STATUS OF ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION C. S R Hall, Crystallography Centre, University of Western Australia, Nedlands 6907, Australia

A general report on the publication of Section C, over the past triennium, will be presented. Substantial changes to the printed format of the journal, its submission requirements and its ancillary services have taken place during this period. These developments will be discussed, as will be the future changes, including electronic delivery, expected during the forthcoming triennium. There was marked improvement in the publication rate of Section C papers in 1995. The number manuscripts received increased by 10% over 1994, and the number of papers published rose by over 25%. These result from the concerted effort to remove checking and editing backlogs at the Chester office, and the much higher ratio of CIF electronic submissions (over 90% in Dec. '95). A contributing factor to these improvements was the imposition of stricter initial filtering at Chester on received manuscripts. This has significantly reduced time lost later in the review process due to trivial omissions or errors. In addition to a faster publication rate in 1995, the overall quality of Section C papers continues to improve. This appears to result from a combination of stricter initial submission requirements, consistent adherence to the review criteria and greater experience on the part of authors with this type of presentation. These factors, coupled with new Contents format (on- paper and electronic), cover presentation, and CIF submission and checking facilities, have contributed to Section C becoming "the benchmark" in structural science publications.