Editing ValidatorDB:Principles (section)

=Validation analyses=
The validation analyses performed by ValidatorDB cover all main issues which have been observed in the topology (2D structure) and geometry (3D structure) of ligands and non-standard residues. These validation analyses, along with their respective results, can be classified into three categories, namely ''Completeness'', ''Chirality'' and ''Advanced'' analyses.

The ''Completeness'' analyses attempt to find which atoms are missing, whether these atoms are part of rings, or the structure is degenerate, i.e., the molecule contains very severe errors. These may refer to residues overlapping in the 3D space, or atoms which are disconnected from the rest of the structure.

The ''Chirality'' analyses are performed only on complete structures, and aim to evaluate the chirality of each atom in the validated molecule. We distinguish between several types of chirality errors: on carbon atoms (C chirality), on metal atoms (Metal chirality), on atoms with 4 substituents in one plane (Planar chirality), on atoms connected to at least one substituent by a bond of higher order (High order chirality), and the remaining chirality issues (Other chirality).

The ''Advanced'' analyses are focused on issues which are not real chemical problems, but which can complicate further processing and exploration of data, and thus should be noted. The Substitution analysis reports the replacement of some atom by an atom of a different chemical element. The Foreign atom analysis detects atoms which originate from the neighborhood of the validated molecule (i.e., having different PDB residue ID than the majority of the validated molecule), and generally marks sites of inter-molecular linkage. The Different naming analysis identifies atoms whose name in PDB format is different than the standard convention for the validated molecule. The Zero RMSD analysis reports molecules whose structure is identical (root mean square deviation = 0 Å) to the model from wwPDB CCD. The Alternate conformations analysis informs about the occurrence of alternate conformations in the validated PDB entry.