IUCr 1997 Report - Acta Crystallographica Section B

Section B published 1045 pages in 1997, comprising 109 Research Papers, 2 Topical Reviews and 2 Short Communications. The balance of papers was 43% inorganic, 19% metallo-organic and 37% organic. The authorship was spread amongst 21 countries. The rejection rate was 11%, and the withdrawal rate was 12%.

These statistics are healthily similar to those for 1995 and 1996. They confirm: (a) that the recovery from the lows of 1994 have been sustained over a three-year period, (b) that Section B does attract articles from the broad chemical spectrum that it aims to serve, and (c) that the journal is truly international. In terms of impact statistics, Section B lies fourth out of 17 current crystallographic journals, just behind three other IUCr publications. Citation analysis indicates also that papers in Section B are of lasting value, with a citation half-life of more than 10 years.

Once again, the quantity of review material published has been less than hoped. However, in 1997, this has been as much connected with ensuring the quality of such papers rather than their quantity.

On the positive side, publication times have been significantly reduced, by 1.4 and 1.0 months per paper over times experienced in 1995 and 1996, respectively. The publication time of 5.7 months in 1997 is the shortest for the past 5 years. Despite the fact that Section B appears only bi-monthly, the intention is further to reduce these times in 1998. A stricter regime has been introduced concerning revision times permitted to authors - a large component of earlier perceived delays. It is this regime that has led to a higher than normal withdrawal rate in 1997. Stricter adherence to CIF requirements and guidelines, where appropriate, has also been introduced during the year.

F. H. Allen, Editor

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