The Ideal
Chemical Information Curriculum
Developed
by Carol Carr and Arleen Somerville
Undergraduate students
Every undergraduate chemistry major should know that an extensive chemical
literature exists e.g. that there are scientific and chemical dictionaries,
encyclopedias, indexes, and data compilations.
Students should learn:
The Structure of Chemical
Information
- The primary mode of published
information transfer in chemistry is the journal article or patent.
Chemical Abstracts statistics show that over
99% of the chemical information they included in 1999 comes from these two
types of sources.
- Various types of information
sources exist
Students should know when and how to use each type
- journal articles
o
types of articles - "letters," full article,
review
o
sections of a typical full article.
- patents
- books (whole books
exist on topics simply mentioned in their texts)
- handbooks (e.g. CRC ,
Merck Index, Dictionary of Organic Compounds)
- abstracts/indexes
o
bibliographic (e.g. Chemical Abstracts, related tools
such as Physics Abstracts, Current Contents)
o
chemical indexes, (e.g. properties, reaction,
structure, sequences).
- citation indexes (Web
of Science/Science Citation Index)
- review publications
(journals, book series)
For the most important sources, students should learn:
- subject coverage
- indexing policies
- sources and time period
covered
- style policies
(abbreviations, etc.)
as well as questions that can and cannot be answered by a specific source.
Electronic search skills
- Boolean search logic (AND,
OR, NOT)
- Truncation
- Relevancy Ranking
- choosing relevant search
terms (including synonyms, abbreviations, codes).
- special techniques for
retrieving chemical information,
e.g. name segments, molecular formula, structure and reaction queries.
Basic Chemical Search Skills
- locate background material:
review articles/encyclopedia articles
- locate patents and journals
(in a library, online)
- compile a list of
publications by an author
- know the value of and can
use a citation index
- locate information on:
- subjects (in Chemical
Abstracts and other indexes, e.g. General Science Index, Physical
Abstracts, Medline)
- properties (spectra,
chemical, physical, and toxicological/safety, etc.)
- compound preparation
Continue to Graduate Students
Return to Teaching Chemical Information