Chemical Abstracts Service Policy for Electronic Documents

1. Report new information of chemical or chemical engineering interest;
2. Present information in a form similar to that of a scientific or technical paper (i.e., present novel findings with some discussion of the experimental details or research that support the conclusions);
3. Identify authorship, either personal or organizational;
4. Are publicly available (but may be for a fee or through subscription);
5. Are expected to have some relative permanence or continued accessibility through a citable electronic address or archival source; and
6. Are original publications (i.e., have not been published previously in another form or medium).

CAS coverage includes papers published in electronic-only journals and presented during online conferences. Coverage does not include preprints, news releases, abstracts, or messages placed on electronic bulletin boards or list servers. Nor does it include journals published in both print AND electronic form; these are covered by CAS in their printed forms.

We have not limited our coverage to electronic publications that are free to the public any more than we have limited our coverage to printed journals that are free. As long as the publications may be acquired by the general public, even if that means by paid subscription, they are considered candidates for our coverage.

This year our coverage of electronic-only journals has grown to 12 journals and we are currently monitoring the introduction of several more that have been announced. The electronic-journal articles are abstracted and indexed following standard editorial practices for scientific or technical papers. Electronic addresses and other pertinent publication information are recorded as standard bibliographic data.

David W. Weisgerber
Editor, Chemical Abstracts Service
18 June 1996