Survey of Chemical Literature, Chemistry 4700

Course description:  Survey introduction to the use of the chemical literature. 

 

Last updated:  April 2009.

 

Access to Chemical Abstracts via the STN Network

 

You will receive a unique log-in ID and password to access Chemical Abstracts (searchable from 1907-present), the Registry File, and Chemistry Industry Notes on the CAS STN network (Chemical Abstract Service, a division of the American Chemical Society).  A copy of the spreadsheet with logins, password, and account number has been given to your professor and each of you will receive your specific information in an envelope when we meet.

 

You can access STNEasy via the web at http://stneasy.cas.org.  Our STN academic account only gives us access during the evenings and on weekends, and we receive an academic discount for the searching and retrieval of records from the databases.  Specific hours of use are:

 

5:00pm - 5:00am the following day - Mondays-Fridays

5:00pm Friday - 7:00pm Saturday

NOTE:  On the first Saturday of each month, STN is only available until 2:00 p.m.

10:00pm Saturday - 5:00am Monday

 

Each of the log-in IDs belong to the same account and the Library receives and pays the invoice for all searches.  You may ignore the cost summary when you are logged on because the prices are quoted at the full rate and do not reflect the academic discount. 

 

Please remember that while there are many databases available via the STN network, our academic account only gives us access to Chemical Abstracts, the Registry File, and Chemistry Industry Notes. 

 

If you have technical issues, you may call the technical help support number at 800-753-4227 or email help@cas.org.  You will need to reference the account number.  Please also let me know of any issues you report to STN in case the library needs to do any follow up.

 

If you have questions, please contact me. 

 

Aline Soules, Library Faculty

aline.soules@csueastbay.edu

510-885-4596

 

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Reference Source

 

How to Find Chemical Information:  a Guide for Practicing Chemists, Educators, and Students

by Robert E. Maizell, 3rd edition, 1998.

 

This is housed in the reference collection at REF QD8.5 .M34 1998.

Another copy has been put on reserve by your professor.

The section on Chemical Abstracts Service begins on p. 60.

 

NOTE:  The 4th edition will be available in April 2009. 

 

 

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Files Available through STN Easy

 

Chemical References

Chemical Abstracts database

Chemical Abstracts OLD database (pre-1967)

 

Chemical Substances

Registry File (never fully current)

 

Patents

Chemical Abstracts database

Chemical Abstracts OLD database (pre-1967)

 

Business

CIN database (Chemistry Industry Notes)

 

Searching Concepts and Techniques in STN Easy

 

Truncation

 

This enables multiple forms of words to be searched at one time.  To capture all of them at once, you insert a "truncation" symbol after the "root" of the word.  This principle works in many databases, although the symbol for truncation may differ from database to database. 

 

In STN Easy, the primary symbol is a question mark or an asterisk, which looks for the word you entered or any words that begin with those characters, e.g.

 

chromato*

chromatog?

chromatograp*

 

You will retrieve "chromatograph," "chromatography," "chromatographic," "chromatogram," "chromatograms," etc.

 

To search for plurals and abbreviations automatically, you can set that option in Preferences.

 

Boolean operators

 

Invented by George Boole, these terms enable combinations of words to be searched at one time with different results, depending on the Boolean operator used.   The standard terms are AND, OR, and NOT.  These, too, work in many databases.

 

The examples in the STN Easy student manual show AND, OR, and NOT.

 

(air OR water)

[retrieves any record that has either term present] 

You MUST use parentheses.

 

air AND water

[only retrieves records that have BOTH terms present]

 

As this is counter-intuitive to natural language that we use in everyday speech, if you get confused, consider this phrase:

 

OR IS MORE

 

(air NOT water)

[only retrieves those records which contain air IF those records don't have water present. That means you will NOT get 100% of the records with the word 'air' in them if there are any that also contain water]  You MUST use parentheses.

 

STN Easy also offers the term NEAR. 

