Food for thought ... on validation

Publishing a scientific journal in the internet era is an enormous challenge: Articles are commonly retrieved by browsing databases, with the consequence that fewer and fewer people hold the journal in their hands and actually screen the contents of an issue. Many miss what makes a scientific journal different from a repository of articles – the active forum of exchange of a specific section of the scientific community. With my new series of “Food for Thought” articles ALTEX aims to enhance this form of communication by providing a very personal view on topics in the field of alternative methods that might need some more thought. As a first topic I have chosen the core of ECVAM’s business, validation itself. I want to share and discuss a couple of thoughts, identified problems and emerging solutions, but not give final answers. Comments and feedback are more than welcome as is active participation in driving the field toward solutions for these open problems.