Chemistry & Biochemistry Research Guide
College of Science & Math and School of Education Librarian
Jeanine Scaramozzino
Contact:
Robert E. Kennedy Library
Office 216H
Cal Poly State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Website
Office 216H
Cal Poly State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Article Databases
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Google ScholarGoogle Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles. Search results may be from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
Help setting Library Links to access Cal Poly resources is available here. -
PubMedPubMed comprises more than 24 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. The PubMed interface has changed. Additional information and resources about this new interface.
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ReaxysReaxys provides chemical properties and preparations for inorganic and organic compounds. It is searchable in multiple ways, including chemical structure, formula, physical property, and reaction. This is a combination of retired databases Beilstein (organic reactions, spectra, properties, etc.), Gmelin (inorganic) and Chemistry Patent Database. This database includes a chemical drawing program.
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SciFinderSciFinder Scholar (SFS) is a research discovery tool that allows you to explore the CAS databases containing literature from many scientific disciplines including biomedical sciences, chemistry, engineering, materials science, and agricultural science. CAS has released a new enhanced database SciFinder-n. Scifinder-n offers all the same resources as SciFinder with additional access to new workflow solutions such as PatentPak™, MethodsNow™ and Retrosynthesis Planner as well as the core CAS-created databases available in classic SciFinder.
Users must create an account before accessing SciFinder Scholar. Go here to create a new account. Off campus users must first connect to Cal Poly via VPN. If you have not accessed your account in the last 18 months, you will not be able to log in until you have contacted the CAS Customer Center and asked them to reinstate your account. If you created an account at a different university you will need to create a new account with your calpoly.edu email.
Concerned about account privacy? View the CAS privacy policy. -
Web of Science (All Databases)Web of Science (All Databases) provides a unified search across all Web of Science indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, BIOSIS Previews, CAB Abstracts & Global Health, Food Science & Technology Abstracts, Inspec, MEDLINE, and Zoological record. Web of Science (All Databases) also includes indexes of scholarly literature from Korea, Russia, Latin America, Portugal, Spain, and South Africa. This database has introduced a new interface with the "classic" version set to retire late Fall 2021. Additional information and resources about this new interface.
Important Chemistry Resources & Tools
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NIST Chemistry WebBookThermochemical data for over 6000 organic and small inorganic compounds and much more.
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ChemSpiderAn open access chemistry search engine built with the intention of aggregating and indexing chemical structures and their associated information into a single searchable repository and make it available to everybody, at no charge. ChemSpider is a value-added offering of publicly available chemical structures since many additional properties have been added to each of the chemical structures.
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Protein DataBankSearchable by PDB ID, keyword, author, etc. View or download sequential and structural information, including coordinates of individual atoms.
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PubChemA component of NIH's Molecular Libraries Roadmap Initiative. It provides information on the biological activities of small molecules.
Substance Safety Information / MSDS Tools
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ATSDR ToxFAQsHazardous Substance Fact Sheets
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Household Products DatabaseHealth and Safety Information on Household Products.
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TOXNETToxicology, hazardous chemicals, etc.
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MSDSOnlineCal Poly Environmental Health & Safety subscribes to MSDSOnline, an online database to provide Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for hazardous materials used on campus. THIS RESOURCE IS ONLY AVAILABLE WHEN ACCESSED FROM A CAMPUS COMPUTER.
Ways to Identify a Chemical for Information Retrieval
· Name (problem because there are multiple names for one chemical)
· Formula (problem because there is one formula for multiple chemicals)
· Structure (sometimes search tools will not allow you to deal with stereochemistry)
· Mass (problem because there is one mass for multiple chemicals)
· Physical Properties (problem because there are similar physical properties for multiple chemicals)
· Spectra (difficult to search using any source but is like a Photo ID for a chemical)
· Unique Identifier (i.e. an equivalent of a Social Security Number for a chemical): (1) IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) Identifier or (2) CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service) Registry Number