Abstract: In all fields of geochemical and environmental sample analysis, reference materials play an increasingly important role. Although the provider of an analytical result must document the measurement process used to establish traceability links, most publications do not contain data of reference materials. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to clarify the role and use of reference materials and certified reference materials, to discuss the importance of reference materials for geoanalytical work and to present the GeoReM database for reference materials of geological and environmental interests. The GeoReM database contains published analytical data, compiled data and metadata for 1880 geochemical and environmental reference materials including 156 Chinese reference materials, provides geoanalysts with details of those samples of particular relevance to applications. Preferred values and their uncertainties are also provided in this database. Although most of the GeoReM preferred values are not ISO compliant, they have a high level of confidence and are therefore useful for calibration purposes and quality control. The importance of future input of Chinese reference materials published in Chinese scientific journals is pointed out.