CIF (Crystallographic Information File): A Standard for Crystallographic Data Interchange

The Crystallographic Information File (CIF) uses the self-defining STAR file structure. This requires the creation of a dictionary of data names and definitions. A basic dictionary of terms needed to describe the crystal structures of small molecules was approved in 1991 and is currently used for the submission of papers to Acta Crystallographica C. A number of extensions to this dictionary are in preparation. By storing the dictionary itself as a STAR file, the definitions and relationships in the CIF dictionary become computer interpretable. This offers many possibilities for the automatic handling of crystallographic information.