Ask a RIFM Scientist

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How does RIFM ensure transparency in its scientific work?

Gary Sullivan

Since its founding, the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM) has been committed to transparency. That is one reason the Institute has published all its scientific research results, ingredient monographs, and safety assessments in the peer-reviewed literature since 1973.

RIFM’s commitment to transparency is also why it offers free public webinars, including an annual multi-track Science Symposium, explanatory videos, plain-language news about recently published science, and the Ask a RIFM Scientist series.

More than a decade ago, RIFM made an even greater commitment to transparency by deciding to provide open access to all its peer-reviewed, published work. That decision ensured every fragrance safety stakeholder had free access to its newly developed fragrance material safety assessments.

Anticipating a move away from animal testing, RIFM began conducting and publishing research into new approach methodologies (NAMs). NAMs provide animal testing alternatives without sacrificing scientific rigor and objectivity.

In 2015, RIFM published an updated Criteria Document focusing on NAMs to guide its current safety assessment work. More than 2,100 fragrance material safety assessments have since been published, none of which have relied on new animal testing for any human health endpoints.

Because RIFM understood the value of these safety assessments to all stakeholders, RIFM President Anne Marie Api, PhD, Fellow ATS, collaborated with science publisher Elsevier to create the open-access Fragrance Materials Safety Resource Center

This year marks an important milestone for the Resource Center, which has been operating for 10 years. The Center provides free access to thousands of safety assessments, monographs, and dozens of related research papers worldwide for fragrance safety stakeholders.

Watch: How to Use the Fragrance Material Safety Resource Center

Marketing & Communications Manager Gary Sullivan has served as Editing & Publications Leader since late 2017.