In their review of arsenic in coal, Yndovich and Ketris (2005) [Yudovich, Ya.E., Ketris, M.P., 2005. Arsenic in coal: a review. Int. J. Coal Geol. 61, 141-196.] largely overlooked the role that arsenic X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy can play in determining the mode of occurrence of arsenic in coal. Further, XAFS spectroscopy, being a direct method for determining arsenic speciation coals, can also be used to assess the critical, assumptions and inferences present in less direct methods of arsenic speciation based on sequential leaching and other fractionation methods. This communication is designed to redress the oversight given arsenic XAFS spectroscopy in the review by Yudovich and Ketris. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.