Acta Crystallographica Section F Structural Biology Communications

About Acta Crystallographica Section F Structural Biology Communications

Overview

Acta Crystallographica Section F: Structural Biology Communications (ISO 4 abbreviation: Acta Crystallogr. F; CODEN: ACSFEN; ISSN 2053-230X) is a rapid structural biology communications journal published by the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) in association with Wiley. It appears monthly in English and is available online-only via journals.iucr.org. The journal welcomes short articles covering all aspects of structural biology: reports of new structures; mutants of existing structures and the biochemistry probing their activity; methods communications covering novel approaches, pipelines, and graphical user interfaces; first reports from early-career researchers; crystallization reports and the techniques underpinning them; short commentaries on issues of interest to the community; and reports from structural biology meetings.

Section F is designed for speed and accessibility. Submissions should aim for a maximum of about 3,000 words, keeping article preparation easy and review times fast. Notably, the journal is free to publish: there are no submission fees or page charges, and open access is optional (it may be covered by a transformative deal with the author's institution). The journal actively supports early-career researchers through highlighted papers and video interviews with its editors, and welcomes videos, which are promoted on social media and the IUCr YouTube channel. Its readership spans structural biologists, crystallographers, biochemists, drug-discovery scientists, and students entering the field.

Aims and Scope

The journal's aim is rapid communication of concise, useful contributions across structural biology. Typical content includes:

• Short reports of new macromolecular structures with focused biological discussion.
• Structures of mutants of known proteins and the biochemical experiments probing their activity or loss of activity.
• Methods communications: novel approaches, data-processing and phasing pipelines, and graphical user interfaces communicating with existing software.
• First reports from early-career researchers in receipt of structural biology training — a distinctive mission of the journal.
• Crystallization communications: crystallization reports and the techniques that underpin successful crystal growth, including high-throughput and fragment-screening approaches.
• Structural genomics communications and structures arising from iterative studies such as those used in the pharmaceutical industry.
• Short commentaries on issues of interest to the structural biology community.
• Reports from structural biology meetings and conference proceedings summaries.

Articles are concise by design: the 3,000-word target keeps the barrier to submission low and enables the fast review times that are the journal's hallmark. Structures determined through structural genomics initiatives or iterative pharmaceutical studies are particularly welcomed.

Article Types

Section F's article portfolio reflects its communications mission. Structural communications report individual structures or small sets of structures with concise discussion. Crystallization communications document crystallization successes, methods, and enabling technologies. Methods communications describe new software, pipelines, and interfaces. The journal publishes commentaries on community issues and meeting reports summarizing structural biology conferences. A special emphasis is placed on first reports from early-career researchers: selected papers, especially those involving early-career authors, are encouraged, supported, and highlighted through video interviews with the journal's editors — a distinctive form of visibility for scientists at the start of their careers. Videos accompanying articles are welcomed and actively promoted on social media and the IUCr YouTube channel.

Editorial Board and Leadership

Section F is a learned-society journal of the IUCr with an international editorial board of structural biologists and trusted expert reviewers. The editors listed in the journal's publication details are Maria Cristina Nonato, Mark van Raaij, and Jon Agirre. Earlier editorial leadership included H. M. Einspahr and M. S. Weiss during the journal's first decade. Editorial handling is supported by the IUCr's professional managing-editors team in Chester, England. The board's expertise spans macromolecular crystallography, structural genomics, crystallization science, and computational structural biology, matching the journal's broad communications remit.

Peer Review Process

Section F operates a peer-review process optimized for rapidity without sacrificing rigour. From its launch, the editorial process has been completely electronic with respect to deposition, submission, refereeing, and publication. Manuscripts are assessed by the editors and sent to independent expert referees — the journal's materials describe all papers as refereed to a high standard. Reviewers evaluate the correctness of the structural work, the clarity and concision of the presentation, and the interest of the findings to the structural biology community.

Because articles are short and the format is standardized, review and publication are fast: articles are made available online as soon as they are ready, with unlimited free colour illustrations, movies, and other enhancements. Structural papers require deposition of coordinates and structure factors in the Protein Data Bank, and validation standards consistent with the IUCr's other biological journals apply. The journal's easy-to-use online submission and review system, combined with concise manuscripts, keeps the time from submission to publication short — a central part of the journal's value proposition.

Indexing and Abstracting

Acta Crystallographica Section F is abstracted and indexed in:

• Science Citation Index Expanded (Web of Science Core Collection)
• Scopus
• MEDLINE / PubMed
• Biochemistry and Biophysics Citation Index
• Biological Abstracts and BIOSIS Previews
• Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)
• Nucleic Acid Database and Protein Data Bank

Coverage in the Science Citation Index Expanded means the journal carries a Journal Impact Factor, and MEDLINE indexing ensures visibility to the biomedical community.

