New developments for Acta Crystallographica Section C

Following on from the very successful launch of Crystallography Journals Online in 1999 and the inclusion of Section C in this service from the start of 2000, 2001 sees the advent of a new entirely electronic journal, Acta Crystallographica Section E: Structure Reports Online, as a logical development from the electronic papers previously published as part of Section C.

With the formal separation of paper and electronic forms of publication, Section C (see //journals.iucr.org/c/ ) with its well-defined acceptance standards will continue to be available in printed (and electronic) forms and will now concentrate on full-paper submissions containing one or more structures with a significant discussion of the results; electronic papers are now discontinued in Section C. The new Section E (see //journals.iucr.org/e/ ) will only be available electronically and will be the natural choice when single structures are to be reported, usually with less detailed discussion of the results (a Comment section is encouraged but not required) than would be appropriate for Section C. There continues to be close collaboration among the various Section C and E editorial groups to ensure a full range of publication options for structural reports; transfer of submissions between the two journals may be recommended.

The first part of the 2001 Notes for Authors for Section C is included in this issue and the full listing is available at //journals.iucr.org/c/ . In addition to changes required by the decision to discontinue the electronic-paper category in Section C, there are a number of minor improvements and clarifications. Authors are specifically reminded to provide a complete list of bond lengths and angles for all atoms, including H atoms, in their CIFs. Attention is also drawn to two significant papers on the evaluation and reporting of absolute structure and absolute configuration.

Electronic submission via the web is the only mode of submission for Section E and will be introduced for Section C submissions during 2001. Full details of the web-submission procedures will become available at //journals.iucr.org/services/submit.html during 2001. Much work has gone on behind the scenes developing data-validation programs to check the overall quality of submissions to Acta Crystallographica and to assist authors and editors in their deliberations. It would be remiss of me if I did not acknowledge the invaluable contributions of Professor A. L. Spek (University of Utrecht) and of the Chester staff in this regard.

All Section C articles continue to be available in HTML and PDF formats, and are richly hyperlinked for easy navigation within and between articles. Authors are now automatically sent details of how to download free electronic reprints of papers. Crystallography Journals Online also provides search mechanisms, e-mail alerting, immediate access to supplementary data and details of forthcoming articles. Electronic access to the full text of Section C articles now requires a subscription to the printed journal, but the site will continue to make CIFs, structure factors and other supplementary material available free of charge. Section C subscribers will enjoy free electronic access to Section E.

It is a pleasure to welcome Dr Paul D. Boyle (North Carolina State University, USA) and Dr John F. Gallagher (Dublin City University, Ireland) as new members of the Section C editorial board.