Chemical Abstracts is the largest indexing and abstracting source in the world.  It covers over 12,000 journals in all fields of chemistry, as well as chemical patents, dissertations, government reports and books.  It began in 1907, and has continually expanded since then.  It also indexes chemical compounds, over 24,000,000 of them, according to the most recent count. At UMASS Lowell, we have access to an electronic version of Chemical Abstracts known as SciFinder Scholar.

SciFinder Scholar is available anywhere on campus where the software has been installed. All PC's in both campus libraries have SciFinder Scholar. SciFinder Scholar is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except for early Sunday morning. Our campus is allowed 3 simultaneous accesses to this service. Therefore, if you are ever denied access, simply wait about 10 minutes and try again. Also, when you work on SciFinder Scholar, please be sure to log off when you finish. If you don't log out properly, it will be 20 minutes before the system disconnects.

Background:

Hill notation: a standard way of writing the formula for any chemical compound.

Each chemical is given a unique name and a unique number, called a REGISTRY NUMBER.  The registry number is written in a standard recognizable format, i.e.

Registry numbers can be very helpful in tracing your chemical through many sources, since most of them now include registry number indexes. Registry numbers can be searched in SciFinder Scholar.

When you search in SciFinder Scholar, you receive answers in standard formats. Examples of two such formats: Serials (journals) and Patents.

SciFinder Scholar is easily learned.  Here are some sites that will help.

• SciFinder Scholar Help. Links under "What it will do for you" offer detailed step-by-step guidance.
• SciFinder Scholar tutorial.  A self-guided hands on tutorial for using SFS.  You may download the software onto your own computer or use the preloaded tutorial in Olney 216.
• SciFinder guide to searching for Preparations
• List of Journals available in Chemical Abstracts, with Abbreviations
• Sections of Chemical Abstracts Detailed list of the 80 sections of Chemical Abstracts.
• Chemical Abstracts Standard Abbreviations List List of all rules for abbreviation in the Chemical Abstracts database.
• Chemical Abstracts year span list

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Marion Muskiewicz
Last updated 7/21/2004