Checklist for the description of incommensurate modulated crystal structures - Report of the International Union of Crystallography Commission on Aperiodic Crystals

One of the terms of reference published in 1992 (Acta Cryst. A48, 922-946) in the report of the (at that time) Ad Interim Commission on Aperiodic Crystals was 'to co-operate with other Commissions of the IUCr in establishing adequate guidelines and standards for articles to be published in IUCr journals reporting structural investigations of aperiodic crystals and theoretical investigations of aperiodic patterns'. It was soon recognized by the Commission that the establishment of a checklist for the publication of incommensurately modulated structures was perhaps the most urgent task. One of the first attempts to address the problem of publishing incommensurate structures was presented during a discussion organized in 1991 in Leikeitio, Spain, in a workshop dedicated to methods of structural analysis of modulated structures and quasicrystals. Since this meeting, the work of the Commission progressed interactively by numerous exchanges on the occasions of international meetings and mostly by electronic correspondence. The Checklist was accepted in 1994 by the Executive Committee of the IUCr. The opinion of the Commission on Journals was also requested and, following the comments of its members, the Checklist has been completed with an example of an incommensurate crystal structure illustrating each specific item that is required in the Checklist.