Books and e-Books: Get Background Info or In-Depth Analysis
Books and e-books can give you in depth knowledge on your topic, and are also good sources for background information. You can search for print books and e-books using the McKillop library catalog, using essential keywords, as shown in this example. Use the filtering tools to the left of the results list to refine your search. You may borrow print books from libraries nationwide, but e-books must say "Held by Salve Regina University Library" in order to access.
Articles: Review Research Literature
Exploring and analyzing published experiments of others is an important step in your research process, enabling you to understand where your research fits into the scholarly conversations that are happening in a field of study. The process of synthesizing and summarizing published research relevant to your field is called a literature review. It offers readers a framework to understand the need for additional research or new hypotheses by highlighting previously published research on the same topic. Literature reviews often appear in the Introduction of academic articles.
Each search tool has its own interface and methods for advanced searching but keyword searching is a common basic search function. A list of the best databases to explore for Chemistry is on McKillop Library's Databases by Subject page. From there, click the link for Chemistry. Below are descriptions of some of the tools that are best suited for research in Chemistry at Salve Regina:
Academic Search Complete
A large multi-disciplinary database that offers full text access to articles from different kinds of publications - such as journals and magazines - which can help you gain broader knowledge from reports and research reviews before diving into more complex research articles.
Selected journals indexed in this database:
- Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry - Concerned with advances in our understanding of systems involving one or more metal ions in a biological matrix, especially metalloproteins and metal-nucleic acid complexes.
- Bioinorganic Chemistry & Applications - Research in the form of articles, notes, letters & reviews in the general field of bioinorganic chemistry & its applications. Includes all aspects of bioinorganic chemistry, including bioorganometallic chemistry & applied bioinorganic chemistry.
Access this database through the McKillop Library database portal: https://salve.libguides.com/az.php?a=a
Nature
Nature is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal, publishing research in all fields of science and technology. Full-text access is available via the McKillop Library portal: https://salve.libguides.com/az.php?a=n
SciFinder
SciFinder is the most comprehensive resource available for searching the chemistry literature, produced by CAS (Chemical Abstract Service, a division of the American Chemical Society). Contains millions of citations for journal articles and patents, as well as information on chemical substances & reactions. Individual account setup is required; to register for an account, you need to be on campus.
Keyword searching in SciFinder retrieves results based on relevance ranking first. From there, you can filter results for publication type, date, etc.
SciFinder provides detailed help pages for introductory and advanced searching techniques: https://cas-product-help.zendesk.com/hc/en-us
Science Direct
Subscription database with access to more than 50 journals serving the Chemistry community. Several articles within these journals are open access. Always log in through the library portal to ensure maximum full-text access: https://salve.libguides.com/az.php?a=s&p=1
PubChem
PubChem is an open archive consisting of a set of three primary public databases (BioAssay, Compound, and Substance), and includes depositor-provided cross-references to scientific articles in PubMed. Launched in 2004 as a component of the Molecular Libraries Program (MLP) of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), PubChem has been serving as a chemical information resource for scientific communities in many areas including chemical biology, cheminformatics, and medicinal chemistry. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
