[en] An inductively-coupled-plasma source mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) has been used to measure the isotopic composition of U, Pb, Os, and B standards. Particular emphasis has been placed on uranium because of its nuclear and environmental interest and because of the availability of a well-characterized set of standards with a wide range of isotopic compositions. The precision and accuracy obtainable in isotope ratio measurements by ICP-MS depend on many factors including background, interferences, dead time, mass fractionation (bias), abundance sensitivity, and counting statistics. Which, if any, of these factors controls accuracy and precision depends on the type of sample being analyzed and the characteristics of the mass spectrometer. These issues are discussed in detail