Commission on Crystallographic Nomenclature

General information

Nomenclature problems arising in specific fields of crystallography that come to the attention of, and are recognised as important by, the Commission are studied by ad hoc committees of experts appointed by the Commission. The present working groups are: "Working group on the definition of crystalline phase identifiers", chaired by I.D. Brown and "Working group on co-crystal nomenclature" chaired by F. Allen. The reports of the working groups, after acceptance by the Commission and the Executive Committee, are published in Acta Crystallographica, Section A.

The results of past working groups, together with their recommendations, are contained in the reports listed below.

Crystallographers are invited to bring additional nomenclature problems to the attention of any Commission member.

Commission members

Reports

• Nomenclature of Polytype Structures
  Acta Cryst. (1984), A40, 399-404.

• Nomenclature for Crystal Families, Bravais-Lattice Types and Arithmetic Classes
  Acta Cryst. (1985), A41, 278-280.

• Nomenclature of Inorganic Structure Types
  Acta Cryst. (1990), A46, 1-11.

• Statistical Descriptors in Crystallography
  Acta Cryst. (1989), A45, 63-75 and Acta Cryst. (1995), A51, 565-569.

• Definition of Symmetry Elements in Space Groups and Point Groups.
  Acta Cryst. (1989), A45, 494-499.

• Symbols for Symmetry Elements and Symmetry Operations.
  Acta Cryst. (1992), A48, 727-732.

• Nomenclature, Symbols and Classification of the Subperiodic Groups
  Acta Cryst. (1993), A49, 594

• Atomic Displacement Parameter Nomenclature
  Acta Cryst. (1996), A52, 770-781

• Structural Phase Transition Nomenclature
  Acta Cryst. (1998), A54, 1028-1033

• Nomenclature of n-Dimensional Crystallography. I. Symbols for point-group transformations, families, systems and geometric crystal classes
  Acta Cryst. (1999), A55, 761-782

• Symmetry Elements in Space Groups and Point Groups. Addenda to two IUCr Reports on the Nomenclature of Symmetry
  Acta Cryst. (2000), A56, 96-98

• Nomenclature of magnetic, incommensurate, composition-changed morphotropic, polytype, transient-structural and quasicrystalline phases undergoing phase transitions. II. Report of an IUCr Working Group on Phase Transition Nomenclature
  Acta Cryst. (2001), A57, 614-626

• Report of a Subcommittee on the Nomenclature of n-Dimensional Crystallography. II. Symbols for arithmetic crystal classes, Bravais classes and space groups
  Acta Cryst. (2002), A58, 605-621

• Brightness, spectral brightness or brilliance - Report of the Working Group on Synchrotron Radiation Nomenclature
  J. Synchrotron Rad. (2005), 12, 385

• Report of the Working Group on Crystal Phase Identifiers
  Acta Cryst. (2005), A61, 575-580

Crystallographic Teaching Aids

• Teaching Pamphlets
• Educational Resources (Crystallography Online)
• Crystallographic symbols This will provide a link to sections 1.1 to 1.4 of Volume A of International Tables for Crystallography when software problems have been resolved
• Basic crystallographic relations This will provide a link to Sections 1.1 and 1.2 of Volume C of International Tables for Crystallography when software problems have been resolved

Reference Materials

• Physical constants of interest to crystallographers
• Lattice parameter of silicon

Other Nomenclature Resources

• Nomenclature Committee of the ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry (POLY)