The International Tables Symmetry Database – a comprehensive guide

The International Tables Symmetry Database, part of International Tables for Crystallography, is a collection of individual databases of crystallographic space-group and point-group information. Programs are provided to access and interactively visualize the data, and also allow new data to be calculated 'on the fly', facilitating the in-depth study of group–subgroup relations, domain structures and twinning, families of related crystal structures and phase transitions, and the prediction of new crystal structures. The Symmetry Database has been available since 2011 to subscribers to the online version of International Tables for Crystallography, and is periodically supplemented with exciting new features.

In a highly informative open-access article in the Teaching and Education section of the latest issue of the Journal of Applied Crystallography, Gemma de la Flor, Eli Kroumova, Robert M. Hanson and Mois I. Aroyo present the server-side crystallographic programs and interactive visualizers of the Symmetry Database and provide examples showing how they can be used.

An appendix to the article, based on information from the Teaching Edition of International Tables for Crystallography and International Tables for Crystallography Volume A, provides some basic definitions and explanations of the notation used in the description of symmetry operations, coordinate transformations, and subgroups and supergroups of space groups.

We strongly urge you to read this comprehensive guide to the many different features and uses of this unique resource.