Cross-termination in bulk reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization is characterized by defi ning a new parameter, R M , in terms of the polymerization rates with and without an externally applied magnetic fi eld (EAMF). For the bulk RAFT polymerization (RAFTP) of styrene (St), mediated by (2-cyano-2-propyl)dithiobenzoate (CPDB) and S-1-dodecyl-S′-(α, α′-dimethyl-α′′-acetic acid)trithiocarbonate (DDMAT), an R M of 0.534 and 0.382 is obtained respectively, showing a sensible dependence on the RAFT agent. It is also found that R M has a close relationship with the strength of the EAMF and the concentration of the RAFT agent. Detailed discussion reveals that R M can be used as a characteristic para meter to measure the extent of cross-termination in RAFTP. The experimental technique offers an effi cient way to quantita tively probe the cross-termination in situ, and sheds light on the mechanism of RAFTP. spectroscopy, [3][4][5] NMR, [ 6,7 ] size-exclusion chromatographyelectrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (SECESI-MS), [ 8 ] size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-fl ight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS), [ 9 ] identifi cation of termination products, [ 10,11 ] etc. According to the mechanism as shown in Scheme 1 , the number of propagating radicals as well as polymerization rate should not be affected by RAFT agent, while rate retardation effect during dithiobenzoate-mediated RAFTP process came into notice [ 12 ] and it has been found that the rate retardation is proportional to the concentration of RAFT agent. During exploration of rational explanations for the retardation, cross-termination between intermediate radicals and propagating radicals was found to be one of responsible factors, [13][14][15][16][17] resulting in a large proportion of propagating radicals turning into dead chains. The controversy about slow fragmentation and fast fragmentation (with cross-termination) lasts for years [18][19][20][21] and both of fast fragmentation and cross-termination of the RAFT intermediate radical have been observed in full agreement with the cross-termination model in many