Chemical Information Sources

Main Topic Includes
How and Where to Start Publications, Guides, Computer Searching,
Current Awareness, Reviews, Document Delivery, Background Reading
How and Where to Search Authors, Citations, Subjects,
Chemical Name, Formula, Structure Searching
How and Where to Search Specialized Synthesis, Reactions, Safety, Analytical, Physical, Patents
Communicating in Chemistry Newsgroups, Listserves, Blogs, Visualization, Writing
Miscellaneous History, Directories, Study, Teaching, Careers, Cheminformatics
Supplemental Resources SIRCh, CIIM, Problem Sets, CRSD, CHMINF-L

Contents

How and Where to Start

Chapter 1 Guides to Chemical Information Sources and Databases

Chapter 2 General Search Strategies for Online Chemical Information

Chapter 3 Keeping Up and Looking Back: Current Awareness, Reviews, and Document Delivery

Chapter 4 Deep Background Reading: Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Treatises, Monographs, and Other Books

How and Where to Search: General

Chapter 5 Author and Citation Searches

Chapter 6 Subject Searches

Chapter 7 Chemical Name and Formula Searches

Chapter 8 Structure Searches

How and Where to Search: Specialized

Chapter 9 Synthesis and Reaction Searches

Chapter 10 Chemical Safety and Toxicology Searches

Chapter 11 Analytical Chemistry Searches

Chapter 12 Physical Property Searches

Chapter 13 Chemical Patent Searches

Communicating in Chemistry

Chapter 14 Blogs, Social Networks, and Mailing Lists

Chapter 15 Molecular Visualization Tools and Sites

Chapter 16 Science Writing Aids

Miscellaneous

Chapter 17 Chemical History, Biography, Directories, and Industry Sources

Chapter 18 Teaching and Studying Chemistry

Chapter 19 Careers in Chemistry

Chapter 20 Cheminformatics

Supplemental Resources

SIRCh: Selected Internet Resources for Chemistry (Links to Web resources with the same subject outline as the chapters on this page.)

CIIM: Chemical Information Instructional Materials (Web resources for more in-depth training on the topics discussed in the chapters.)

Problem Sets

CRSD: Chemical Reference Sources Database (a searchable database that covers reference books, commercial databases, etc.)

Information Competencies for Chemistry Undergraduates: the Elements of Information Literacy Wikibook, July 2012- ; from the Special Libraries Association, Chemistry Division and the American Chemical Society, Division of Chemical Information

CHMINF-L: Chemical Information Sources Discussion List (a listserv in existence since 1991 with many chemistry librarians, chemists, publishers, and others interested in chemical information; has a searchable archive of all posts since its inception.)

As a general rule, vendor training material should be consulted for the most up-to-date information for all the resources described anywhere in this wikibook. It simply is not feasible to go into great detail on the mechanics of searching each of the sources described herein and even if this was done, it would quickly go out of date due to the frequency of changes and new features added to these search systems and databases.

A permanent snapshot of this page was archived on March 7, 2015