The wwPDB provides depositors with detailed reports (PDF and XML
files) that include the results of model and experimental data validation,
as part of the curation of all entries.
As these wwPDB validation reports provide an assessment of structure
quality using widely accepted standards and criteria, the wwPDB
partners strongly encourage journal editors and referees to request
them from authors as part of the manuscript submission and review
process. The reports are date-stamped and display the logo of the wwPDB
site where the entry was curated. They contain the same information,
regardless of which wwPDB site processed the entry. Provision of wwPDB
validation reports is already required by eLife, The Journal of
Biological Chemistry, and the International Union of
Crystallography (IUCr) journals as part of their manuscript-submission
process.
The validation reports continue to be developed and improved as we receive
recommendations from the expert Validation Task Forces (VTF) for
X-ray,
NMR, and
EM, as we develop the
wwPDB Deposition & Annotation (D&A) system,
and as we collect feedback from depositors and users.
The validation reports for all structures deposited in the PDB archive have been updated in September 2020
with 2019 statistics (announcement).
Validation reports for all Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and 3D Cryo
Electron Microscopy (3DEM) structures already represented in the global PDB
archive were made publicly available in May 2016
(announcement).
Useful resources and links
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Validation Report User Guides for
X-ray,
NMR,
EM model,
EM map only,
EM tomogram.
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Validation Report
FAQs.
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Validation Report
announcement
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Sample validation report PDFs for:
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1CBS,
a 1.8Å resolution X-ray structure of a small protein and a ligand, an entry with
better overall quality relative to all X-ray structures.
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1FCC,
a 3.2Å resolution structure with worse overall quality relative to all X-ray
structures.
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1EG1,
a 3.6Å resolution structure with possible ligand geometry and fit to density issues.
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7JIA, a solution NMR entry with restraints analysis.
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6QWR, a solid-state NMR entry.
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EMD-4960, a 3.9Å resolution EM
map including ligand, FSC curve and half-maps.
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EMD-21212/6VJA, a 3.30Å
single particle EM reconstruction with model including FSC curve, half-maps and mask.
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EMD-0509, analysis of an EM tomogram.
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Validation information and reports for released PDB entries are available from the entry pages at
PDBj,
RCSB PDB and
PDBe.
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FTP access to validation reports, in PDF and XML format, for all released entries from
wwPDB,
RCSB PDB,
PDBe or
PDBj.
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Validation XML Schema:
v1,
v002,
v003,
v004.
v005.
v5.01.
v6.00.
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Information on Stand-alone wwPDB validation servers
that allow experimental structural biologists to produce reports and validate their models
prior to publication and deposition.
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wwPDB Deposition System
Video Tutorials
wwPDB Validation: Assessing the Quality of PDB structures
How to Interpret the Quality of a PDB Structure using the wwPDB validation report