This retrieves records where the terms are in the same sentence.

 

air NEAR water

[retrieves records where at least one sentence contains both air and water]. 

 

If you enter air water in a single line, the default Boolean operator is NEAR, so the effect is the same, but NEAR will help you combine phrases.

 

Adjacency

 

To make sure two words are adjacent in your search results, use quotation marks, e.g.

 

"acid rain" or "risk analysis"

 

This becomes particularly important if you are working with a molecular formula that includes parentheses, e.g.

 

"(C2 H4 O)n C4 H6 O2"

 

or if your compound includes one of the stop words, e.g.

 

"Bisphenol A"

 

List of stop words

 

A, ABOUT, AFTER, ALL, ALREADY, ALSO, ALTHOUGH, ALWAYS, AMONG, AN, ANY, ARE, AS, AT, BE, BECAUSE, BEEN, BETWEEN, BOTH, BUT, BY, COULD, DO, DOES, DURING, EACH, EITHER, FOR, FROM, FURTHER, HAD, HAS, HAVE, HAVING, HERE, HOWEVER, IF, IN, INTO, IS, IT, ITS, MAY, MORE, MOREOVER , MOST, MUST, NO, OF, ON, ONLY, OTHER, OUR, SEE, SEEN, SHOULD, SINCE, SUCH, THAN, THAT, THE, THEIR, THEM, THEN, THERE, THEREFORE, THESE, THEY, THIS, THOSE, THOUGH, THROUGH, THUS, TO, WAS, WE, WERE, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHETHER, WHICH, WHILE, WHOSE, WILL, WITH, WITHIN, WOULD

 

Nesting

 

Use parentheses to determine the order of a complex search.  In the phrase

 

x and (y or z)

 

the system will retrieve records that contain X AND Y and records that contain X AND Z

 

so it doesn't work the same as the way as an algebraic equation. 

 

Descriptors

 

There is an international standard for descriptors that tell the system what type of search you're conducting.  Again, these descriptors are "standard" so they apply in databases generally.  When STN Easy was a command-driven, rather than menu-driven, system, these were important.  You are unlikely to run into these terms, if you do, you'll understand some easily, e.g.

 

AU=author

TI=title

 

and you can browse your student manual to understand some of the others, e.g.

 

ST=supplementary term(s)

AB=abstract

 

What is important is that you no longer use these terms in searching.  In fact, STN Easy doesn't understand that syntax now. 

You are instructed not to use

 

• Proximity operators, such as (S) or (L)
• Punctuation, other than parentheses and quotes
• Character substitution or truncation symbols, other than ? or * at the end of a term
• Search field qualifiers such as /TI and /AU (which are in your current manual)

 

As a side note, you will find these international symbols in other databases.

 

Browse Index (available for Advanced and CAS Number searches only

 

You can look at the indexes of the databases. 

 

• Find multiple spellings and word endings
• Catch spelling or typing errors
• Check that your term is included in the database you have chosen

 

To use the index:

 

1. Enter a word to be searched. If you enter a phrase, only the first word will be searched.
2. Click the Browse Index button for a list of terms from a slice of the index.  is displayed to the right of your search term.   NOTE:  If you turn on "show database posting counts" in Preferences, you also see the total number of hits for each term.
3. Select the term(s) you want. The technique for selecting continuous and discontinuous terms is platform dependent. For example, hold down the <Shift> key to select continuous terms. Hold down the <Control> key (<Command> key on Macintosh) to select discontinuous terms.
4. Enter additional data for your search, if appropriate.
5. Click the Search button to execute your search. Or, click Reset to restart the Browse Index feature.

 

Molecular Formulae

 

Molecular formulas must be arranged in a standardized order called Hill System Order. Use either upper- or lowercase letters.

