We present a combination of the structure adapted multipole method with a reaction field (RF) correction for the efficient evaluation of electrostatic interactions in molecular dynamics simulations under periodic boundary conditions. The algorithm switches from an explicit electrostatics evaluation to a continuum description at the maximal distance that is consistent with the minimum image convention, and, thus, avoids the use of a periodic electrostatic potential. A physically motivated switching function enables charge clusters interacting with a given charge to smoothly move into the solvent continuum by passing through the spherical dielectric boundary surrounding this charge. This transition is complete as soon as the cluster has reached the so-called truncation radius R-c. The algorithm is used to examine the dependence of thermodynamic properties and correlation functions on R-c in the three point transferable intermolecular potential water model. Our test simulations on pure liquid water used either the RF correction or a straight cutoff and values of R-c ranging from 14 Angstrom to 40 Angstrom. In the RF setting, the thermodynamic properties and the correlation functions show convergence for R-c increasing towards 40 Angstrom. In the straight cutoff case no such convergence is found. Here, in particular, the dipole-dipole correlation functions become completely artificial. The RF description of the long-range electrostatics is verified by comparison with the results of a particle-mesh Ewald simulation at identical conditions. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.