Like other leading journals, Nature has in recent months been considering a change in editorial policy, requiring that high-resolution structural coordinate data be made freely available at the time of publication, rather than allowing the option of a one-year hold on such release (see Nature 391, 617; 1998). It is clear that there is a significant majority opinion in the community against permitting a one-year hold. Accordingly, Nature, simultaneously with Science, is changing its policy. Any paper containing new structural data received on or after 1 October 1998 will not be accepted without an accession number from the Brookhaven Protein Data Bank (PDB) accompanied by an assurance that unrestricted ("layer-1") release will occur at or before the time of publication (see April 1998 PDB Newsletter at www.pdb.bnl.gov/pdb-docs/newsletter.html). We will undertake to notify the PDB ahead of publication to ensure that the data are unlocked on the appropriate date.

Philip Campbell Editor, Nature