During the SAS2012 meeting in Sydney, a well-attended panel discussion was held to discuss two related matters:
- publication guidelines for solution studies of biological macromolecules that use small-angle scattering to propose a 3D molecular model, either atomistic or a shape model, and
- the work of the Protein Data Bank Small-Angle Scattering Task Force (PDB-SAStf) that has been charged with considering whether solution scattering-based bio-molecular models should be archived.
At the panel discussion, it was agreed that a web page would be established to enable submissions from the community on these issues for consideration in the further development and communication of the guidelines.
The PDB-SAStf home page (http://sas.wwpdb.org/) now includes a link (SAS2012 Report) to a summary of the panel discussion, including the presentations made, as well as a link to what will become the discussion archive (Discussion List Archive) and where instructions on how to make a submission may be found.
Interested members of the small-angle scattering community are encouraged to review the current state of the draft guidelines and to contribute comments.
As the community of structural biologists using small-angle solution scattering continues to expand, community engagement in guiding publication practices will ensure that results can be evaluated by reviewers and readers alike and promote confidence in the valuable contributions these studies can make.
