Research Guides: Chemistry: Locating Articles

Intro

Databases

Begin looking for articles on your topic. The electronic databases are the place to start. It is important to develop a search strategy using keywords that you have identified describing your topic. Additional terminology may be found as you use the databases. Remember to distinguish between scholarly and popular articles.

Keywords and Search Strategy

Begin your search using keywords which describe your topic. Connect keywords using "and" to narrow and focus the search statement –both concepts must appear in each article reference. For example: heat and free radicals.

Abstracts and Subjects/Descriptors

Skim the titles of the articles and then read the abstracts for more detail. If an article looks good, check the subjects, descriptors, or other terms assigned by the database to describe the content of the article. Incorporate some of these terms into your search strategy. Also think of other ways to describe your topic, scientific terms or medical terms (check a science or medical dictionary).

Authors and References

Finally, if an article is on-point, click on the authors’ names for additional articles by them. When you have the full article, review the list of references that the authors provide since some of these article titles might be helpful to you, too. You will then need to check the Journal Locator for availability.

Select Databases

PubChem This link opens in a new window
PubChem is an open chemistry database at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). PubChem records are contributed by hundreds of data sources. PubChem mostly contains small molecules, but also larger molecules such as nucleotides, carbohydrates, lipids, peptides, and chemically-modified macromolecules. They collect information on chemical structures, identifiers, chemical and physical properties, biological activities, patents, health, safety, toxicity data, and many others.

Science Direct
Indexing and abstracting of more than 1,000 Elsevier Science journals, with approximately half of them full text. Coverage is primarily from the mid- 1990s. Click on the Search button, type in the keywords, and limit Subject as needed.
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Indexing and abstracting of more than 1,000 Elsevier Science journals, with approximately half of them full text. Coverage is primarily from the mid- 1990s. Click on the Search button, type in the keywords, and limit Subject as needed. Select the “PDF” scanned image version since this accommodates graphics. If a “Login” screen appears, the article is not available in the database. An Interlibrary Loan request would then be necessary. When looking for a particular journal article, type the journal title in the box next to Journal/book title. Those journals with a green page at the beginning of the title provide the full articles in the database. Select the journal of interest and the journal volumes available in Science Direct appear, click on the appropriate one and then the issue number. At that point a table of contents appears arranged by page number. Locate the article of interest and click on “PDF” for the article.

To search only the journals that provide full text articles, click on Search and then the gray Journals tab. After entering the keyword terms, limit the Source option to Subscribed journals. Apply other limits as needed.

Scopus This link opens in a new window
Provides access to peer-reviewed research and conference literature in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Includes topic overviews, experiments, biographies, pictures and illustrations, as well as articles from over 23,500 academic journals, conference papers, trade publications, books, and links to quality web sites. Note: Per our license terms with this publisher, Scopus data may not be used to to train artificial intelligence tools.

Scopus

The largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality web sources. Click here to enter Scopus

Go to the Library's homepage and click on Databases, then All Databases
Scroll down and click on Scopus
Enter keywords
Limit as appropriate: Date Range, Document Type and Subject Areas ("Physical Sciences")
Click search

Science Direct

A multi-disciplinary database with a large collection of journals in the physical and health sciences. Click here to enter Science Direct.

For more ways to search, use the Advanced Search. Limits for

Subscribed journals
Article type
Subject areas
Publication title
Access Type
Years

are on the results page. Remember to limit to an appropriate Subject or Subjects.

Find additional help on the ScienceDirect help page, " How do I use the advanced search?"

Subject Guide

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Subjects: Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Engineering, Game Design & Development, Mathematics, Open Educational Resources (OER)