HOW IS A CIF PREPARED AND EDITED? George Ferguson, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1 (george@xray.chembio.uoguelph.ca)

This presentation will review the types of CIF typically produced by several well known crystallographic program systems and detail what MUST be added to each of them with any text editor to produce a "working" CIF which will pass the tests in the IUCr program CHECKCIF. The resultant CIF will then be acceptable to the IUCr program PRINTCIF which returns to the submitting author a postcript file of the CIF. Once the CIF is formally submitted to the Managing Editor of Acta Crystallographica, a similar printout is prepared in Chester and sent to Coeditors and referees. Specimen "raw" CIFs will be available both in print and electronic form, together with a list of the data items which should be added in each case to yield a "working" CIF. Specimen CHECKCIF and PRINTCIF outputs for correct CIFs and those with errors will be shown and discussed. Additional CIF features (which are not necessary for the formal acceptance of a CIF by Acta Crystallographica) which make the CIF a useful archival document will also be presented.