Acta Crystallographica

Acta Crystallographica
Title	Acta Crystallographica
Discipline	Crystallography
Abbreviation	Acta Crystallogr.
Publisher	International Union of Crystallography
Country	United Kingdom
History	1948–present
Frequency	Weekly/Monthly (varies by section)
Issn	0365-

Acta Crystallographica is a long-running series of peer-reviewed scientific journals dedicated to the publication of research in crystallography and structural science. Founded under the auspices of the International Union of Crystallography, the series has served as a venue for advances spanning X-ray diffraction, neutron scattering, electron microscopy, and computational methods. Scholars associated with institutions such as the Royal Institution, Harvard University, Cambridge University, and the Max Planck Society have frequently contributed to the series.

History

The series emerged following meetings of the International Union of Crystallography and key figures from the Cavendish Laboratory, the Royal Society, the British Association, and the University of Oxford. Early contributors included scientists affiliated with the Carnegie Institution, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Chicago, and the California Institute of Technology. During the Cold War era the journal attracted authors from institutions like the Soviet Academy of Sciences, the Weizmann Institute, the University of Tokyo, and the École Normale Supérieure. Subsequent decades saw participation from the CNRS, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Stanford University, and the Rockefeller University. The series evolved alongside developments at CERN, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Publication and Structure

The publication model was overseen by the International Union of Crystallography in coordination with publishing partners including Oxford University Press, Pergamon Press, and scholarly presses associated with the Royal Society. Editorial boards comprised members from Columbia University, Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, Imperial College London, and ETH Zurich. Distribution reached libraries at the British Library, Library of Congress, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the National Diet Library. Production workflows referenced standards adopted by the Institute of Physics, the American Chemical Society, the American Physical Society, and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Journals and Sections

The series is organized into multiple sections that reflect methodological and topical divisions affecting laboratories at institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley, King's College London, University of Manchester, and Peking University. Sections have paralleled research programs at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, the Paul Scherrer Institute, and the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences. The sections accommodated specialized communities including researchers from Princeton University, Duke University, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Melbourne.

Editorial and Peer Review Process

Editorial processes have drawn on practices refined at organizations such as the Committee on Publication Ethics, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, the Wellcome Trust, and funding bodies like the National Institutes of Health, the European Research Council, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Australian Research Council. Reviewers have included scientists connected to MIT, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, McGill University, the University of Toronto, and ETH Lausanne. Editorial oversight involved procedures similar to those at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society.

Scope and Scientific Impact

The scope spans experimental and theoretical work relevant to facilities and programs at synchrotron sources such as the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Diamond Light Source, Advanced Photon Source, Spring-8, and PETRA III. Impactful themes intersect with research from the Pasteur Institute, the Scripps Research Institute, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the Broad Institute. The journal series influenced methodologies employed in studies at the Francis Crick Institute, the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Institut Pasteur.

Notable Articles and Contributions

Seminal contributions published in the series have paralleled discoveries associated with Nobel laureates and institutions including the University of Cambridge Cavendish Laboratory, the Rockefeller University, the Max Planck Society, and the Karolinska Institute. Key methodological papers have informed projects at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Case studies from groups at the University of Oxford, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Helsinki, and the University of Leiden have been prominent.

Access, Licensing, and Distribution

Access policies have evolved in dialogue with funders and consortia including Research Councils UK, the Wellcome Trust, the European Commission, the National Science Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Distribution networks encompass aggregators and library systems such as JSTOR, PubMed Central, Scopus, Web of Science, and CrossRef, and have engaged infrastructure providers like ORCID, COPE, CLOCKSS, and Portico. Licensing options and open access arrangements have been negotiated in the context of publishing practices at Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, and Taylor & Francis.

Category:Crystallography journals Category:Scientific journals established in 1948