Contents:

• Getting Started
• Exploring by Research Topic
• Exploring by Substances → Substance Identifier(s)

With SciFinder Scholar you can explore a broad approach to the chemical sciences literature by research topic, author name, company name, chemical structure, chemical substructure, chemical structure similarity, molecular formula, or substance identifiers. In addition to retrieving bibliographic references, SciFinder Scholar provides predicted and experimental physical property data including spectra, chemical regulatory information, and chemical suppliers.

Databases in SciFinder Scholar

Getting Started

• One-time registration: user driven, but IP access controlled.
• Direct link once registered: IP access controlled. You can also reset your password from this page.
• Off-campus access: via library proxy server or campus VPN.

Exploring by Research Topic

1. Enter a topic of interest.

   You can limit the results by specifying the year(s), document types, language(s), etc.

   Specify only two or three concepts at one time. You can refine your search later with additional terms.

   Include prepositions and articles to connect the concepts
   Example: groundwater contamination by arsenic from mine drainage

   Place synonyms in parentheses after the synonymous concept
   Example: bone cells (osteocytes)

   Note: SciFinder automatically searches related terms and substance names and considers alternate spellings and word endings when retrieving results. Boolean operators are not used and there are no truncation symbols, or proximity operators. However, In the next version you should be able to combine sets as you currently can in the client version.

2. Select candidate references of interest based on the relationship of the terms and concepts within records.

   SciFinder considers terms to be:

   "As entered" when terms are found exactly as you have entered them.

   "Closely associated with one another" when terms are found within the same sentence or title.

   "Present anywhere within a reference" when terms are found anywhere (perhaps widely separated) within a record's title, abstract, or indexing.

   "Containing the concept" when the entered term(s), synonymous term(s), or similar term(s) are found within the record.

3. Working with references:

   Get related information for an individual reference.
   

   Keep or remove references from your answer set.
   

   Get related information for your answer set.
   

4. Refine or Analyze your answer set.

   Answer sets can be refined by research topic, author name, company name, document type, publication year, language, and database.

   REFINE:

   Select this option…	To identify answers that…
   Research Topic	Contain additional technical terminology
   Author Name	Were written by a particular author
   Company Name	Originate from a particular organization or university
   Document Type	Came from a particular category of source document
   Publication Year	Were published in a particular timeframe
   Language	Were written in a particular language
   Database	Came from a specific database

   References can be analyzed by author name, CAS Registry Number, CA section title, company, database, document type, index term, journal, language, year, and supplementary term.

   ANALYZE:

   Select this option…	To identify…
   Author Name	Key researchers publishing in a technology area
   CAS Registry Number	Substances reported in a technology area
   CA Section Title	Records with a primary technical focus
   Company/Organization	Organizations actively publishing in a technology area
   Database	The breakdown of records by database
   Document Type	The breakdown of records by original publication type
   Index Term	Records with a primary technical focus
   Journal Name	Articles published in particular journals of interest
   Language	Records written in your preferred language
   Publication Year	Publishing trends
   Supplementary Term	Records with a primary technical focus

5. Set up a current-awareness profile.

   

   Only the initial query is included; additional steps are not. Alerts are processed weekly. You can specify if you want an email notification when new results are available.

   

   To review your current-awareness profiles and search results, click Keep Me Posted in the top right-hand corner of the window.

6. Save, print, or export your answer set.

   

   Print: If no answers are selected, the entire answer set will be printed. To print the details for a single answer, display the details in the main SciFinder window.

   Save: You can save an answer set to the CAS server.

     You can retrieve your saved answer set at any time by clicking the answer sets option in the upper right corner of the browser window. If no answers are selected, the entire answer set will be saved. To save the details for a single answer, display the details in the main SciFinder window. To save answers locally (to your computer), use the Export function.

   Export: Selected answers can be saved to your desktop or another local folder in a variety of formats. If no answers are selected, the entire answer set will be exported. A maximum of 20,000 answers can be exported.

