for the scientific robustness of untargeted HRMS workflows and emphasizes the role of journals, reviewers, and authors in ensuring that annotation information remains verifiable, reusable, and scientifically accountable.