American Chemical Society
Teaching Chemical Information:
Tips and Techniques
— March 1998 —
Chemical Abstracts (Print): Basic Teaching Points
CA covers:
- journals (from all countries and in all languages)
- conference proceedings (i.e. chemists give papers at conf. re. their research; some confs. papers published = conf. proc.) Use local example.
- review articles
- patents
- books
Broad coverage of chemistry — sections of CA
What is an “abstract” and how to “read” an entry in CA
- “Abstracts” are arranged numerically within each vol. no.
Various indexes used to locate relevant abstracts:
- In print: “volume” indexes; “collective” indexes
- Chemical Substance
- Alphabetical by name
- Some substance entries are grouped by broad categories
- How to read an index entry
- How to identify a review article, book, patent
- Alphabetical by name
- Need to know the CAS name for a substance. Find:
- MF index
- Hill Order for formula
- Inverted format for name
- Index Guide
- Merck Index
- Dictionary of Organic Compounds
- MF index
- Author index
- Print version — remember:
- Alphabetical by first and middle INITIALS. Use local ex.
- CA vol. #, abstract no. only given under first-named author.
- Print version — remember:
- Chemical Substance
Sample search — to demo how to use the information (learned in first part of lecture) to execute a search:
- flow chart can be useful
- CA indexes: start with latest 5 year index
- Use CASSI (Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index) to determine full title of publication