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Chemistry Seminar - Fall 2025 (21:160:453 / 26:160:601)

This guide was created specifically for Dr. Huixin He's class - Fall 2025

WEB OF SCIENCE

Web of Science indexes leading scholarly journals, books, conference proceedings, and reports. Its Web of Science Core Collection, which indexes over 20,000 scholarly journals and includes over 1 billion cited references. Indexing for each work in the Core Collection includes authors, author affiliations, and cited references. Full-text of the citations retrieved can be searched within the Rutgers Libraries QuickSearch and Google Scholar.

Web of Science Core Collection (Chemistry-related) Other Searchable Citation Indexes (Chemistry-related)
Science Citation Index Expanded: 1900-present BIOSIS Citation Index: 1926-present
Book Citation Index-Science: 2005-present BIOSIS Previews: 1990-present
Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science: 1900-present Current Contents Connect: 1998-present
Current Chemical Reactions (CCR): 1985-present MEDLINE: 1950-present
Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI): 2005-present SciELO Citation Index: 2002-present
Index Chemicus (IC): 1993-present) Research Commons - NEW*

SEARCH FOR A TOPIC: DEFAULT SEARCH PAGE

 

  1. The default search method is ADVANCED SEARCH method
  2. Search by DOCUMENT
  3. Search in the WEB OF SCIENCE CORE COLLECTION, or you can select all databases from the drop down menu.
  4. The default is by ALL FIELDS, however you can select options such as Topic, Title, Author, etc. 
  5. CITED REFERENCE SEARCH allows you to search across indexed citations to find all of the Web of Science records that have cited a publication, even if that publication is not indexed in the Web of Science.
  6. STRUCTURE SEARCH allows you to search chemical data in Web of Science Core Collection records.
    • Use the drawing tool or search data associated with compounds and reactions in the text fields
    • Draw a structure from scratch or copy/paste a .mol file into the drawing window
    • Add compound or reaction data for your search

 

SEARCH FOR A TOPIC: SMART SEARCH

 

SMART SEARCH is a new search system where you can enter a natural language query rather than breaking it down into specific keywords and search fields. The system will then use this to generate a traditional Boolean search (with AND, OR, NOT keywords) and a semantic search (using similar terms to the ones you have entered), combine these two searches and generate a set of relevant papers and researchers. You can opt to see only the Boolean or Semantic searches to see the different sets of results they produce.

 

SEARCH FOR A RESEARCHER

In the default search page, the RESEARCHERS tab, allows you to search all publications by a particular researcher or author. It is best to search for the researcher's publications by several methods, as records are sometimes attributed to alternative names. Enter the Researcher's last name then first name, you can also click on ADD NAME VARIANT to use first name initials in the search. If you know the researcher's Web of Science Researcher ID or their ORCID number, click on the drop down to search by AUTHOR IDENTIFIERS for a more thorough search. 

CAS SCIFINDER

1. LOGIN INFORMATION:

If you already have a CAS SciFinder-n personal account, sign in with NetID, and CAS will match your NetID to your existing personal account (if it has trouble finding a match and you see a prompt asking for your email address, enter it in the format netid@rutgers.edu). Once CAS finds a match, click “Link Accounts," and then you will be able to sign in with NetID going forward. 

  • ABOUT CAS-SciFinder-n

CAS SciFinder-n is a comprehensive resource for chemical substance and reaction information. It indexes chemistry literature worldwide, including journal articles, patents, conference proceedings, theses and dissertations, technical reports, government documents, and more. It also covers chemical structures, reactions, chemical suppliers, spectra, biosequences, and experimental and predictive retrosynthetic analyses for known and novel substances. It also includes features to aid your research, such as relevance scoring, citation mapping, and touchscreen-enabled structure drawing.

To explore analytical methods and formulas information within CAS-SciFinder-n, you may navigate to CAS Analytical Methods and CAS Formulus using the menu on the left side of the header. CAS Analytical Methods contains published analytical and synthetic scientific methods, while CAS Formulus contains formulation information. The methods and formulations have been extracted from patents and journals and carefully indexed by a team of scientists. In many cases, the results will include links to the journal article and patent records in CAS SciFinder-n.

This database is the electronic counterpart and continuation of the print publication Chemical Abstracts.

2. SEARCH IN THE STREAMLINED SEARCH BOX BY:

  • NATURAL LANGUAGE QUERY: Input queries using everyday language instead of relying on strict keyword syntax.
  • SUBSTANCE PROPERTY: Search for substances based on specific property values or ranges using Natural Language Queries or traditional keywords.
  • AUTHOR NAME: Search in multiple formats by full name, combining names with other text, or alongside document types.
  • REACTION PROCEDURE: Specify your desired procedure or protocols for specific reactions through descriptions or CAS numbers . Search using natural language queries or traditional keyword search. 

