Chemistry Research Guide

New to SciFinder-n? Take a look at the Quick Reference Guide (PDF).

What is SciFinder?

SciFinder is a research discovery tool that provides access to the world's literature in chemistry, biochemistry, and chemical engineering. As the most comprehensive resource for research in chemistry and chemistry-related fields, it also provides access to research from many related scientific disciplines, including biomedical sciences, materials science, and agricultural science. Composed of the Chemical Abstracts Service family of databases, SciFinder allows you to identify journal articles, patents, dissertations, books, and conference proceedings in chemistry as well as information about chemicals and chemical reactions. It includes:

• Chemical Abstracts (CAplus) - 1907 to date with some references back to the early 1800s - covers more than 10,000 journals
• CAS REGISTRY - The world's largest collection of publicly disclosed chemical substance information now has more than 70 million unique organic and inorganic chemical substances and 64 million sequences! It is also an authoritative source of chemical substance and structure information as well as CAS Registry numbers, unique identifiers for chemical substances.
• Chemical reaction searching (CASREACT) - 1840 to date
• Chemical Catalogs Online (CHEMCATS) - Information about commercially available chemicals and their worldwide suppliers - 2011 to date
• Regulated Chemicals Listing (CHEMLIST) - 1980 to date
• Markush (MARPAT) - Searchable Markush structures from patents covered by CAS from 1988 to the present and selected coverage of English, Japanese, and German patents from 1987. Other records from 1961-1987 are derived from INPI (Institute National de la Propriete Industrielle) data
• Biomedical Literature (MEDLINE) - covers more than 5600 biomedical journals

How do I access SciFinder?

All first-time users must REGISTER for a user account. When you fill in the form (seen below), it would be best if you provide your HSU email address. You also need to select a username and password. Note that there are tips for selecting your username and password. Keep track of your username and password as you will be asked for them each time you access SciFinder.

When accessing SciFinder from an off-campus computer, you'll be prompted first for your HSU ID and password and then for your SciFinder username and password.

How do I search SciFinder?

There are many tutorials on searching SciFinder available on the web. Here are some of the more important ones:

• Chemical Abstracts Service has very helpful training & support for SciFinder. You will find tutorials, how-to guides, e-seminars and more!

• Chuck Huber, UC Santa Barbara Chemistry Librarian, has created lecture notes on searching SciFinder:
  • Lecture 12: Exploring References by Research Topic
  • Lecture 13: Exploring Substances: Substance Displays, Identifiers and Molecular Formulas
  • Lecture 14: Exploring Substances by Structure Searching
  • Lecture 15: Exploring Organic Reactions

How do I get full text of an article?

From a citation in SciFinder, click on the Full Text link that appears with every record on the results summary and full record displays. For articles the resulting screen will give links directly to the publisher's content and/or a link to FindIt@HSU. It is important to remember that the Full Text link does not mean that an electronic version of that document exists - it merely begins a search for one. If the full text link does not bring up the article or book, you should search for the title of the journal in the Journal and Newspaper Finder or the book in the HSU Library Catalog.

If the Library does not have the book, report, dissertation, article, etc. which you need, you may request it through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). See Interlibrary Loan Policies & Guidelines for more information.