Impact Metrics and Standing

Metric figures are reported with attribution; verify current values in the cited databases.

• Journal Impact Factor: 1.056 (2020), per the journal's Wikipedia summary; 1.1 based on Web of Science 2024 data (per OOIR).
• CiteScore: 2 (per Editage, based on Scopus data).
• SCImago indicators: H-index 47, SJR 0.324 (per Research.com).
• Category ranks (OOIR, based on recent publications): Q4 in Biochemical Research Methods and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Q3 in Crystallography — reflecting the journal's niche as a rapid communications venue rather than a full-paper journal.

Section F's metrics are modest compared with full-paper journals, which is expected for a short-communications title. Its standing rests instead on speed, openness to early-career authors, and its role in rapidly disseminating structures from structural genomics and pharmaceutical pipelines — outputs that might otherwise remain unpublished. The journal complements Section D: where Section D publishes full-length articles on significant advances, Section F provides the fast lane for concise structural reports.

Publication Model: Free to Publish

A distinctive feature of Section F is its author-friendly economics. The journal's official site states that articles are free to publish, with no submission fees or page charges. Open access is optional and may be covered by a transformative deal with the author's institution. This model — unusual among major structural biology journals — lowers barriers for authors, particularly early-career researchers and those at institutions without dedicated publication funds. Combined with unlimited free colour illustrations, movies, and other enhancements, the journal offers high production values without author-side costs under the standard publication route.

Early-Career Researcher Support

Section F has an explicit mission to support scientists entering structural biology. The journal welcomes first reports from early-career researchers in receipt of structural biology training, and selected papers — especially those involving early-career researchers — are encouraged, supported, and highlighted through video interviews with the journal's editors. Videos are welcomed with submissions and actively promoted on social media and the IUCr YouTube channel. This editorial posture makes Section F a natural first-publication venue for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers reporting their first structures, providing both rapid publication and unusual visibility for junior authors.

Publication Ethics

As an IUCr journal, Section F adheres to the ethical standards of the International Union of Crystallography and to accepted publication ethics. Authors must report original, unpublished work; disclose conflicts of interest; and present structural data honestly, including any disorder, twinning, or refinement difficulties. Fabrication or misrepresentation of structural data is grounds for rejection or retraction. Coordinate deposition in the Protein Data Bank and the provision of validation information protect the integrity of the shared structural record. Corrections and retractions are published when the scientific record requires amendment.

Open Access Policy

Acta Crystallographica Section F operates under a hybrid open-access model (per its publication details). Open access is optional for authors and may be covered by a transformative deal with the author's institution. Under the standard route, there are no submission fees or page charges. Authors choosing open access typically publish under Creative Commons licences. The current Notes for Authors on journals.iucr.org set out the up-to-date open-access options and any applicable charges.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions are made through the IUCr's online system at journals.iucr.org. Key requirements include:

• Manuscripts in English, prepared according to the Notes for Authors for Section F, aiming for a maximum of about 3,000 words.
• Structural papers must include Protein Data Bank accession codes for coordinates and structure factors.
• Crystallographic data in CIF format where appropriate; supplementary materials, movies, and enhanced figures supported.
• Unlimited free colour illustrations.
• Videos welcomed and promoted via social media and the IUCr YouTube channel.
• Authors may suggest referees and must disclose conflicts of interest.
• Articles published online as soon as ready, with citation linking to IUCr journals, MEDLINE, CrossRef, and ChemPort, plus e-mail alerting.

History

Acta Crystallographica was founded in 1948. The journal was divided into sections as it grew: A and B in 1968, C in 1983, and D (biological crystallography) in 1993. The IUCr journals launched online versions in 1999, and in 2001 the IUCr launched Section E as its first online-only journal, for brief reports of small-molecule structures; Section E became fully open access in 2008.

In 2005 the IUCr launched a second online-only journal: Section F, originally titled Acta Crystallographica Section F: Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications (online ISSN 1744-3091 at launch). Conceived as a rapid, all-electronic journal, it provided a home for short communications on the crystallization and structure of biological macromolecules — structures from structural genomics initiatives and iterative pharmaceutical studies were particularly welcomed. The editorial process was completely electronic from the start, and articles were made available online as soon as ready. The title was later shortened to Acta Crystallographica Section F: Structural Biology Communications, and the journal now carries ISSN 2053-230X. The IUCr moved to online-only publication for all its journals from 2014. Under editors including Maria Cristina Nonato, Mark van Raaij, and Jon Agirre, Section F continues as the IUCr's rapid communications venue for structural biology, distinguished by its free-to-publish model and its active cultivation of early-career authors.

