All,
We have been following the CCP4BB discussion with interest. As has been mentioned on several occasions, the JCSG has maintained, for several years now, an open archive of all diffraction datasets associated with our deposited structures. Overall this has been a highly positive experience and many developers, researchers, teachers and students have benefited from our archive. We currently have close to 100 registered users of our archive and we seem to receive a new batch of users each time our archive is acknowledged in a paper or is mentioned at a conference. Building on this initial success, we are currently extending our archive to include unsolved datasets, which will help us more readily share data and collaborate with methods developers on some of our less tractable datasets. We are also planning to include screening images for all crystals evaluated as part of the JCSG pipeline (largely as a feedback tool to help improve crystal quality). At JCSG, we benefit tremendously from our central database, which already tracks all required metadata associated with any crystal. Thus I agree with other comments that the cost of such an undertaking should not be underestimated. The cost of the hardware may be modest; however, people and resources are needed to develop and maintain a robust and reliable archive. To date we have not assigned DOIs to our datasets, but we certainly feel this would be of value going forward and are currently considering this option for our revised archive, which is currently in development. If successful then this may form a good prototype system, which could be opened up to a broader community outside of JCSG. We (JCSG) have already shared much of our experiences with the IUCR working group and we would be happy to participate and contribute to any ongoing efforts. Sincerely, Ashley.Deacon JCSG Structure Determination Core Leader
