IUCr 1995 Report - Acta Crystallographica Section C

There was marked improvement in the publication rate of Section C papers in 1995. The number of manuscripts received increased by 10% over 1994, and the number of papers published rose by over 25%. The reasons for the higher publication rate appear to be several-fold. The Acta staff should be congratulated on their efforts to reduce the checking and editing backlogs for Section C to their lowest ever level, an effort which was greatly assisted by the software innovation within that office. The much higher rate of CIF electronic submissions assisted the checking and editing processes and also meant that Co-editorial tasks were simplified. Another contributing factor was the imposition of stricter initial filtering by the Chester staff, meaning that manuscripts with serious problems were immediately returned to the authors and less time was lost in the review process of trivial omissions or errors.

In addition to the faster publication rate, the overall quality of presentation of Section C papers has improved noticeably. Authors are becoming more experienced with submitting material as CIFs, and the insistence on high-standard diagrams is becoming evident in the printed issues (the rejection of diagrams at the first-proof stage has decreased almost to zero). I believe that there has also been a gradual improvement in the level of expertise exhibited in Section C, with many of the more experienced workers in the field returning as authors. This reverses a trend that was evident in the late 1980's and early 1990's, and which was discussed in the Commission on Journals meetings. The new contents format, cover presentation and CIF entry facilities have all contributed to making Section C a structural science `publication standard'.

S. R. Hall, Editor

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