How long does it take for CSD Communications and structures published in associated scientific articles to be curated?

All structures undergo automatic validation at the point of deposition. Then, at the point of publication—either as a CSD Communications or through an associated scientific article—each structure is queued for manual curation and enhanced validation. This combination of automatic and manual efforts ensures that the CSD remains a reliable database, that structures are discoverable, and that the data can be used to generate new insights.

Typically, structures published in an associated scientific article undergo enhanced manual enrichment within two weeks of us identifying the publication. During this period, these structures are marked as “New structure undergoing enhancement” on our Access Structures and WebCSD services.

 For CSD Communications, we typically wait at least one month before queuing the structures for manual curation. This is because:

• CSD Communications require more manual curation effort since there is no accompanying scientific article to verify the chemistry.
• Some depositors may want to revise their CSD Communication data within a month of deposition or decide to publish their data in a scientific article instead. The longer period allows for this flexibility.

In some cases, manual curation times may be longer. This can happen if we have not yet identified that a deposited structure was published in a scientific article. To address this, we have established automatic workflows with all major publishers and regularly perform manual searches of additional journals using third-party indexing tools. We also contact depositors annually if their deposited data, according to our records, has not yet been published.

If you are unable to locate published data on our Access Structures service, you will be directed to a form where you can provide publication details, and we will update our records accordingly.

While we strive to manually curate structures as soon as the corresponding publication enters our system, busy periods or complex structures may extend typical curation times. During this time, you can still access the data through Access Structures and WebCSD, where it will be marked as “New structure undergoing enhancement.”

At regular intervals—typically quarterly—we provide data updates for our desktop tools. These updates include all new curated structures added during that time.