On the unacceptable reporting of results in doping control

Sir, In doping control in sport, the athlete’s defense receives only the scarce scientific information the prosecution finds fit for making available. Let us first turn attention to what is actually made available. The latter is laid down in a technical document issued by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) [1]. Apart from fixing numerous details that deal with quality aspects rather than analytical science, e.g., the so-called chain of custody and instrument performance, this document devotes only a single sentence to scientific results reporting concerning the confirmation step, namely: