This International Standard gives the general guidelines for the determination of experimental parameters relating to the primary beam, the wavelength spectrometer and the sample that need to be taken into account when carrying out electron probe microanalysis. It also defines procedures for the determination of beam current, current density, dead time, wavelength resolution, background, analysis area, analysis depth and analysis volume. This International Standard is intended for the analysis of a well-polished sample using normal beam incidence, and the parameters obtained may only be indicative for other experimental conditions. This international standard is not designed to be used for energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.