CHEM 390: Research Methods for Undergraduate Students
What databases are there besides SciFinder?
Of course SciFinder is must for chemistry research. There are other databases and indexes that are helpful and should not be skipped if you're working toward a comprehensive search, particularly if the area of your research is transdisciplinary, crosses over into other disciplines.
This page covers strategies you can use to identify other Indexes and Databases to search.
Chemistry and Biochemistry Article Databases
Chemistry Article Indexes and Databases - Best Bets
New developments and current research often appear first as conference papers and/or journals articles. You can find these in Article Indexes and Databases. You will also find product reviews, descriptions of methodology, or information on innovations in or applications of particular processes, systems and devices.
Each database has a different scope - it will cover different subjects and therefore will contain descriptions to articles in different journals.
- SciFinder - American Chemical SocietyA must for finding chemistry articles and information; Search by topic, chemical, or reaction. You need to "register" before using this database
- ChemSpider - Royal Society of ChemistryFind chemical structures, properties and associated information. Search by systematic name, synonym, trade name, registry number, SMILES, InChl or CSI
Biochemistry Article Indexes and Databases - Best Bets
- PubMed - U.S. National Library of MedicinePubMed has the same content as Medline, plus some newer material not yet indexed, and a few unique titles
- Medline - Ebsco versionThe largest, most comprehensive index covering biomedical topics, with an emphasis on clinical medicine; includes optometry and dentistry.
General Science Databases
If you're not finding what you need in discipline related or specialized database, try one of these multidisciplinary science databases:
- Web of ScienceThis multi-disciplinary index includes article information from approximately 8,500 journals in sciences, engineering, social sciences, arts and humanities. A key feature of this index is the cited reference search, which searches for the articles that have cited a particular author’s work, or a specific article.
To limit to Reviews: On one of the lines of paired boxes, choose "Document Type" from the drop-down menu on the right. This brings up selections in the box to the left; select "Review". - Science DirectMulti-disciplinary, the primary focus is science, engineering and medicine. Table of contents information is available for publication years before 1997.
- Scopus (Elsevier)A large, multidisciplinary database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books, and conference proceedings.
- Science.govProvides access to a large range of science-related web pages and databases from United States government agencies (the full list is at: http://www.science.gov/searchdbs.html).
Find Other Databases to Search
From the Library's Main page (boisestate.edu/library):
Step 1 - Click the Indexes and Databases Panel
Step 2 - Scroll down to the Databases A to Z List
Step 3 - Search a broad subject (e.g. Chemistry) or part of a database name
Step 4 - Database options will appear below the search box
Who Cited this Article?
Many databases will show you who cited a particular article. Depending on the database you search, these citations might be from articles, technical reports, dissertations, or other types of documents. Here are some options in broad general databases that might help.
- Web of Science (WOS)Multi-disciplinary database; key feature is the "cited reference" search, which searches for the articles that have cited a particular author’s work, or a specific article
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar: is a great place to search an article and see who cited it. Look for the "cited by" link
Why are the Number of Citations Different?
You may find that the numbers of articles that cited an original article are different in each database you search. Databases that have a "cited by" feature are retrieving the information from the content within their own database or a range of databases by that vendor, so their sources of information will differ.
Google Scholar will usually have more articles listed under their "cited by" because the database searches across the Internet
Using Google's Advanced Search
Google Scholar Advanced Search can help you structure your search around the keywords you generated for your topic, and give you ideas of how to focus your search. To get to the Advanced Search feature:
1. Go to Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com) and click the menu bars on the top left
2. Choose Advanced Search
The structure of Google Scholar's Advanced Search template allows you to easily structure your search around your keywords, return articles authored by a particular person, published in a specific journal, or published between specified dates.
