Where to search for articles on organic chemistry topics may depend on what you're trying to search. If you want to start with a compound or reaction, you may want to start with SciFinder or Reaxys. Both allow you to start with a compound, view associated properties (with literature references), and then retrieve reactions involving that compound and filter those results to view the reactions and literature references of interest. You can also start with a reaction (drawn or imported from ChemDraw) and search for the reaction. SciFinder-n does require a one-time registration (must be on campus network, including protected wifi or VPN, to access this page).
You can also use SciFinder and Reaxys for topic/keyword searching, as well as Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed, and other databases.
SciFinder-n is a collection of chemical databases, including:
You can search SciFinder by research topic, as well as by substance or reaction. For best results, search Reaxys and SciFinder.
SciFinder is restricted to current UC San Diego faculty, staff, postdocs, and students.
SciFinder does require a user registration. If you don't already have a SciFinder or SciFinder-n account at UC San Diego, go to the SciFinder at UC page and follow the instructions to register. VPN must be enabled for you to get to the registration information. Use your ucsd.edu email address. Once registered, you will still need to run VPN when searching SciFinder from off-campus
Use of SciFinder is for educational and academic research purposes only.
There is no visitor access for SciFinder in the Library.
New Features
CAS Analytical Methods - Browse, search, and compare analytical methods, including materials, techniques, and equipment. Retrosynthesis Planner: Generate a full retrosynthetic analysis of all known synthetic routes for a given molecule, organize it into easy-to-navigate synthetic plans, and access commercial source availability and pricing. PatentPak: Full-text searching of 18 million patents, with chemical substances marked so they can be easily found within the patent. ChemDoodle: Touch-friendly structure editor for drawing on phones and tablets. Structures drawn in ChemDoodle will be the same in CAS Draw, and vice versa. |
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From the SciFinder record, whether from the full record or results list, click the Full Text button under the abstract.
The DOI will take you to the publisher's website where the article is available, and in most cases this is all you need to do to get the article (but make sure that VPN is running if you're off campus).
You can also use the Get It At UC option as well to go to the full text. The advantages of using Get It At UC:
You can search for substances in SciFinder by
From the CAS Registry record, view:
And get links to retrieve:
Reaction searching can be done in SciFinder by:
Reactions can also be searched as a research topic, which will give you references as results, rather than reactions.
Reaction results can be filtered by reaction details (reagent, solvent, catalyst, yield, steps, reaction classification, non-participating functional groups) or publication details like journal title and publication year.
Each reaction includes reaction details (reagents, solvents, steps/stages, etc.) and a link to the associated reference to a journal article, patent, or other source. Click on View Reaction Detail for more information about the reaction from MethodsNow. For drawn reactions, you may be able to filter by similarity.
With the Retrosynthesis Planer, generate a full retrosynthetic analysis of all known synthetic routes for a given molecule; organize into easy to navigate synthetic plans; and access commercial source availability and pricing.
Along with the built-in help menu within SciFinder, CAS also provides a set of training materials on their SciFinder support page. You can also view previous webinars and register for upcoming webinars.
Contact Teri Vogel (tmvogel@ucsd.edu) if you have questions about using SciFinder, or want to set up a training consultation.
Reaxys is a database for the chemical literature, with millions of:
Every reaction and every property data point has at least one associated journal or patent reference.
Reaxys indexes the journal literature further back than SciFinder-n, and indexes deeper into the articles for property data. Like SciFinder-n, Reaxys can be searched by topic/keyword, as well as by substances and reactions. Reaxys also has a query builder to create combined searches (e.g. substances with a certain refractive index, a melting point range, and available IR spectra). For best results, search Reaxys and SciFinder-n.
Off-campus access to Reaxys is restricted to current UC San Diego faculty, students and staff. You must be logged into the VPN client, but you do not need to create an additional individual account unless you want to set up search alerts.
Visitors can access Reaxys from the Library computer stations.
You can search for substances in Reaxys by
From the Reaxys record, view:
And get links to retrieve:
Reaction searching can be done in Reaxys by:
Reaction results can be filtered by reaction details (reagent, solvent, catalyst, yield, steps, reaction classes, commercial availability) or publication details like journal title and publication year.
Each reaction includes some reaction conditions (reagents, solvents, steps/stages, etc.), a link to at least one associated reference to a journal article or patent, and a link to find similar reactions. Some reactions also include more detailed experimental procedures.
The Retrosynthesis Planner does just that: helps you to create synthesis plans for substances in the Reaxys reactions database. For more information on how the Synthesis Planner works, consult this step-by-step tutorial and video.
Reaxys has provided a series of workflow-based tutorials and video tutorials.
Contact Teri Vogel (tmvogel@ucsd.edu) if you have questions about using Reaxys, or want to set up a training consultation.