Lucky 7

Kamila Nowakowska-Orzechowska – Tue, 05 Aug 2014 15:58:00 GMT

The number of structures in the Cambridge Structural Database is growing really quickly; in fact it has doubled since I joined the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre in 2007.

The quantity of deposits we are dealing each day is also growing. The aim for the team of Deposition Coordinators is to provide the Depositors with their CCDC number as quickly as possible, without compromising on the quality of our work. To be able to achieve this we had to change, adapt and reorganise many processes and workflows we have been using in the past. Upgrading our software platform was also necessary and we can already see the results - most of the CCDC numbers are issued within 3 hours from the time of deposition!

The aforementioned growth leads to other changes, as some of our Depositors may have noticed – since last month we are assigning CCDC numbers in new, 7-digit format. The reason for it is very trivial – we have used up all the 6-digit combinations (a format that we have been using since 1998)! When the CCDC issued CCDC number 900,000 in 2012 we wrote a blog giving a brief history of CCDC deposition numbers.

Screenshot showing the structure of DIWJEA (CCDC number 1000045) in WebCSD

The changeover was almost invisible from our perspective in the Database Group (courtesy of the CCDC’s wonderful Database Group Development Team). More importantly, it didn’t cause any problems at all to our Users and Depositors, either. If anyone has any questions regarding the new 7-digit CCDC number please let me re-assure you – the new numbers work exactly the same as the old ones when searching in ConQuest or WebCSD (as you can see in the picture above) and for retrieving data via our ‘Get Structures’ service, accessible from our Home Page: www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk so please continue publishing CCDC numbers in your forthcoming papers as normal.

If you ever need to revise your previously deposited structure don’t forget to quote the original CCDC number when you send us the updated information. Remember, it’s now easier than ever to get your data to us; you can deposit CIFs and structure factor files, and review and enhance your data, using our new improved Web Deposition Form, also accessible from our Home Page. We’ll give you a new, 7-digit CCDC number as soon as possible!

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