The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) and FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure (FIZ Karlsruhe) today announced the launch of their joint deposition and access services for crystallographic data across all chemistry. These services will enable researchers to share data through a single deposition portal and explore all chemical structures for free worldwide.
“With this joint depot, FIZ Karlsruhe supports the community’s need for a reliable infrastructure for research data from crystallography.” says Sabine Brünger-Weilandt, CEO from FIZ Karlsruhe. “Providing freely available research data for all chemistry is in line with our claim to advance science. The announcement of the cooperation between CCDC and FIZ Karlsruhe was already enthusiastically received by the community. We are convinced that we can meet the high expectations with the new joint depot.”
The Chair of Trustees for the CCDC is equally excited about the impact of this launch to researchers worldwide: “All information users, whether they admit it or not, wish that all of the information that they require was in a single location. Failing that, they are searching for a “magic bullet” that will hit exactly what they want; they want to be able to use a simple interface and locate all of their information needs. By unifying the deposition and access of organic, metal-organic, and inorganic crystal structures we get a little closer to that magic bullet, at least in the area of crystallography, and make researchers’ lives that much easier.” says Judith Currano, Chair of Trustees for the CCDC and Head of the Chemistry Library at the University of Pennsylvania.
Recent advances in chemistry have meant that the distinctions between inorganic and organic structures have become blurred, for instance through research to design new batteries, gas storage systems, zeolites, catalysts, magnets, and fuel additives. This, coupled with the desire from researchers for more integrated databases, has been the driving force behind the development of these joint services.
As a result, researchers and educators worldwide, working across all fields of chemistry, are able to explore over one million crystallographic structures through a joint Access Structures service enabling them simultaneously to search the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) and the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD).
Crystallographers can deposit organic, inorganic and metal-organic structures through a unified deposition service. This features a streamlined online portal for easy submission and integrates a variety of checks to alert researchers about the validity, integrity and originality of their data. Additional features include the rapid assignment of deposition numbers and the ability for depositors to choose to share their data immediately through an appropriate database. Alternatively, data destined for inclusion in a scientific article is automatically shared at the point of publication through workflows with most major publishers. Anyone looking for structures previously stored in the FIZ Karlsruhe depot can still find them using the published depot number.
All of the existing expert data curation and publishing processes will remain in place, ensuring that users will still have access to the high-quality data and advanced analysis capabilities on which they can depend. The highly curated CSD and ICSD databases and their associated advanced software will continue to develop and to be available independently from the CCDC and FIZ Karlsruhe, respectively.
For more information about these joint services, please go to the CCDC or FIZ Karlsruhe websites: www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk www.fiz-karlsruhe.de
And for more information about this announcement please contact:
Suzanna Ward, CCDC ward@ccdc.cam.ac.uk
Helmut Mueller, FIZ Karlsruhe Helmut.Mueller@fiz-karlsruhe.de