IUCr 1996 Report - Acta Crystallographica Section D

During 1996, Section D has published 187 articles and communications on various aspects of biological crystallography. Of these, 39 described crystal structures of macromolecules, many of which were refined, and details of their three-dimensional structures and their biological relevance were included. Another 39 articles involved methods that can be used to work with intensity data, determine phases, or refine structures. The influx of manuscripts is good, and the editorial staff has cut down the time between receipt and acceptance of a manuscript. Some articles take a long time to publish because of extensive communications between the Co-editor and the author, or because the author has been slow to revise the manuscript after receiving the comments of reviewers. The time for such a revision has now been reduced from six to three months, and all authors are required to confirm that they have seen and accept the final version of the manuscript. Colour diagrams and photographs are published without any charge to the authors; this has been very helpful in maintaining high publication standards in the journal.

The Short Communications section is mainly devoted to reports of unit-cell dimensions and space groups of macromolecular crystals. 78 such articles were published in 1996. In addition, 15 full articles were published on experiments to obtain crystals, or to improve current crystallization methods. In addition, reports on policies for deposition of macromolecular data and on a workshop on procedures for recording and validating results of three-dimensional structural studies of biological macromolecules were published.

Authors of all structural papers are required to deposit three-dimensional structural coordinates and structure factors with the Protein Data Bank before the article can be published. The author may, however, request that atomic coordinates be given a privileged status for one year and structure factors for four years.

The fine work of the Co-editors, the excellent support of the office at Chester, and the care with which the reviewers referee submitted manuscripts have each played a substantial role in the continued viability of this section of Acta.

J. P. Glusker, Editor

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