Research Communications – over 100 papers and counting!

The relaunch of Acta Crystallographica Section E in June heralded its transformation from Structure Reports Online to Crystallographic Communications and saw the publication of the first papers in the new Research Communication format designed to bring out the science behind the structure determination. Reports are no longer limited to a short description of a single structure and figures are no longer relegated to the Supporting information. We are delighted to see that an increasing number of authors are choosing to publish their work as a Research Communication, with the numbers of these articles increasing every month. The November issue includes the one hundredth paper to be published in this format, so what better time to celebrate the great breadth in the range and scope of the Research Communications published so far? Authors are positively encouraged to report and discuss related structures in a single Research Communication rather than publishing a series of short structural reports. We are pleased to see that papers reporting two structures are a now regular feature and one three-structure paper has been published. Authors have made the most of the opportunity to include extra tables and figures in the published paper to illustrate their results and enhance the discussion of the underlying science. We are pleased to see that the variety of compounds covered is vast, and includes a fullerene, a potential secondary explosive, a herbicide, MOF's, a two-dimensional grid-type structure, a layered coordination polymer, a four-layered [3.3](3,5)pyridinophane, an anti-HIV agent, a new solid form of the drug seratrodast, a helicene, isotypic structures , polymorphs and caged compounds to name but a few. While the majority of crystals have been measured with Mo K or Cu K radiation, some studies have benefited from synchrotron and even neutron time-of-flight measurements. These full papers have discussed some very interesting science, the findings of the studies including, amongst others, an example of the importance of freely refining the positions of the amino-group H atoms, the influence of solvent upon the stoichiometry of the formed salt, relative substituent orientation, extension of the coordination chemistry of a certain ligand type farther towards the early transition metals, and the influence of the molecular shape on the hydrogen-bonding pattern. Each month a Section Editor has the pleasure of choosing the structure for the cover. The cover choices reflect the broad range of topics you will find among the Research Communications. In July, the …