Syllabus: Chemistry 416 Spring 2016
Instructor: Jenq-Kuen (Jack) Huang.
Email: J-Huang3@wiu.edu.
Class meeting time and place: Th 9:00-9:50 am, Currens 315 or Chemistry Computer
Lab (Currens 529)
Office and office hours: Currens 548B, M W F. 9:00 -10:20am, other times by
appointment
Course prerequisite: 18 hours of chemistry courses
Text: none
Reference books: (Reserved in the Physical Science Library)
1) How to find chemical information by Robert Maizell, 3rd edition, Wiley-Interscience
2) Chemical information sources by Wiggins, McGraw-Hill series in advanced chemistry
3) The ACS style guide, effective communication of science information, edited by
Coghill and Garson, ACS
Supplementary Materials:
1) Handouts
2) Websites: Chemical Literature (Chem. 184/284)
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/chem184/
(Dr. Huang has obtained permission from Mr. Chuck Huber, Davidson Library, university
of California at Santa Barbara, to link and use the materials from the above website for
CHEM 416).
Course description: In this course you will learn to distinguish the various types of
chemical information sources and to choose appropriate sources to solve specific
chemical information problems. You will become aware of sources and techniques and
learn to perform efficient searches for subjects, authors and substances. You will learn
how to obtain information like physical and chemical properties of substances, how to
find chemical information using both printed and electronic literature sources. At the end
of the course, you will demonstrate your ability to conduct a detailed literature search by
writing a term paper on a current chemical topic of your choice.
Grades:
Midterm exam
Final exam
Best 6 of 7 quizzes
Assignments
Term paper topic approval
Final term paper submission
Total
100 points
100 points
100 points
200 points
15 points
85 points
600 points
Grading Scale (including plus/minus grading) for undergraduate or bridge credit
90.00 % and above
86.70 - 89.99%
83.40 - 86.69%
80.00 - 83.39%
76.70 - 79.99%
73.40 - 76.69%
70.00 - 73.39%
66.70 - 69.99%
63.40 - 66.69%
60.00 - 63.39%
56.70 - 59.99%
56.66% and below
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
Grading Scale for graduate credit
90.00 % and above
80.00 - 89.99%
70.00 - 79.99%
60.00 - 69.99%
59.99% and below
A
B
C
D
F
Exams, quizzes, and assignments: Two exams (midterm and final exams) and
several quizzes and homework assignments will be given during the semester. I’ll use
the first 10 minutes for quizzes; student who arrives late will lose that amount of time for
the quiz. The same rule is applied to exams. No makeup quiz is allowed (to
accommodate absences due to illness and other excused absences, one quiz with the
lowest grade will be dropped). Makeup exams will not be given unless you have
acceptable excuses such as personal illness or family emergencies or participate in
University sponsored functions (i.e. WIU band trips, field trips in other WIU classes,
professional meeting (not sorority/frat, or other clubs), WIU athletics, etc.). In all cases,
documentation is required and must be submitted to the instructor in a week prior to the
event or as soon as possible in case of emergency. Makeup exam must be completed
in the following week or as soon as possible.
An incomplete grade will NOT be given to a student with a failing grade. No incomplete
will be given to a student without documented evidence of an emergency that requires
the student be away from the university or requires that the student miss the final exam.
The student shall notify the instructor of the emergency as soon as possible and prior to
the final exam.
Attendance: Attendance is required and you are expected to attend classes regularly
and punctually. If it should be necessary to miss a class, please notify your instructor by
e-mail before the fact if possible. Student who is 1-5 minutes or 6-10 minutes late for
the class will lose 1 point or 2 points each time, respectively. If you are more than 10
minutes late to a class it will be counted as absence. If you miss the class more than
three times (unexcused absence) you will fail this course. Students are responsible
for all information and materials given in class whether you are present or not.
Please turn off cell phones and beepers while in class. It can be very distractingespecially during an exam! Also, class time is not a social hour; please restrain yourself
from casual conversation during class time.
Invest time in this course: Students are expected to read ahead and prepare for class
according to the time table. Out of class practice using SciFinder and other search
engines is important to master literature search.
Research term paper: Research term paper must on a topic of chemistry related and
must be chosen in consultation with the instructor. You must submit (via Dropbox) a
topic of your term paper and eight relevant research articles (provide online links to the
full articles) for approval by the instructor by March 24. The penalty for late term paper
topic submission will be a deduction of 10% each day (out of 15 points). Once the topic
is approved, it should not be changed without penalty (30 out of 85 points will be
deducted) unless you obtained special permission from the instructor. Any research
term paper submission without prior approval will not be graded and the student will
receive zero point for the term paper.
If you have difficulty to identify whether an article is a research article or review
paper, look for the “Materials and Methods” and “Results” sections in the text. All
research articles have these sections which are not seen in a review paper.
There are several useful websites for articles searching: (1) ACS homepage (linked
through WIU library, then move cursor to ACS database). (2) PubMed/PMC (a service
of the National Library of Medicine housed in the campus of National Institutes of
Health). From the home page of PubMed, move the cursor to PMC (PubMed Central,
NIH digital repository for biomedical research). There are more than 100 medical related
journals in the PubMed/PMC server and; all articles are free for downloading. (3)
Science Direct, ScienceDirect offers more than a quarter of the world's scientific,
medical and technical information online. Some of the articles from ScienceDirect are
free for downloading; others are pay-per-view. If articles are not available online, you
may request them through WIU interlibrary loan. (4) SciFinder through WIU library. (5)
Quartle, http://www.quertle.info/
The paper is to be approximately 8 typed, double-spaced, pages and must include no
less than eight journal references published after 2003. The term paper must be your
own work and in your own words. Sources of ideas or information must be referenced.
