A Plan for Extending the mmCIF Dictionary

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Dear Colleagues,

As a result of discussions during and subsequent to the mmCIF Software
Developers' Workshop that was held at Rutgers October 17-19, 1997, we have
written a plan for managing the extension of the mmCIF Dictionary. We
present it here for your information and comments.

As noted in item 2.4 below, all comments and reviews will be carried out via
the mmCIF listserver.

Helen Berman
Paula Fitzgerald

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A Plan for Extending the mmCIF Dictionary

	The following outlines the plan by which the evolution of the mmCIF
dictionary will be managed. This plan would ensure timely additions to the
dictionary,  review by experts in the field, and the assurance that the
dictionary will remain technically sound. The model is that of a journal.

1.0 Establishment of a Dictionary Editorial Board

 	1.1 An Editorial Board will be established whose role will be to review
the proposed new data items. The board members will represent the broad
category groups of the dictionary. Potential candidates have been identified
and are being invited to serve.

	1.2 Paula Fitzgerald, who will serve as Editor, and Helen Berman, who
will serve as Associate Editor, will be responsible for initial review of
proposed new data items and for sending them out for review by the
appropriate member(s) of the board.

	1.3 Two technical editors, John Westbrook and Herb Bernstein, will be
responsible for ensuring that the definitions are compliant with the
dictionary syntax.

	1.4 The editors will meet on a published schedule several times a
year. The full board will meet once a year at the ACA meeting and on an
ad-hoc basis as needed.

2.0 Procedures for Extending the mmCIF Dictionary

	2.1 All proposed extensions to the dictionary will be submitted
to the mmCIF server in the form of a dictionary entry. To facilitate this, a
definition template will be made available on the mmCIF server.

	2.2 The proposed definitions will receive a preliminary review by the
editorial staff and will then be sent to the appropriate board member(s) for
scientific content review. The reviewers will receive full dictionary
definitions and will return them with corrections and/or modifications.

	2.3 Once definitions have been approved they would be put into a
provisonal extensions dictionary. If the proposed data item was submitted
with a local data name prefix, that prefix will be removed in the entry in
the extensions dictionary, but an alias to the local dictionary name (with
the extension) will be retained.  A policy for retentions times for these
aliases is under discussion.

	2.4 The provisional dictionary will be available on the mmCIF server
and will be updated on a continuing basis.  Members of the community at large
will be encouraged to monitor the evolution of the extensions dictionary
via the mmCIF web page, and to comment on all new data items via the mmCIF
list server.

3.0 Proposed Timetable for Extending the mmCIF Dictionary

	3.1 For review of Version 2 extensions, the meeting dates for the
Editor and Associate Editor will be December 1, 1997, January 12, 1998,
February 9, 1998 and March 16, 1998.

	3.2 On April 1, the extensions dictionary will be sent to COMCIFS
for preliminary technical review.

	3.3 Full community review will begin on April 15, 1998 and conclude
on May 16, 1988, at which date the extensions dictionary will be sent to
COMCIFS for formal approval.  Once approved, the extensions dictionary will be
merged with Version 1.0 of the mmCIF dictionary, and the merged dictionary
will be published as Version 2.0.

-- 

  Helen Berman               Ph:  (908) 445-4667                
  Department of Chemistry    Fax: (908) 445-4320                
  Rutgers University                                                      
  PO Box 939                 e-mail: berman@adenine.rutgers.edu    
  Piscataway, NJ 08855-0939                                               

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