Further developments for Acta Crystallographica Section C

Acta Crystallographica Section C continues to specialize in the rapid publication of high-quality papers, containing a significant Comment section, which will be of interest in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry, mineralogy, pharmacology, physics and materials science. Studies involving special techniques and difficult crystalline materials are also welcome. This past year has seen a continuing reduction in publication times for Section C submissions, with the majority of technically correct and well written papers appearing online (//journals.iucr.org/c/ ) within two months of submission, followed closely by their appearance in print. In 2003, Section C published 49 inorganic papers, 186 metal-organic papers and 233 organic papers in a total of 1482 pages.

Submission requirements for Section C are under regular review and minor revisions have been made to the 2004 Notes for Authors in response to various comments and suggestions from authors and Co-editors. The 2004 Notes for Authors are printed in this issue and are also available at //journals.iucr.org/c/services/authorservices.html ; it should be noted that the required author pre-checking of manuscripts has been made easier, as described in §1.1 of the Notes . Submissions which give rise to A alerts during the pre-checking process can still be accepted for publication provided the authors give sound scientific reasons [via a validation response form (VRF), as described in §1.1 of the Notes ] why the submission should be considered. A revised SHELXL97 CIF template suitable for both Section C and E submissions is also available at //journals.iucr.org/c/services/authorservices.html .

It is a pleasure to welcome Dr Madeleine Helliwell (University of Manchester, England) as a new member of the Section C editorial board; I also thank the Co-editors, anonymous referees and the dedicated Chester staff for their invaluable assistance in the preparation of Section C.