Your term paper format must follow a chemistry related journal of your choice and must
be identified in your title page. The paper will be graded on the basis of content,
construction and conciseness, and must be submitted by April 28 via “Dropbox”. The
penalty for late term paper submission will be a deduction of 10% each day; the first
penalty is applied 3 days after the deadline (May 2). Term paper will not be
accepted after May 6.
Graduate (Taking G credit) and bridge students have additional course requirements
compared to undergraduates. Graduate and bridge students will be required to
complete an extended 12 page research report involving an in-depth discussion of the
approved topic. In addition, graduate and bridge students will be expected to
demonstrate a higher level of understanding of concept presented; a greater amount of
detail and understanding of complex processes when answering exam questions; a
greater independence in performing exercises.
Statement on Ethics. Western Illinois University, like all communities, functions best
when its members treat one another with honesty, fairness, respect, and trust. Students
have rights and responsibilities. The following action is prohibited under the Student
Conduct Code: Disorderly Conduct: Any behavior which disrupts the regular or normal
functions of the University community, including behavior which breaches the peace or
violates the rights of others. Plagiarism, cheating, and other forms of academic
dishonesty constitute a serious violation of University conduct regulations. Any student
convicted of academic dishonesty, can receive a failing grade and may be subject to
further academic penalties. Web address for Academic Integrity Policy
(http://www.wiu.edu/policies/acintegrity.php). Please remember that you are expected to
do your own work at all times. You can’t directly copy the homework or term paper from
classmates or any other sources. However, discussing homework questions or reports
with your others is fine.
Students with Disabilities. In accordance with University values and disability law,
students with disabilities may request academic accommodations where there are
aspects of a course that result in barriers to inclusion or accurate assessment of
achievement. To file an official request for disability-related accommodations, please
contact the Disability Resource Center at 309-298-2512, disability@wiu.edu or in 143
Memorial Hall. Please notify the instructor as soon as possible to ensure that this
course is accessible to you in a timely manner.
Emergency Preparedness. The WIU Office of Risk Management and Emergency
Preparedness provide resources on how to respond to emergency situations. Please
view the video resources at www.wiu.edu/rmep/ (Click “Resources” on the right side
of the page). If the fire alarms sound and/or students are asked to evacuate the
building all students should proceed immediately to the nearest exit and gather at the
southwest corner of the Higgins parking lot (near the fence) until the “all clear” is given.
Tentative Lecture/Exam Schedule:
Date
1/21
1/28
2/4
2/11
Topics
Go over Syllabus
Overview,
importance of
chemical literature
1). introduction to
scientific journals,
books (including
reference books),
Electronic
databases and
other library
resources
2). WIU library
access
1). Using online
databases and
other search
engines, American
Chemical Society
data base
information and
general techniques
of online searching
2). Start to select a
topic for your term
paper.
Reading Assignments
Chemical Information, An Overview
The Primary Literature: Journals, Conference Papers, Technical
Reports, Dissertations, Patents, and Beyond...
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/content.php?pid=262716&sid=2168910
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/content.php?pid=262716&sid=2168911
Data Collections
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/content.php?pid=262716&sid=2168906
Lecture 3, Part I: Catalogs vs. Article Databases vs. Search Engines,
Part II: Locating What's on the Shelves; The Library Catalogs
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/content.php?pid=262716&sid=2168904
Library of Congress classification numbers (read the portion under “the
Medical Literature Index.”
How to do literature search for your term paper?
- ACS database through WIU library. Some of these articles are free of
charge
- PubMed/PMC (PubMed Central, NIH digital repository for biomedical
research). There are more than 130 medical related journals in the
PubMed/PMC website. Articles are free of charge.
- Science Direct; offers more than a quarter of the world's scientific,
medical and technical information online. Some of these articles are free
of charge
- For articles that are not available online, you may request them
through interlibrary loan .
- Chemical literature Project
- Term Project Description (read the first five paragraphs).
- Introductory Note (read the first two paragraphs under “ final project”)
2/18
Indexes and
abstracts,
reference materials
(books), electronic
resources
- Abstracts and Indexes; Indexes and databases for Science and
Engineering
2/25
Introduction to
Printed Chemical
Abstracts, Part I
Chemical Abstracts in print
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/content.php?pid=262716&sid=2168915
3/3
Introduction to
Printed Chemical
Abstracts, Part II
Chemical Abstracts in print
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/content.php?pid=262716&sid=2168915
3/10
Midterm Exam
3/17
No class
Spring break
3/24
SciFinder Scholar
search
SciFinder Scholar search
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/content.php?pid=262716&sid=2168916
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/content.php?pid=262716&sid=2168917
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/content.php?pid=262716&sid=2168918
3/31
SciFinder Scholar
search
4/7
SciFinder Scholar
search
4/14
SciFinder Scholar
search
4/21
4/28
Bioinformatics/online search proteins
and DNA
databases
No class
5/5
No class
5/12
Final exam
In-class presentation
Term paper topic and article sources due
SciFinder Scholar search
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/content.php?pid=262716&sid=2168919
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/content.php?pid=262716&sid=2168920
In-class presentation
In-class presentation
Patents, copyright, trademark and trade secret
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/content.php?pid=262716&sid=2168911In-class presentation
Exploring genomes, Web-based bioinformatics tutorials (handout)
Term paper due
Final exam as scheduled http://www.wiu.edu/registrar/exams.php
SYLLABUS MAY BE SUBJECTED TO CHANGE WITH NOTICE.
January 16, 2016 by Jenq-Kuen (Jack) Huang