CIF

Definition

Acronym used both for the Crystallographic Information File, a data-exchange and archival file format sponsored by the International Union of Crystallography, and the Crystallographic Information Framework, a subsequent system of exchange protocols based on data dictionaries and relational rules expressible in different machine-readable manifestations, including, but not restricted to, Crystallographic Information File and XML.

Similar acronyms are used for specific applications of the Crystallographic Information Framework, e.g.

• mmCIF (macromolecular crystallography)
• pdCIF (powder diffraction)
• msCIF (description of modulated and composite structures)
• rhoCIF (electron density data)
• imgCIF (image data)
• symCIF (symmetry data)

See also

Brown, I. D. & McMahon, B. (2002). CIF: the computer language of crystallography, Acta Cryst. B58, 317-324.

Hall, S. R., Allen, F. H. & Brown, I. D. (1991). The Crystallographic Information File (CIF): a new standard archive file for crystallography. Acta Cryst. A47, 655-685. (See also HTML version at http://www.iucr.org/iucr-top/cif/standard/cifstd1.html.)

International Tables for Crystallography, Volume G