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10 years ago, after a good 2 years of internal discussion and sharing, the European Bioanalysis Forum (EBF) [Citation1] was ready to publish their first recommendation. At that time it was not immediately evident where to publish strategic papers on processes or regulatory issues in bioanalysis, in order to rapidly connect with the global bioanalytical community. In the absence of a journal fully dedicated to bioanalytical sciences, it was a time when there were considerations to invest in a structure within our own organization to integrate some kind of publishing capacity within the EBF.
Needless to say, Bioanalysis filled that gap, thus preventing us from pursuing a bad idea, one which would certainly have drained considerable resources from our contributors. By filling that gap, Bioanalysis allowed EBF to focus on our core business: bringing scientists together to discuss, (dis)agree and share the many challenges in (regulated) bioanalysis, particularly the areas of process and guideline harmonization and promoting science-driven leaner practices. Thanks to the hard work and support of the Bioanalysis staff, not only the EBF, but the global bioanalytical community has a platform to inform others, to share science and to be informed.
During the last decade, Bioanalysis has continued to be the journal of choice for EBF to reach our target audience, with currently over 60 manuscripts published. We feel this has served our community in many ways: in addition to our conference program (Open Symposia, Focus Workshops and Young Scientist Symposia), the bioanalytical community knows where to find our papers, be it recommendation papers, strategic papers, editorials or conference reports.
In the years to come, we look forward to Bioanalysis continuing on their mission and growing this open communication space, allowing the broader bioanalytical community to continue to come together to publish their results and share their ideas. If we are allowed a small cautionary comment: as industry and publishers, we may want to review how we define ‘White Papers’ to ensure that the impact of White Papers does not get diluted. Over the last years, we have seen an inflated use of the ‘White Paper’ stamp from the bioanalytical community as a whole, including ones from EBF, that should not be defined as such.
The future challenges for the bioanalytical community are enormous: globalization of regulated bioanalysis; harmonization of guidelines and, more importantly, harmonized interpretation of guidelines; ensuring biomarker assay validation gets proper scientific attention; how to manage the many partnerships in our community (increased interaction with stakeholders and end users of our data) and the challenges of increased outsourcing. At the same time, the challenges ahead should also be fun for the next generation of bioanalytical scientist: new modalities, new therapies, patient-centric drug development and managing new technological developments.
Certainly, the EBF wishes to contribute to all of the above and we are convinced that Bioanalysis are sailing the proper course to be the channel through which the bioanalytical community will make their voice heard.
In short: congratulations and we look forward to a bright future.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The author has no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.
Reference
- European Bioanalysis Forum. http://www.e-b-f.eu/.