The general objective of the present study was to investigate the potential application of the UV spectroscopic method for determination of the polymeric additives present in papermaking fibrous stock solutions. The study also intended to establish the surface-chemical retention model associated with the adsorption kinetics of additives on fiber surfaces. Polyamide epichlorohydrin (PAE) wet strength resin and imidazolinium quaternary (IZQ) softening agents were selected to evaluate the analytical method. Concentrations of PAE and IZQ in solution were proportional to the UV absorption at 314 and 400 nm, respectively. The time-dependent behavior of polymeric additives obeyed a mono-molecular layer adsorption as characterized in Langmuir-type expression. The kinetic modeling for polymeric adsorption on fiber surfaces was based on a concept that polymeric adsorption on fiber surfaces has two distinguishable stages including initial dynamic adsorption phase and the final near-equilibrium state. The simulation model predicted not only the real-time additive adsorption behavior for polymeric additives at high accuracy once the kinetic parameters were determined, but showed a good agreement with the experimental data. The spectroscopic method examined on the PAE and IZQ adsorption study could potentially be considered as an effective tool for the wet-end retention control as applied to the paper industry.