Chemistry 385
Databases –SciFinder
Dr. Berger did some basic work with you on SciFinder. This week you will gain more
experience and on you seminar project you will utilize this data base as well.
What is SciFinder?
SciFinder, produced by Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), is the most comprehensive
database for the chemical literature, indexing journal articles and patent records (and
other document types), as well as chemical substances and reactions. You can search by
topic, author, and substances by name or CAS Registry Number, OR use the editor to
draw chemical structures, substructures, or reactions.
It is a core research tool for chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, materials
science, nanotechnology, physics, environmental science and other science and
engineering disciplines. Depending on your research, it is complementary to other
databases like Reaxys, Web of Science, PubMed, Compendex and INSPEC. We will
look at PubMed next week.
SciFinder is a collection of 6 CAS databases, plus Medline:
Chemical Abstracts (CAplus)
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More than 40 million references (citations and abstracts) to journal articles
and patents, as well as conference proceedings, technical reports, books,
dissertations, and meeting abstracts.
Substances and reactions indexed with links to the corresponding CAS Registry
and CASREACT records.
Currently indexes 10,000+ journals (1,500 journals indexed cover-to-cover) and
patents from 63 patent authorities.
Mostly 1907 to present, with some pre-1907 content: including ACS (1879-1906)
and RSC (1841-1906) journals, Chemisches Zentralblatt 1897-1906, and 38,000
US patents.
CAS Registry
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Records for more than 91 million organic and inorganic substances (including
alloys, coordination compounds, minerals, mixtures, polymers and salts) and 65
million DNA and protein sequences. Substance information includes: synonyms,
molecular formulas, structure diagraoms and experimental & calculated property
data. 15,000 new substances are added daily.
 5.1 billion predicted properties for 77.5 million substances; 4.5
million experimental properties for 3 million substances
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1.4 million experimental spectra (MS, IR, 1H-NMR) for 983,000
substances and 142.7 million predicted spectra (13C-NMR and 1H-NMR
spectra).
Complete coverage from 1957 to date, with additional substances going back to
early 1900's.
CAS Registry records link to the other SciFinder databases: CAplus,
CASREACT, CHEMCATS and CHEMLIST
CASREACT
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63.4 million single and multi-step reactions, and 13.6 million synthetic
preparations, with additional information about the reactions.
Indexed from journal articles, patents and evaluated reference sources, 1840 to
date.
Reactions link to CAplus and CAS Registry.
MEDLINE
 24 million references to articles from more than 5,600 biomedical and related
health sciences journals (including chemistry and biochemistry), 1946 to date.
 Medline is searched alongside CAplus in reference searching, and you can
remove the duplicate Medline references. If you want to search Medline only, use
PubMed.
CHEMCATS
 Catalog database of 94 million commercially available products from more
than 980 commercial chemical suppliers.You can customize the view to prioritize
preferred vendors
CHEMLIST
 Database of 312,000 substances that are regulated by state, federal and
international agencies, including EINECS (European Inventory of Existing
Commercial Chemical Substances) and TSCA (Toxic Substances Control Act
(TSCA) Inventory.
 Covers inventories and lists from 1980 to date.
MARPAT
 More than 1 million searchable Markush structures from 421,000 patents covered
by CAS from 1988 to date (with structures derived from INPI records from 19611987).
Please visit each of the links above and take a moment to familiarize yourself with the
contents.
Getting started with SciFinder – most of you made an account as directed before the
library visit. If you did not you must do one now to proceed with this assignment.
SciFinder is not free. In fact it is quite and expensive database. You must be on campus
or connected to campus to use this resource. As you move on to industry or further in
Academe you will need to establish a new account under your new institution’s license
(unless you are wealthy enough to purchase your own – and if you are I hope you will
remember a very helpful female chem professor with long brown hair from ESU and
donate generously  )
Go to SciFinder Web User Registration to register.
You must be on the campus network (or protected wifi), proxy or VPN to access this site.
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If you have a SciFinder account from another school, including another you must
register again. Non-UCSD accounts will not work on our network.
UCSD/SDSU joint-enrollment students must also be in our network to register or
use SciFinder through their UCSD account.
Register with your ucsd.edu email address. If you don't see a confirmation email,
check your spam folder.
You must login each time you use SciFinder.
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You must also be on the ESU network to use SciFinder.
SciFinder on Mobile Devices
Use SciFinder Mobile on your phone for quick author, topic, and chemical
substance searches. VPN isn't required for off-campus access, but you will need
your SciFinder login information.
On a tablet, SciFinder will direct to the full version (minus the structure editor).
VPN is required for off-campus access.
SciFinder Training.
The SciFinder website has a massive database of training tutorials. It is not an easy
database to use, however, the work input is worth the reward.
You may (read probably won’t) remember how to use all of the bits of SciFinder a
week from now. And after these tutorials you won’t be a SciFinder expert. But you
will, most likely, remember throughout your career that SciFinder exists and that
not only is it a powerful search tool but that there are great resources to get you up
to speed.
Go to http://www.cas.org/training/scifinder to get started.
For points:
1. Access the SciFinder Overview Presentation (SciFinder Overview
Presentation (PDF)) linked under Overview materials. Read through this document
and take notes. Provide a copy of your notes (10 points)
2. Structure Searching - view the need to know videos – All three videos under
Structure Searching are valuable. View these videos.
Next choose a molecule of your own. I would suggest choosing a less common
molecule – not something like hexane. Do a structure search using the drawing
editor and print/screenshot the results of your work. (10 points)
3. Moving on to the Reaction Searching Videos. View the videos. Choose a reaction
you learned about in organic II or III – draw that reaction and search by that
reaction using reaction searching as illustrated in the video- print/screenshot the
results of your work (10 points)
4. Take the tutorials on Reference searching. Choose a topic of your own and do a
topic search. Print/screenshot the results of your work (10 points)
5. Choose one author from the results of 4. Search for that author and
print/screenshot the results of your work. (10 points)
6. Finish up by taking the tutorial Save and Combine Search Results (under general
topics)
FYI – In case you find yourself in between jobs.
SciFinder for Unemployed Scientists Program
CAS now offers complimentary SciFinder access under a special program for scientists
seeking employment. As an ACS member you can apply.
http://web.cas.org/forms/sfspecialaccess.html