My contribution was modest compared to those co-authors who took the lions share of writing the superb introduction sections to the newly published UNESCO/IHP Glossary of Glacier Mass Balance, available here:
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001925/192525e.pdf
We hope it helps guide researchers, reviewers and anyone with an interest in what glaciologists are doing, and what glacier mass balance studies can tell us all.