Crystallographic Information File

Definition

A standard file format for the exchange and archiving of crystallographic data, developed by the International Union of Crystallography in 1991 and used as the basis for submission of crystal structure reports to journals and databases. The format is based on the Self-Defining Text Archive and Retrieval (STAR) File of Hall (1991). An enhanced version of the format was published in 2016 that offers an expanded character repertoire, new and more flexible forms for quoted data values, and new compound data types.

The principles developed for the Crystallographic Information File remain an important component of an expanded Crystallographic Information Framework that promotes standardised interchange of crystallographic data through a growing number of protocols and specifications.

Related article

• CIF

See also

• Bernstein, H.J., Bollinger, J. C., Brown, I. D., Gražulis, S., Hester, J. R., McMahon, B., Spadaccini, N., Westbrook, J. D. and Westrip, S. P. (2016). J. Appl. Cryst. 49 277-284. Specification of the Crystallographic Information File format, version 2.0
• Hall, S. R. (1991). J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci. 31, 326-333. The STAR file: a new format for electronic data transfer and archiving.
• Hall, S. R., Allen, F. H. and Brown, I. D. (1991). Acta Cryst. A47, 655-685. The Crystallographic Information File (CIF): a new standard archive file for crystallography. (See also HTML version at http://www.iucr.org/iucr-top/cif/standard/cifstd1.html.)
• International Tables for Crystallography, Volume G