Luminescent chemosensors: common pitfalls, best practices, and the scientific rationale behind editorial guidelines

Luminescent chemosensors have become indispensable analytical tools owing to their high sensitivity, versatility, and broad applicability in environmental, biological, and clinical sciences. Nevertheless, the apparent simplicity of fluorescence spectroscopy and the widespread use of readily available data-analysis procedures often lead to the misuse of experimental methods and analytical models. As a consequence, instrumental artifacts and unjustified assumptions may be interpreted as genuine sensing responses, resulting in unreliable conclusions regarding sensing mechanisms, binding affinity, selectivity, and analytical performance. In this perspective, we discuss the most common pitfalls encountered in the characterization of luminescent chemosensors, explaining the physical, photophysical, and statistical principles underlying the editorial guidelines recently introduced by the New Journal of Chemistry for manuscripts dealing with this topic. By highlighting the rationale behind these recommendations, we aim to provide authors, reviewers, and readers with a practical framework for designing, validating, and reporting luminescent chemosensors according to rigorous scientific standards, thereby improving reproducibility, facilitating peer review, and strengthening the reliability of published research.