Widths and shifts of isolated lines of neutral and ionized atoms perturbed by collisions with electrons and ions: An outline of the semiclassical perturbation (SCP) method and of the approximations used for the calculations

"Stark broadening" theory and calculations have been extensively developed for about 50 years. The theory can now be considered as mature for many applications, especially for accurate spectroscopic diagnostics and modeling, in astrophysics, laboratory plasma physics and technological plasmas, as well. This requires the knowledge of numerous collisional line profiles. In order to meet these needs, the "SCP" (semiclassical perturbation) method and numerical code were created and developed. The SCP code is now extensively used for the needs of spectroscopic diagnostics and modeling, and the results of the published calculations are displayed in the STARK-B database. The aim of the present paper is to introduce the main approximations leading to the impact of semiclassical perturbation method and to give formulae entering the numerical SCP code, in order to understand the validity conditions of the method and of the results; and also to understand some regularities and systematic trends. This would also allow one to compare the method and its results to those of other methods and codes.