 

Substances Not Containing Carbon

Arrange the elements in alphabetical order, and indicate the number of each element present. If an element is present only once, no number is required. Examples:

• H2O4S
• CLH
• CL6SB

 

Substances Containing Carbon

Arrange with carbon first, hydrogen second (if present), then all other elements in alphabetical order. Examples:

• C8H18
• C2AG2N8
• C9H8CL4N8O 

 

Parentheses in Molecular Formulas

If a molecular formula includes parentheses, you need to enclose the entire search term in quotes:

"(C2 H4 O)n C4 H6 O2"

 

Structuring and Sizing Your Searches

 

You control your searches.

 

Language

Many searches are a matter of language.  For example, in an earlier assignment, you were asked to look in the Library of Congress Subject Headings for "chemical analysis of water."  What's the main idea?  Water, not chemical or analysis, both of which modify water in this phrase.  Use nouns and verbs.  Avoid prepositions, conjunctions (except when you are using Boolean operators in the drop down boxes), or other parts of speech that may impeded retrieving effective results. 

 

Refining Searches

There are a couple of ways to do that. 

• If you have a phrase such as "chemical analysis of water" and you wanted more results, you could remove the adjective ("analysis of water") and get more results.  Adjectives go first.  Nouns are the key.  After all, what is a chemical formula or a chemical name?  A noun.
• If you need fewer results, add adjectives or prefixes, e.g. assay vs. photoassay, chromatography vs. mass spectroscopy chromatography.
• Use your Boolean operators.  Want to increase results?  Remember:  "OR is MORE"  Want to shrink results?  Use AND
• Try synonyms to get results that may be closer to what you want.  
   

Other Points

 

• PLEASE don't change your password in Preferences.
• Don't use the STN keep and share option.  You can get full text of articles through the library, either because we have access to full text or through interlibrary loan.
• If you click on "search the web" inside STN Easy, you will be taken to the E-science screen that gives you a variety of options and populates your search terms in the search box.  You can select Google or one of the three Chemistry options.
• Search histories are available only within the current session.
• Don't forget the SFX function to find full text options.
• Use other tools to try to verify or find new information, e.g. check authors' credentials to verify that different forms of a name are or are not the same person, or the CAS web site to view the Table of Contents for new issues of a journal.

 

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Web of Science

 

Some of the concepts we discussed in conjunction with STN Easy are transferable to Web of Science, for example:

• Truncation
  • * (zero or more characters)
  • $ (zero or one character, e.g. color vs. colour - use col$r)
  • ? (one character only, e.g. entoblast vs. endoblast - use en?oblast)
• Boolean operators processed in this order
  • NOT
  • AND
  • OR
  • There is also "SAME" which searches for the words within the same sentence, e.g. "acid rain" vs. acid SAME rain
• Adjacency or PROXIMITY
  • quotation marks
• Nesting
  • available in advanced search
• Descriptors
  • available in advanced search
• Search aids (equivalent of Browse Index)
  • available in standard search
  • click on magnifying glass next to category
• Structuring and sizing your searches
  • always IMPORTANT!

 

Author Search

Web of Science has a wonderful Author Finder.  On the opening screen, you will see it in the note under the second blank search box. 

Click on it, enter a name, and click "next."

You get a list of results that are similar to the results in STN Easy with various forms of the author name,

      which may be the same author or a number of different authors.

If you think you have the right name at this point, you can click on the one you want and "finish now."  If not, you can click "next."

You can pick a category for your author to narrow it further. 

Then you are taken to a choice of institutions.

Then you get a narrower list of results.

 

Times Cited

This is a very useful figure as it provides you with some sense of how useful other researchers have found this article.  The higher the number, the more often it has been cited.  Consider the possible reasons:

• excellence of the article
• more mainstream or popular topic
• journal in which it was published
• etc.