Relationship with Section D and the IUCr Portfolio

Section F was designed from the outset to complement Section D. The IUCr's launch materials described the relationship explicitly: Section F and Section D would together provide a full range of options for the rapid publication of structural biology and crystallization research, with Section D continuing to welcome novel biological structures and papers on crystallographic methods and theory, including crystallization. In practice, authors choose Section F when they have a concise structural result — a single structure, a mutant, a crystallization report, a methods note — and Section D when they have a substantial advance warranting a full-length article. The two journals share the IUCr's editorial infrastructure, validation standards, and Protein Data Bank deposition requirements, so the choice between them is about length, depth of discussion, and speed rather than about quality thresholds.

Within the wider IUCr portfolio, Section F occupies the rapid-communications niche for macromolecular work, mirroring Section E's role for small molecules. The family also includes Section A (foundations), Section B (structural science), Section C (structural chemistry), the Journal of Applied Crystallography, the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, and IUCrJ. This integrated structure lets the IUCr serve crystallographers across the full range of article types, from single-structure communications to landmark methods papers.

The Structural Genomics Era and Community Impact

Section F's launch in 2005 coincided with the high-water mark of structural genomics — the international initiatives that sought to determine representative structures across protein families at industrial scale. The journal explicitly welcomed structures determined through structural genomics initiatives and from iterative studies such as those used in the pharmaceutical industry: exactly the high-volume, concise structural output that traditional full-paper journals struggled to accommodate. By providing rapid, peer-reviewed publication for these structures, Section F ensured that structural genomics output entered the citable literature with proper validation and PDB deposition rather than languishing in databases alone.

The journal's crystallization communications have had a parallel impact. Crystallization remains the rate-limiting step of macromolecular crystallography, and systematic reporting of crystallization conditions, crystal-growth observations, and enabling technologies helps the community learn from both successes and instructive difficulties. Section F's willingness to publish crystallization-focused work — alongside structures themselves — recognizes that the experiment behind the structure is itself a scientific contribution. Its methods communications on pipelines and graphical interfaces similarly capture the workflow innovations that make high-throughput structural biology possible.

The All-Electronic Workflow

Section F was conceived as an all-electronic journal at a time when that was still a novelty. From launch, the editorial process was completely electronic with respect to deposition, submission, refereeing, and publication — building on the Crystallography Journals Online platform the IUCr had launched in 1999. Articles are available online as soon as they are ready rather than waiting for issue compilation, making publication as fast as possible. The electronic format supports unlimited free colour illustrations, movies, and other enhancements at no cost to authors — features particularly valuable for structural biology, where rotating molecular graphics and electron-density figures communicate what static print cannot. Citation linking to IUCr journals, MEDLINE, CrossRef, and ChemPort, full-text and metadata searching, and e-mail alerting services complete a publication environment designed around the needs of a fast-moving, visually oriented science.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Acta Crystallographica Section F publish?
Short articles (up to about 3,000 words) on all aspects of structural biology: new structures, mutants, methods and crystallization communications, first reports from early-career researchers, commentaries, and meeting reports.

What is the ISSN of Acta Crystallographica Section F?
ISSN 2053-230X (online-only journal); CODEN ACSFEN; ISO 4 abbreviation Acta Crystallogr. F.

Who publishes Acta Crystallographica Section F?
The International Union of Crystallography (IUCr), in association with Wiley.

Is Acta Crystallographica Section F free to publish in?
Yes — the journal states there are no submission fees or page charges; open access is optional and may be covered by a transformative institutional deal.

When was Acta Crystallographica Section F founded?
It was launched in 2005 as an online-only journal titled Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications, later renamed Structural Biology Communications.

Who are the editors?
The listed editors are Maria Cristina Nonato, Mark van Raaij, and Jon Agirre.

What is the impact factor of Acta Crystallographica Section F?
1.056 (2020, per Wikipedia); about 1.1 on 2024 Web of Science data (per OOIR). Verify current figures in Journal Citation Reports.

How does Section F differ from Section D?
Section F publishes short communications (about 3,000 words maximum) for rapid dissemination, while Section D publishes full-length articles on significant advances in structural biology.

Does the journal support early-career researchers?
Yes — first reports from early-career researchers are explicitly welcomed, and selected papers are highlighted through video interviews with the editors and promotion on social media and YouTube.

Should I submit to Section F or Section D?
Choose Section F for concise communications (about 3,000 words maximum) needing rapid publication — single structures, mutants, crystallization or methods notes; choose Section D for full-length articles on significant advances.

Are there page charges in Section F?
No — the journal states there are no submission fees or page charges, and colour figures, movies, and enhancements are free.