Last time we told you a bit about the history of CCDC numbers and looked to their future, (“Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”) but what about that other well known CCDC identifier, the refcode?
Firstly, what IS a refcode? Put simply, it’s a 6 letter code which corresponds to an entry in the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD). Refcodes have been used since the beginning of CSD, so pre-date CCDC numbers. But there are also considerable benefits in using refcodes alongside CCDC numbers as identifiers.