3. ADVANCED SEARCH: You can still access Advanced Search to specifically identify a search parameter by using the Advanced Search option in the menu below the search box. 

 

CAS SciFinder-n Quick Reference Guide

REAXYS

Reaxys is a chemistry database that provides information about millions of chemical structures, reactions, and properties. It also lists journal articles, patents, and other publications related to them. It includes substance property and reaction data, synthesis options, experimental procedures, patent information, and citations. Its comprehensive and expert-curated chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and pharmacology data is derived from patents, journals, and books. Reaxys is a great resource for researchers who are investigating organic synthesis or searching for data on physical, chemical, spectral, bioactivity, or toxicological properties of chemical compounds.

1. First REGISTER for a free account. This allows you to save searches, citations, etc. The AI Search tab will appears after you log in or register. Using Reaxys through your institution? If the tab isn’t visible, click Activate Personalization in your profile menu.

REAXYS SEARCH OPTIONS

1. Quick Search & 2. Query Builder

Use Reaxys Quick Search(opens in a new window) or Query Builder(opens in a new window) if you’re looking for:

  • Molecular formula, SMILES and CAS numbers
  • Patent number
  • Author name
  • Structures and Specific datapoints: What is the melting point of lamotrigine?
  • Reactions and conditions: "suzuki cross coupling reaction" in toluene

3. REAXYS AI SEARCH - BETA

Reaxys AI Search Beta interprets natural language queries using vector-based search and returns context-aware results. 

  • Each result displays a confidence score ranging from 0 to 1, where 1 indicates high confidence that the document is relevant and 0 indicates low confidence.
  •  Reaxys AI Search Beta does not learn from, nor is it trained on, users' queries or search results. 
  • This version searches the entire Reaxys document corpus. To provide a consistent and reviewable set of results, the display is limited to 100 results per search.
  • This early version does not generate summaries or interactive responses. It focuses on delivering relevant literature-based outputs to support accurate and efficient discovery. You can export to .CSV format.

CHOOSING THE BEST TOOL

What do you want to do? The best place to start:
Search for references (keyword, author names, title, abstract, journal, etc.
  1. SciFinder, hands down.  CAS is the most comprehensive literature index in any field and is hand-indexed, not machine-indexed. 
  2. Web of Science covers the chemical journal literature fairly well, and eliminates patents and 'gray' literature that some chemists find distracting or irrelevant.  However, WOS lacks chemistry-specific search features (systematic names, structures, RNs), and its search interface can be frustrating. 
  3. Reaxys doesn't do this particularly well.
Search for substances by drawing a structure or substructure. SciFinder and Reaxys are both very strong here.  SciFinder's Registry database of indexed substances is by far the largest such resource in the world, but is heavily sourced from patents.  Reaxys has a smaller universe of structures (but still millions), and some people prefer its structure editor to SciFinder's. 
Search for reactions.

Reaxys is often preferred for its precision and drawing options.  SciFinder has greater recall of organic reactions since 1986 because it indexes a far larger swath of literature.  To be thorough you should search both.

If you're looking for a preparation method for a compound, both tools let you draw a structure and designate it as a reaction product, and you can specify starting materials or fragments, catalysts, minimum yields, etc.  SciFinder has a synthesis planner tool as well.
Search by citations to past literature. Web of Science is by far the best tool.  Its citation index goes back to 1900.  It has relatively powerful tools to analyze results.  SciFinder's citation indexing only goes back to the mid-1990s.
Search for chemical spectra.
  1. SciFinder provides many NMR and IR graphical spectra from BioRad and Wiley libraries directly in Registry records for specific substances.  It's also the best place to do a systematic literature search for published spectral data. 
  2. Reaxys contains many spectral data fields in its substance records, which allow for peak searching, but does not contain graphical spectra.

See the Spectroscopy guide for more information and lists of specialized spectral databases.
Search for crystallographic data. The Cambridge Structural Database is the definitive repository for organic crystal data (see Crystallography guide page).  Reaxys contains numerous searchable crystallographic data fields for many organic and inorganic substances.  SciFinder is the best place to do a literature search for this information published in journals, starting with a substance search.
Search for physical and thermodynamic properties.

Reaxys has the largest number of property data fields for substances, dating back more than a century.  Complex numeric queries can be created to narrow down results, in addition to searching by substance. 

SciFinder has added a substantial amount of property data to its Registry records, but is not nearly as thorough as Reaxys.  However, it's the best place to do a literature search for reported properties using keywords and Registry Numbers. 

See the Physical Properties guide for much more information and links to many specialized databases.

This content was adapted from a University of Texas at Austin LibGuide used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Generic License.