Introduction to Searching the Chemical Literature

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Introduction to Searching the Chemical Literature
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Introduction to Searching the Chemical Literature

• Introduction
• Welcome
• Sections
• Quiz
• The Chemical Literature
• Objectives
• Structure of the Literature
• Types of Citations
• Finding It
• Searching the Literature
• Objectives
• About SciFinder Scholar
• By Research Topic
• By Author Name
• Conclusion
• Quiz

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Introduction Welcome

• This tutorial is designed to introduce you to
  searching the chemical literature.
• It is important for chemists to know where to
  find information about the work that other
  chemists have done. Remember Westheimers
  Discovery "A coupla months in the laboratory can
  save a coupla hours in the library."

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Introduction Welcome

• If you need to know more about using the
  libraries at UNC, the tutorial at
  http//www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/tutorial/ is a
  good place to start.
• Or just ask a librarian! Theyre there to help
  you find what you need.

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Introduction Sections

• There are two main sections of this tutorial and
  a quiz at the end.
• The first section discusses the chemical
  literature in general.
• The second helps you learn how to use SciFinder
  Scholar, a powerful tool for accessing the
  literature.

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Introduction Quiz

• There is a brief quiz at the end which will allow
  you to see how well you understood the material
  covered in the tutorial.
• There are 5 multiple choice questions in the quiz.

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The Chemical Literature Objectives

• After completing this section, you will be able
  to
• Tell the difference between primary, secondary,
  and tertiary materials in the chemical
  literature.
• Determine whether a citation is for a journal
  article or another type of reference.

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The Chemical Literature Structure of the
Literature

• The chemical literature consists of primary,
  secondary, and tertiary sources.
• When chemists talk about searching the
  literature, they generally are referring to
  primary sources.

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The Chemical Literature Structure of the
Literature

• Works consisting of original information reported
  by scientists such as articles, conference
  proceedings, dissertations patents, and technical
  reports, are considered primary materials.

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The Chemical Literature Structure of the
Literature

• Materials that are made up of information from
  primary sources that has been reorganized are
  considered secondary.
• Examples abstracts, bibliographies,
  dictionaries, handbooks, indexes, review
  articles, tables, and treatises.

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The Chemical Literature Structure of the
Literature

• Tertiary materials are intended to teach you how
  to use primary and secondary sources.

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The Chemical Literature Types of Citations

• When you are reading and searching the
  literature, you will come across different types
  of citations. Here are some examples
• Books
• Gutsche, C.D. Redmore, D. Carbocyclic Ring
  Expansion Reactions Academic Press New York,
  1968 pp. 111-117.
• Chapters from books
• Breslow, R. In Molecular Rearrangements de Mayo,
  P., Ed. Interscience. New York, 1963 pp.
  233-294.
• Journal articles
• Flowers, M.C. Frey, H.M. J. Chem. Soc. 1961,
  3547.
• Patents
• Sneddon, L.N. US 4,028,167

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The Chemical Literature Finding It

• The major tool for accessing the primary sources
  of chemistry is Chemical Abstracts.
• American chemists have relied on it since 1907 to
  help them find their way through the literature.

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The Chemical Literature Finding It

• Chemical Abstracts offers a variety of ways to
  find what youre looking for author, chemical
  substance, formula, general subject, and patent.
• If something can be considered a chemical
  substance, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)
  includes it in the Chemical Abstracts.

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The Chemical Literature Finding It

• Subject areas included are biochemistry,
  biotechnology, environmental science, food
  science, geochemistry, materials science,
  toxicology and agricultural, analytical, applied,
  inorganic, macromolecular, organic, and physical
  chemistry.

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The Chemical Literature Finding It

• Journal articles and patents make up more than
  90 of what is indexed.
• You can also find books, conference proceedings,
  dissertations, electronic-only journals, meeting
  abstracts, preprints, reviews, and technical
  reports.

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The Chemical Literature Finding It

• CAS publishes a print version of Chemical
  Abstracts and offers access in a number of other
  ways including microfilm, online, CD-ROM, and
  licensed databases.
• One of the newest ways of accessing Chemical
  Abstracts is SciFinder. You will be learning more
  about it in the next section.

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Searching the Literature Objectives

• After completing this section, you will be able
  to
• Search SciFinder Scholar by research topic or
  author name in order to locate articles.

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Searching the Literature About SciFinder Scholar

• The databases you search with SciFinder Scholar
  are
• CAPlus
• Online version of Chemical Abstracts
• Over 25 million records
• MedLine
• Medical literature
• Created by the National Library of Medicine

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Searching the Literature About SciFinder Scholar

• SciFinder Scholar is only available at the
  Chemistry Library or the Health Sciences Library
  unless you download special software to your
  computer so that you can use it while you are on
  campus. The downloading instructions are located
  at http//www.uncle.unc.edu/uncle/News/scifinder.h
  tm

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Searching the Literature About SciFinder Scholar

• Because no more than 5 people can use SciFinder
  Scholar at a time, it is important that you log
  off when you are finished so that others may use
  it.

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When you open SciFinder Scholar, the first thing
you see is the Explore menu. You have 6
different choices of how to search for articles.
We will only be looking at Research Topic and
Author Name.
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Searching by Research Topic is one of the most
common ways people find articles using SciFinder
Scholar.
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One nice feature about SciFinder Scholar is that
you describe the research topic youre
interested in using plain English.
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Search the Literature By Research Topic

• Tips for searching by subject
• Add synonyms in parentheses after the related
  word or phrase
• Synthesis of cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12)
• Use OR and AND unless a preposition (after,
  between, from, in, upon, etc.) would better
  describe what youre looking for

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Check the results you are interested in.
Then click here to see your results
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The computer icon shows a publication is
available electronically. Clicking on it will
take you to the full-text article if it is
available at UNC.
Click on the microscope to see the article
abstract.
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And then youre ready to print out your abstract
and find the article!
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Choose Author Name if you already know the name
of a scientist who has published work on what
you are interested in.
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You can enter the entire first name or just an
initial. Check Look for alternative spellings
of the last name so you dont miss citations
where the name is spelled incorrectly or
differently.
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Check the results you are interested in.
Then click here to see your results
Getting to your results is pretty much the same
as when you search by research topic
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Conclusion

• Now you have an idea what all those chemists mean
  when they talk about the literature, and youre
  ready to do some searching on your own!

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Quiz

• How does SciFinder Scholar fit into the chemical
  literature?
• A. It isnt part of the chemical literature.
• B. It is a quaternary source.
• C. It is considered a secondary source.
• D. It is a primary source.

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Quiz

• Yolles, Seymour. Reflective pigments. (1962). 4
  pp. US 3053683.
• The above citation from SciFinder Scholar is for
  a
• A. journal article
• B. book chapter
• C. book
• D. patent

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Quiz

• The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics is
  considered
• A. a primary material.
• B. a secondary material.
• C. a tertiary material.
• D. none of the above.

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Quiz

• Davies, A. G. Fischer, E. O. Reutov, O. A.
  Editors. Journal of Organometallic Chemistry
  Library, Vol. 20 Organometallic Chemistry
  Reviews (1988). 365 pp.
• The above citation is for a work that would be
  considered
• A. primary material.
• B. secondary material.
• C. tertiary material.
• D. quaternary material.

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Quiz

• You can search SciFinder Scholar on the computers
  in
• A. the Undergraduate Library.
• B. your house.
• C. the Chemistry Library.
• D. the Chapel Hill Public Library.