Acta Crystallographica Section C

S. Hall, editor of Acta C, B. McMahon, Research & Development Officer IUCr, P. Strickland, Managing Editor, IUCr Journals, and A.M. Glazer, editor of J. Applied Crystallography.

Each new issue of Section C will feature a picture of a current structure. The Table of Contents will emphasize structural, rather than crystallographic, features. It has been designed for faster scanning in a format suitable for electronic previewing. Acta C will remain, first and foremost, a journal for rapid publication of accurate but concise reports on crystal and molecular structures. In future, 2D chemical diagrams will be mandatory for molecular structures. Additional chemical information on the material studied will be requested, and there will be tighter control over the quality of structure diagrams. Miniature packing and stereo diagrams will be discouraged. The Comments section will contain only the unique and important aspects of the structure. The primary objective for these recommendations will be to ensure that each paper encapsulates, in a clear and concise way, the essential structural data and its raison d' etre. Additional information will be available by electronic access.

As in the past, Acta C manuscripts are submitted to the Chester Office for checking and transmittal to co-editors. However, CIF and hardcopy submissions will be processed in separate streams. CIF's will pass through the checking and typesetting stages at a much faster rate. Manuscripts which pass the initial Chester checks "without fault" (e.g., no numerical errors or missing data, text or figures) will be reviewed as fast track submissions. Those manuscripts will be sent with full advance proofs to Co-editors for rapid reviewing. If the paper is accepted for publication with minor or no corrections, this proof will be forwarded to the authors for immediate final checking. In the future, we will be delivering published C papers and data electronically. These services will include electronic previewing of Contents and Abstracts on the day of publication. This will be supported by electronic delivery of complete text images and CIF's. These services will be announced in the IUCr Newsletter as soon as the necessary computing and software facilities are in place. These changes will make Section C easier to scan but suitable for scientists who like to browse, provide results that are current, and electronic access to data and text for those who require instant notification of the journal's contents.