Is RIFM’s science available online?
The short answer is yes.
All of the Research Institute for Fragrance Material’s peer-reviewed and published research and safety assessments—representing a half-century of work—can be downloaded for free via the open-access Fragrance Materials Safety Resource Center. I’m very proud to lead an organization that places transparency among the top of its priorities.
RIFM has been publishing peer-reviewed analyses of fragrance materials since the early 1970s. So, in a sense, our science has been publicly available in one form or another from Day One.
Nearly 10 years ago, RIFM implemented its Criteria Document 2, which guides our current safety assessment work. The Criteria Document focuses on NAMs, or New Approach Methodologies, providing animal testing alternatives without sacrificing scientific rigor and objectivity.
RIFM understood the importance of sharing the Criteria Document and safety assessment work with as many fragrance safety stakeholders as possible. So, RIFM’s then-Vice President, Anne Marie Api, PhD, collaborated with science publisher Elsevier to create the open-access Fragrance Materials Safety Resource Center. It was clear that all of RIFM’s work, past and present, should be available to anyone who stood to benefit from it. So we now provide free access to all of our peer-reviewed and published science, including that conducted in collaboration with other organizations and industry stakeholders.
RIFM’s Vision Statement seeks a world wherein “state-of-the-art science enables the world to enjoy fragrance,” and sharing what we’ve learned is a critical piece of maintaining that goal.
James C. Romine, PhD, served as President of the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM) from 2015-2023.