Navigating the IUCr CIFinfo Service: A Gateway to Seamless Crystallographic Publishing
The IUCr CIFinfo Service is the central hub provided by the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) to assist researchers in preparing, validating, and formatting Crystallographic Information Files (CIF) for academic publication.
In structural sciences, the CIF format serves as the universal standard for archiving and exchanging structural data. Because major structural journals, including Acta Crystallographica Section E, require full structural data files upon submission, this platform acts as an essential checkpoint to ensure data integrity and structural compliance before peer review.
[ Structural Software Package (SHELX, OLEX2, etc.) ] │ ▼ [ Generate Preliminary .cif File ] │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ IUCr CIFinfo Service & Tools Portal │ │ (https://journals.iucr.org/e/services/cifinfo.html) │ └─────────┬──────────────────────────────┬─────────┘ │ │ ▼ ▼ [ checkCIF / PLATON ] publCIF (Text & Table Formatting) │ │ ┌────────────┴────────────┐ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ [ Alerts Found ] [ Clean Report ] Standardized (Ready to Submit) (Experimental Table) │ │ │ └────────────┬────────────┘ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ [ Final Crystallographic Information File Submission ] Core Structural Features of the CIFinfo Portal
The service acts as a multi-functional toolbox tailored for crystallographers. It streamlines structural reporting by providing access to official software, validation parameters, and syntactical dictionaries.
(IUCr) Journal of Applied Crystallography – help with preparing CIFs
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