Library Guides: Chemistry: Find Articles

Important Scholarly Databases

Try these databases first to find scholarly articles in chemistry.

Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Index to scholarly articles in academic journals. Includes Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. To limit your search to a discipline, look under "MORE SETTINGS" at the bottom of the search screen. See the guide: Cited Reference Searching - Web of Science/Knowledge.

Web of Science Training

SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
- SciFinder is a comprehensive research tool for accessing scientific literature, patents, chemical substances, and reactions. It offers advanced search capabilities, including structure and reaction searching, to facilitate efficient retrieval of relevant information for researchers in the fields of chemistry, biology, and related disciplines.
- Please register an account to access this database. Click here to access web tutorials and other training materials.
- Disable pop-up blockers or open in an incognito window to avoid access issues.

SciFinder-n Training

Reaxys This link opens in a new window
Reaxys is a chemistry database including chemical compounds, chemical reactions, chemical properties, related bibliographic data, substance data with synthesis planning information, as well as experimental procedures from selected journals and patents.

Reaxys Tutorials

Other Useful Databases

Academic Search Elite This link opens in a new window
- EBSCOhost Academic Search Elite offers a comprehensive collection of peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and newspapers across various academic disciplines.
American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications This link opens in a new window
- The ACS Publications database is an authoritative resource for researchers, students, and professionals in the chemical sciences, offering access to a vast archive of high-quality, peer-reviewed content across a wide range of chemistry-related fields.
Annual Reviews This link opens in a new window
- The Annual Reviews database contains a curated collection of authoritative articles published by the nonprofit organization Annual Reviews, covering a wide range of academic disciplines including the biomedical, life, physical, and social sciences to disseminate scholarly knowledge for the progress of science and the benefit of society.
Canadian Periodical Index (CPI.Q) This link opens in a new window
Indexing of nearly 700 Canadian periodicals (English and French) with full-text articles from 240 Canadian periodicals. Covers journals, magazines, and newspapers. Not all are scholarly sources - select "peer-reviewed publications" to limit your results.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
For access to full-text add Find It @ Trent (Omni) - Find It@TrentU under Settings / Library Links. See https://www.trentu.ca/library/help/google#scholar for further information.

PubChem
NCBI database of biological activities of small molecules. Also links to Pub Med and related databases for references.

PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed® comprises more than 36 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
ScienceDirect is a leading full-text scientific database offering journal articles and book chapters from nearly 2,500 journals and more than 30,000 books.

Review Journals

Review articles are good resources for background information. Review articles are published in many journals, but there are some journals in which all the articles are reviews. Below is a list of some of these journals in Chemistry. Use them as a starting point for gathering information, to obtain an introduction or overview for an unfamiliar topic. Don't forget to look in their bibliographies for other articles.

Annual Reviews This link opens in a new window
- The Annual Reviews database contains a curated collection of authoritative articles published by the nonprofit organization Annual Reviews, covering a wide range of academic disciplines including the biomedical, life, physical, and social sciences to disseminate scholarly knowledge for the progress of science and the benefit of society.

Journal Title Abbreviations

Tutorials

Tutorial: Keyword Searching
A short tutorial providing background on how keyword searching works, with tips to improve your search results. Estimated reading time: 10 minutes.
Finding Articles
Recognizing Scholarly Resources: JABsa
A tutorial on how to avoid using "popular" articles and know when you've found scholarly ones.
Omni Guide
A guide for using the Omni search tool.
Tutorial: Scholarly Articles
Scholarly articles: what they are, how to find, recognize, read, and use them. Includes exercises. Estimated reading time: 20 minutes.
Using Google, Google Scholar and Other Internet Search Engines
A guide on using internet search engines, with a section on using Google Scholar and setting it to recognize you as a Trent student.

Troubleshooting Searches

Too few articles:

Check for typos and spelling. Consider using both American and British spellings (eg. behaviour or behavior).
Remove long phrases.
Make sure you're using a database that is likely to include information on your topic.
Try using other synonyms and alternate words joined by the Boolean Operator 'OR' (e.g. aboriginal or indigenous or First Nations).
Check your Boolean logic. Are you using 'AND' when you should be using 'OR'?
If you have found at least one good article, look at the references of this article to find other related articles OR use the 'Find citing' or 'Find related' buttons when available in the databases.

Too many articles:

Add another concept to your searching using the Boolean operator 'AND'.
Add Limits (e.g. Peer Reviewed, Date of Publication, Language, Publication Type, etc.).
Check your Boolean logic. Are you using 'OR' when you should be using 'AND'?
When Keyword searching, try searching just in the Title field. This is not recommended for all searches, as you will eliminate relevant articles that don't have those keywords in the title, but it will likely find a few articles to get you started.
If you're searching in a database that covers all subjects (e.g. Academic Search Elite, Web of Knowledge), look for a database that is subject specific.

What is Interlibrary Loan?

Interlibrary loan is a system that allows you to request material from other libraries to be sent to Trent for you to borrow. Normally, there are no costs to use the ILL service. Plan ahead because it can take a few days or even weeks for material to be sent, depending upon availability.

Visit the Interlibrary Loan page for more information.