LibGuides: Chemistry & Biochemistry: Using Chemical Abstracts

About Chemical Abstracts

Chemical Abstracts is the most comprehensive scientific abstracting service in English. It provides a complete bibliographic reference to the original publication and a non-critical summary of its content. Over 15,000 scientific and engineering journals, patents from 26 countries, conference proceedings, reports and monographs are monitored. Over 55% of this material is in English, with the remainder in any of 66 other languages.

Some familiarity with chemistry and its terminology is necessary for the efficient use of this tool. Once the construction of the indexes is understood, there should be little difficulty in the use of CA. However, hands-on experience is the only way a full understanding can be achieved.

Abstracts are arranged in 80 sections grouped under five broad headings and are published weekly.

From 1907-1996 (v.1-125), biochemistry and organic chemistry are covered in one week; macromolecular chemistry, applied chemistry and chemical engineering, and physical and analytical chemistry in the alternate week.
From 1997–present, all fields are covered in each issue.

How to Access:

SciFinder This link opens in a new window
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Information contained in SciFinder is from the CAS databases produced by the Chemical Abstracts Service including Chemical Abstracts (1907 to present) and CAS Registry (1957 to present), with some classes (fluorine- and silicon-containing compounds) going back to the early 1900s. Some cited, as well as citing references, are included. All records in the database are in English, regardless of the language of the original document.
- Individual accounts are required (registration form).
- You must create the account while on campus (or using the VPN).
- You must use a university email address that ends in umsl.edu. (for students: abc123@mail.umsl.edu where abc123 is the first part of your email address)
- You will need to create a separate username and password.