7. Begin a new task or SIGN OUT.

Exploring by Substances → Substance Identifier(s)

1. Type substance of interest:

   It can be a chemical name, trade name, or CAS Registry Number, GenBank number.

   You may enter up to 25 multiple identifiers by placing one per line or by importing from a file.

2. Working with a substance:

   Choose the CAS RN option when you want to display detailed information about that substance including physical properties. Sources for the property values are provided.

     Choose the References option to retrieve documents associated with specific characteristics of the substance.

     Choose the Reactions option to retrieve reactions in which the substance plays a role that you specify.

     Choose the Commercial Sources option to retrieve information about the commercial availability of the substance.

3. Working with a set of substances:

   

   To get related information for only a subset of the answers, select the substances of interest before choosing one of the two options. If none are selected, the entire answer set will be included.

   Choose the Get References option to retrieve references for selected substance(s).
   

   Choose the Get Reactions to retrieve reactions for selected substance(s).
   

4. Refine/Analyze Answer Set.

   Substance answer sets can be refined by chemical structure and availability.

   REFINE:

   Select this option…	To identify substances…
   Chemical Structure	That contain an additional or particular structural component.
   Isotope-Containing Substances	That include the presence of isotopic labels.
   Metal-Containing Substances	That include one or more metals.
   Commercial Availability	For which commercial supplier information is available.
   Property Availability	For which experimental or predicted (calculated) properties are available. For which a particular property is available.
   Reference Availability	For which journal or patent references are available.

   Analyzing the answer set allows you to categorize reactions on the basis of whether the substances can be obtained from commercial sources, what elements are present in the substances, whether the substances are referenced in reactions, or by role type.

   ANALYZE:

   Select this option…	To categorize reactions on the basis of…
   Commercial Availability	Whether the substances can be obtained from commercial sources.
   Elements	The elements present in the substances in the answer set.
   Reaction Availability	Whether the substances are referenced in reactions.
   Substance Role	The role, use, or type of study with which the substances are associated.

5. Set up a current-awareness profile.

   You cannot set up a current-awareness profile for a search by substance identifier. Only when the Keep Me Posted icon in the upper left of the SciFinder window is active, can you can set up an alert based on the initial query for the current Explore task.

6. Save, print, or export your answer set.

   

   Print: If no answers are selected, the entire answer set will be printed. To print the details for a single answer, display the details in the main SciFinder window.

   Save: You can save up to 20 answer sets to the CAS server (20,000 records maximum per answer set).

     You can retrieve your saved answer set at any time by clicking the answer sets button in the upper right corner of the browser window. If no answers are selected, the entire answer set will be saved. To save the details for a single answer, display the details in the main SciFinder window. To save answers locally (to your computer), use the Export function.

   Export: Selected answers can be saved to your desktop or another local folder in a variety of formats. If no answers are selected, the entire answer set will be exported. A maximum of 20,000 answers can be exported.

   File Format (File Name Extension)	Notes
   Answer Key Exchange (.akx)	Links preserved, but file can only be opened in SciFinder Scholar.
   Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf)	Search history included. Use if having printer and browser incompatibility issues.
   Answer Keys (.txt)	Saves accession numbers or CAS RN's only.
   Quoted (.txt)	Use for importing into spreadsheet programs like Excel.
   Tagged (.txt)	Use for importing into EndNote/Refworks.

   For all formats except AKX there is a 500 record maximum; for AKX the record maximum is 20,000.

   If you use Internet Explorer: you may see an internet security warning.

   

   To disable the warning message:

   1. Select Tools > Internet Options > Security.
   2. Click "Trusted sites" and then click the "Sites" button.
   3. In the "Add this Web site to the zone:" field, type the base URL for SciFinder: https://scifinder.cas.org/
   4. Click "Add" and then "Close."
   5. Click OK to close all dialog boxes.
   6. Retry exporting your answer set.

7. EndNote/RefWorks

   Save file in tagged (.txt) format.

   In EndNote, use the SciFinder (CAS) filter.

   In RefWorks, use the (CAS) SciFinder filter.

8. Begin a new task or SIGN OUT.

Page owner: Lisa Ngo