Chemistry Research Guide

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Check out the tabs on the left for focused recommendations for resources in each category.

Top Databases for Chemistry:

SciFinder-n (Previously SciFinder) This link opens in a new window
SciFinder-n, produced by the Chemical Abstract Service, are the most comprehensive databases for chemical literature. Has editors to draw and search for structures. Users must create a sign-in using their @ucsc.edu email accounts. The older platform, SciFinder, was retired July 31.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary database of scholarly articles. Searches citation indexes in Arts and Humanities, Social Science, and Science. Includes "cited by" feature and allows sorting by citation count.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
For medical articles - this is the place to go. For the most up-to-date access to peer-reviewed articles on an incredible variety of biomedical topics, including medical research, genetics, bioinformatics, physiology, oncology, nursing and more. If you don't see the Get it at UC button in the Abstract display, you are not in the customized UC version!
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Database covering many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, and online repositories. Use Eduroam (on campus), or the VPN (off-campus) to access full-text of UCSC subscribed content.
CHEMnetBASE This link opens in a new window
Collection of CRC chemistry handbooks, including Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, Properties of Organic Compounds, Combined Chemical Dictionary (CCD), Dictionary of Commonly Cited Compounds, Dictionary of Drugs, Dictionary of Inorganic and Organometallic Compounds, Dictionary of Marine Natural Products, Dictionary of Natural Products, Dictionary of Organic Compounds, Polymers: A Property Database.

See A-Z Database list for more.

Preprint Servers

ChemRxiv
A free online submission, distribution, and archival service for unpublished preprints in the chemistry sciences.
bioRxiv
The preprint server for the life sciences. Hosted by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
arXiv.org
Open access to over one million e-prints in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance and Statistics.

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Connect From Your Computer

For access to e-books, online journals, databases:

For Off-Campus Access - Use the Campus VPN
For On-Campus Wireless Access - Use eduroam (note: Cruznet no longer works for access to library resources.)

Find Open Access versions of paywalled articles with the Unpaywall browser app.

Use the Nomad extension for quick links to subscription-based full text. Works on publisher sites, Wikipedia and some databases.

ChemDraw

ChemDraw is a chemical drawing program, and is essential to learn for students who want to continue in Chemistry. The program is loaded onto all the workstations in the Digital Scholarship Commons on the ground floor of McHenry Library.

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The land acknowledgement used at UC Santa Cruz was developed in partnership with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Chairman and the Amah Mutsun Relearning Program at the UCSC Arboretum.

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