Electronic version of the third volume of the general catalogue of variable stars with improved coordinates

We present a new electronic version of the third volume of the fourth edition of the General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS) that contains data on 13 855 variables in the constellations Pavo-Vulpecula. The Name Lists of Variable Stars from no. 67 to no. 77 were included in the new version. The main distinctive feature of the new version is that improved J2000.0 equatorial coordinates (including those for 6163 stars corrected for the proper motions) based on the identifications with positional catalogues using finding charts and on our new measurements are presented for 13 812 stars. We searched for a number of stars on original plates from the plate stacks of several observatories and using images from digital sky surveys. Apart from the complete update of the positional information, we made several corrections that were found to be necessary after the publication of the GCVS Volume III (1985) and several corrections of the information about the variability features based on photometry from currently available automatic sky surveys. A number of problem identifications are described in detail. The new version completes our long-term work on the complete revision of the positional information in the GCVS. In the Conclusions, we give a list of references to new Internet resources.