Equivalence From a chemical standpoint, we call "identical" two synthetic routes that share the same synthetic steps arranged in the same order. However, this simple definition depends on the level of detail adopted to describe each step. For example, we can tell apart two identical reactions (same reactants/products) if we consider reagents, procedures, or operational aspects (user, date, chemical batches, etc.); this difference also echoes at the route level. For this reason, we prefer the term route equivalence to that of identity and link it to the level of detail each route holds.