Chemistry: databases and indexes

Use these databases to search for:

  • Journal articles and conference papers to provide you with current information on research and development.
  • Properties and data.
  • Standards and patents.

The bibliographic databases listed below allow you to search thousands of journal articles by keyword, author or other criteria. They contain full bibliographic details of the articles and normally an abstract. Structure, reaction and data searching are available on the specialist Chemistry databases.

Many references also contain links to the full text of the articles. Where links are not available you need to re-check WebCat, to see if the journal titles in your references are held at any of the site libraries or electronically. Then check the Holdings information for the volumes and issues that you require.

Databases
Title Description Other Details

SciFinder Scholar provides easy access to the scientific information offered by the CAS databases. This includes substance and reaction information, patent and journal references and information on chemical and suppliers- substance information It is the electronic equivalent of Chemical Abstracts.

Registration required (must be completed on-campus)
Rexays 

Reaxys is a web-based system for searching Crossfire Beilstein, Crossfire Gmelin and the Patents databases. It covers an extensive collection of organic, organo-metallic, and inorganic chemistry data. Reaxys enables you to search by structure, substructure, reaction, text, and property data. Online training and support available.

No password.

Off-campus access via VPN

Chemical Data Service (CDS)  The Chemical Database Service (CDS) is a national service funded by the Physical Sciences Porgramme of EPSRC. It provides on-line access to a variety of quality databases covering structures, spectroscopy, physical and organic chemistry. It also provides links to other chemistry resources on the web Registration required 

Web of Science (on campus)

Web of Science (off campus)

Covers the general scientific literature from 1970 to date. This database can be searched by cited reference as well as author, title, subject etc.

This includes the Science Citation Index.

No password.


Off-campus access with Institutional login

INSPEC

Main coverage is Physics and electrical engineering but does have reasonable physical chemistry coverage.

No password. Off-campus access with Institutional login
BS Online 

Access full text of current British Standards (and some International/European equivalents e.g. ISO and IEC). For more details see the Standards page.

See Terms & Conditions for printing and copying.

On-Campus Only

EspaceNet

The patent database of the European Patent Office. It offers free patent searching of documents from over 50 different countries and access to the full text of many. For more information on searching the patent literature, use the pages on the Library website.

No password
Scirus

A science-specific search engine which searches over 150 million science-specific Web pages and will frequently take you directly you the full text of an article.

No password
zetoc

An Electronic Table of Contents service from the British Library which does not contain abstracts but is useful as an alerting service. It covers all subject areas from 1993 to date and is updated daily.

No password. Institutional login for off campus use and alerts