 

Cited Reference Search

 

You can also search a specific article to find out how often and where it has been cited.  Some tips:

 

• it is recommended that you use Web of Science, rather than all databases
• search the first author because variants of the name are also searched, which is NOT the case with secondary or tertiary authors
• if you also have a journal title, combine that with the author
• when searching journal titles, the system only uses 20 characters or fewer, so you need to check the journal abbreviation list
• using an asterisk with the author and the journal title will help to pick up variants of the name 
• if, for some reason, you search secondary authors, be sure to search possible variants separately, e.g. Thomson, Thompson.  Even if you are sure of the name, there can be mis-spellings

   

Saving Citations

Your marked items (saved citations) will remain throughout your session and you can email them to yourself singly or in one batch, if you choose.  They can be emailed in plain text or HTML, although you will find that the HTML looks very similar to the plain text.  Your search history will be available until the end of your session.

 

Saving Searches, Alerting Service, etc.

You can also register and take advantage of saved searches, alerts, and exporting to EndNote Web.  We don't subscribe to EndNote or other citation software separately on this campus, but you can take advantage of the Web version with Web of Science.

 

Topic Searching

All databases vs. Select a database - Web of Science vs. Medline

• you can combine your search in both databases
• If you have a medical topic, you limit your search to Medline, which gives you different categories and subject headings to choose.

One of the key elements to remember is that you need to set your categories or fields.  In many databases, you can leave this unspecified and the system simply searches through all the fields, but in Web of Science, you must specify which index you want to search.  It's easy to forget because the default screen is pre-set with categories.

 

When you secure a list of results, you also need to be careful which arrow you click to move through the screens.  The system is set to 10 results per screen.  If you click the first arrow, you move to the next or previous screen; if you click the far arrow, you move to the end (or beginning) of the results set.

 

Using the Search history will also allow you to refine your searches.  You can go back to the list of searches you completed and combine or delete sets, as needed.

 

SFX

You have this feature available to you, just as you did with STN Easy.  This will lead you to any full text that might be available from the library's holdings.  BE SURE to give yourself enough time to get materials through interlibrary loan.

 

Analysis Tool

This feature enables you to understand the proportion of work done by particular authors or at particular institutions or by some other categories.  This can be very helpful if you are trying to figure out where to focus your attention.  Publication year can show you the trend of interest in a specific topic, for example.

 

Remote Access

You have remote access through authentication.

 

Additional Resources

These are a variety of web-based services to explore.

 

Help and Tutorials

http://www.scientific.thomson.com/support/recordedtraining

or

Click help on the appropriate screen.

You can also send the training team a message at

http://www.scientific.thomson.com/support/training/contacttraining

or

email:  ts.training.americas@thomson.com

 

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Citation 

 

For general guidance

• The OWL at Purdue: APA and MLA styles. A complete guide, including in-text citations, paper formatting and works cited pages.
• Research and Documentation by Diana Hacker: All styles. A complete guide, check out the sample papers.
• Assemble a list of works cited [Duke University]: All styles. A simple and concise guide to citations in a works cited page.

 

Tutorials on Citation

• Citation Puzzle: Explains how to find the information used in citations.

 

To generate citations automatically

For difficult questions and more complete guidance

Consult the following style manuals, available at the Reference Desk

As a final note, you might want to visit Plagiarism.org. They will give you links to all sorts of citation styles to help you meet your academic integrity and citation goals.

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Getting Help

 

Technical Help with STN Easy

Call the technical help support number at 800-753-4227 or email help@cas.org.  

You will need to reference the account number. 

Let Aline Soules know of any issues you report.

 

Technical Help with Web of Science

If you have trouble logging on remotely, call our circulation desk at 510-885-3612.

If you have trouble within the database, contact http://www.scientific.thomson.com/support/techsupport

 

Overall Help and Questions

Contact

Aline Soules, Library Faculty

aline(dot)soules(at)csueastbay(dot)edu

510-885-4596

 

Use the library help services. Come to the reference desk or connect to http://library.csueastbay.edu and click on "chat," "email," or "phone."

 

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copyright Aline Soules 2009

under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/