Chemistry 

EVERY MONDAY: 11am-1pm

• Chemistry Library

By Appointment or Drop-In (call or email first to make sure I'm in the office)

• Beth's Office: Room I-042 in BSEL (near QC 851 in journal stacks)

The Chemistry Librarian at Penn State has created an easy-to-use reference for citing items following the ACS Style guide. The ACS Style Guide: A Manual for Authors and Editors is available in the reference sections of the Chemistry Library and Brown SEL, call number QD 8.5 .A25. 

ACS Publications - journals published by the American Chemical Society

CRC Handbook of Chemistry & Physics - well-known source of chemical property data

ChemSpider - online collection of open access chemistry information

Knovel Library - collection of handbooks; great resource for property data!

Royal Society of Chemistry - journals published by the Royal Society in Great Britain

ScienceDirect - full-text articles from journals published by Elsevier

Web of Science - follow an idea, concept or author through their publication history

Things to Consider:

1. Chemical name searches can often retrieve confusing or spurious results. Consider structure searching in structure and reaction databases such as Reaxys and SciFinder.
   
2. Think of a search as the intersection of discrete concepts. e.g fluorescence AND embedded probes
3. Create a list of synonyms to take into account variations in word spelling, usage, etc. e.g. aluminum or aluminium
4. Be general when starting to search and then become more focused
5. Learn to use truncation symbols effectively. Truncation symbols may vary by database.  e.g. spectroscop* to retrieve both spectroscopy & spectroscopic
6. Mine "good" results for further search terms and strategies.
7. There isn't really a one-stop, get-all-the-good-stuff database. Be brave! Search multiple databases.
8. Don't hesitate to contact a librarian for suggestions on databases, search strategies, retrieving information. etc.