Is RIFM’s science peer-reviewed?
Yes. The Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM) submits all of its safety assessments and associated research for peer-review to reputable scientific journals as part of its commitment to transparency and scientific objectivity.
RIFM relies on the peer-review process to help ensure the quality and scientific objectivity of its research publications. This exchange of expertise ensures that others in the field can evaluate the methodology and data and offer suggestions on how the work may be improved.
For those unfamiliar, peer review is a process in science publishing wherein a scientist or collaborative group of scientists submit a safety assessment or research paper for consideration by experts in the same or a similar area.
Once RIFM submits a manuscript to a scientific journal, the journal’s editors forward the manuscript to several peer-reviewers in academia from around the world. To encourage direct and comprehensive scrutiny, peer-reviewers remain anonymous.
Peer-reviewers may make a variety of suggestions intended to improve the manuscript, including:
- Requesting clarification on data, methodology, results, conclusions, and references;
- Suggesting the consideration of additional data; and
- Correcting spelling and grammatical mistakes and typos.
Based on RIFM’s responses to these insights and suggestions, reviewers may send further questions and suggestions or recommend that the journal editor accept or reject the manuscript. Even with revisions, it is not guaranteed that the safety assessment or paper will be accepted. This process helps to ensure that only articles that meet good scientific standards are accepted for publication.
If a safety assessment or research manuscript is accepted, once it has been published, RIFM makes an open-access version of the published work available online via the Fragrance Material Safety Assessment Center.
Senior Editor Faiz Siddiqi, MS, coordinates the responses to peer-reviewers for RIFM’s Safety Assessment process.