Subject Guides: Chemistry: Databases and Journals

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Chemistry databases

Journal of Visualized Experiments - JoVE
JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, is the world's first peer reviewed scientific video journal, with videos dating back to 2006. As part of the JoVE Unlimited package, we subscribe to all sections of JoVE, which covers many aspects of science and medicine, including Biology, Neuroscience, Chemistry, Behavior and more.
JoVE Science Education Videos
A series of educational videos demonstrating proper laboratory technique in various scientific disciplines. Video modules include biology, psychology, environmental science, chemistry and clinical skills.
PubMed

This database from the National Library of Medicine offers over 37 million citations to biomedical and life sciences literature, plus links to full-text resources.
Scopus

A citation and abstract database for peer-reviewed research literature, primarily in the sciences and social sciences.

Choosing the Best Tool

You'll save time and get better results if you start with the best tool for any particular task. Here's a table that might help you choose.

What do you want to do?

The best place to start:

Search for references (keyword, author names, title, abstract, journal, etc.

SciFinder-n. CAS is the most comprehensive literature index in any field and is hand-indexed, not machine-indexed. There can be a learning curve when searching for references, better suited to higher-level students.
Web of Science covers the chemical journal literature fairly well, and eliminates patents and 'gray' literature that some chemists find distracting or irrelevant. To search by CAS registry number (RN), you must search the BIOSIS Citation Index (BCI) collection. In order to search by structure, you must be signed in to your WOS account.
Reaxys allows users to search for citations by selecting from the Bibliography field tags under the Query Builder function.

Search for substances by drawing a structure or substructure.

SciFinder and Reaxys are both very strong here. SciFinder's Registry database of indexed substances is by far the largest such resource in the world, but is heavily sourced from patents. Reaxys has a smaller universe of structures (but still millions), and some people prefer its structure editor to SciFinder's.

Search for reactions.

Reaxys is often preferred for its precision and drawing options. SciFinder has greater recall of organic reactions since 1986 because it indexes a far larger swath of literature. To be thorough you should search both.

If you're looking for a preparation method for a compound, both tools let you draw a structure and designate it as a reaction product, and you can specify starting materials or fragments, catalysts, minimum yields, etc. SciFinder has a synthesis planner tool as well.

Search by citations to past literature.

Web of Science is by far the best tool. Its citation index goes back to 1900. It has relatively powerful tools to analyze results.

Search for chemical spectra.

SciFinder provides many NMR and IR graphical spectra from BioRad and Wiley libraries directly in Registry records for specific substances. It's also the best place to do a systematic literature search for published spectral data.
Reaxys contains many spectral data fields in its substance records, which allow for peak searching, but does not contain graphical spectra.

Search for crystallographic data.

Reaxys contains numerous searchable crystallographic data fields for many organic and inorganic substances. SciFinder is the best place to do a literature search for this information published in journals, starting with a substance search.

Access Structures is the CCDC’s and FIZ Karlsruhe’s free service to view and retrieve structures.

Search for physical and thermodynamic properties.

If you need basic property information about a well known compound, starting with a good online handbook, like the CRC Handbook, is the easiest path.

Reaxys has the largest number of property data fields for substances, dating back more than a century. Complex numeric queries can be created to narrow down results, in addition to searching by substance.

SciFinder has added a substantial amount of property data to its Registry records, but is not nearly as thorough as Reaxys. However, it's the best place to do a literature search for reported properties using keywords and Registry Numbers.

Adapted from "Choosing the Best Tool" by University of Texas Libraries, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License.