‘How to be an outstanding graduate student’ Seminar Series

Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry Department &Engineering & Computer Science Library

November 2010

Library research for chemical engineering graduate students

Session outline

The lit review

Major search tools

Finding review articles, using citation searching

Alerting services

The patent literature

Literature review convey to reader knowledge and ideas established on a topic

what their strengths and weaknesses are

identify areas of controversy in the literature

formulate questions that need further research

be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing

synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known

Summarized from The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It Written by Dena Taylor, Health Sciences Writing Centre http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review

work hierarchically

use short general sources at first

work your way towards primary references

if needed: start with encyclopedia articles, books

then move to

review articles primary articles theses perhaps: other materials such as patent literature

chem eng research guide

Major databasesScifinder Scholar aka Chemical Abstracts

Scopus

Web of Science aka Science Citation Index Find articles, work with citation tracking Any science topic – multidisciplinary

Compendex aka Engineering Index

Scholars Portal Search Interdisciplinary: sciences, social sciences, humanities Very large: includes many major engineering databases

Dissertations & Theses Full Text

CA Plus journals, tech reports, patents

Medline biomedical citations

CASReact multi-step reactions database

Structure includes biosequences

Registry regulated chemicals

CHEMCat commercial suppliers & commercially available chemicals

SciFinder Scholar is actually a collection of databases:

SciFinder:Uses ‘natural’ language searching

I am looking for the effect of aspirin on blood clotting separate key concepts with prepositions prepositions are translated into the boolean NEAR

aspirin on blood clotting is better than aspirin blood clotting

if only a space separates words, the system will consider the words to be part of a phrase

Use nounsaspirin on blood clot is better than

aspirin on blood clotting

use nouns (rather than adjectives) for key concepts as much as possible

helps with automatic truncation and finding synonyms

Synonymsaspirin (salicylic acid, acetylsalicylic acid) on blood clot

separate synonyms with commas parentheses are translated into the Boolean OR

Put molecular formula into a Logical Order

e.g., Hill Order What is Hill Order?

-Carbon first-Hydrogen second -all remaining elements in alphabetical order

C2 H3 F3 O (2,2,2-trifluoro-ethanol)

If SciFinder cannot interpret the formula, you will get a message asking you to add capitalization and/or spaces

To search multicomponent substances, separate each component with a period

searching authors in scifinder type a surname and initial

select all possible forms

of a name

Scifinder access

available as web version and client-server

web version works off and on campus

register individually from a computer with a valid U of T IP address via the Scifinder Scholar registration page

must use a utoronto.ca email address to register

log on from any PC but connect via the UofT Library site

Access between 11 am and 6pm may be difficult since only 6 seats are available concurrently

try again in 5 minutes or use Scifinder in the evening instead

Scholars Portal Search

large interdisciplinary collection with many databases useful in chem eng:

Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management

Medline

Biotechnology & Bioengineering Abstracts

Compendex

Web of Science

METADEX (materials science)

AdvantagesAdvantages

-search many -search many platforms at onceplatforms at once

-simple identification -simple identification of refereed articlesof refereed articles

Scholars Portal Search - break down question into concepts- use keywords plus synonyms & related terms- wildcards to broaden your search

Concept #1 groundwater ground water subsurface water

Concept #2 remediation bioremediat* amelioration

Concept #3 mercury heavy metal*

Use boolean ‘and’ rather than multiple boxes

Use truncation symbol * to improve search results

Test your knowledge quiz

Choose all that apply…

1. Which of the following are considered primary publications?

Blue - An article in Journal of the American Chemical Society on the novel use of a chemical

Orange - The patent on the drug later tradenamed Lipitor

Pink - A UofT's graduate student's doctoral dissertation

Green – None of the above

2. Which of the following would be a good database to find patents?

Blue - PubMed Orange - Compendex Pink - Business Source Premier Green - SciFinder Scholar

3. If you performed a search by substance identifier for the drug Plendil in SciFinder Scholar, what types of information would likely be available?

Blue - CAS Registry Number, alternate names and molecular formula

Orange - Commercial availability info Pink - An experimental melting point Green – None of the above

4. SciFinder Scholar approaches keyword searching very differently than most other indexing databases. What are some of the key distinctions between SFS and other scientific indexes?

Blue - Multi-term queries in SFS are supposed to be expressed in natural language phrases

Orange - SFS searches "research topic" terms in the document title, abstract and subject headings

Pink - SFS has no way to allow entry of synonyms for search terms, while other databases let you string synonyms together using the Boolean operator OR

Green - None of the above

5. Which of the following entries is the most efficient way to search for hydrolysis or alcoholysis of lactams in SciFinder?

Blue - Alcoholysis OR hydrolysis of lactams Orange - Lactams AND (hydrolysis or

alcoholysis) Pink - Lactams (hydrolysis, alcoholysis) Green - Hydrolysis (alcoholysis) of lactams

6. Web of Science has been described as "not the first place to go for any search, but the second place to go for almost every search". Which of the following are logical reasons to support that?

Blue - Its chronological coverage is very shallow Orange - It has detailed subject indexing Pink - It covers only the top journals in each field Green - Its citation indexing features make it

powerful for building a search from one or more good references

Gaining context, comprehensiveness: some strategies

Use journal databases, but limit to review articles

experts identify significant literature, authors

reveal gaps in existing body of research

identify controversies quickly

Finding review articles usingWeb of Science – use the Advanced Search

comprehensive review:-many aspects of topic covered, Including applications-huge reference list-article divided into mini-chapters for easy use

Finding review articles using Compendex

Finding review articles: some other strategies

look for titles such as…

Advances in chemical engineering Reviews in chemical engineering Annual reviews of industrial engineering chemistry Progress in colloid & interface science

Gaining context, comprehensiveness: some strategies

1. Use citation databases

identify significant authors, significant papers by the number of times they have been cited

Get the most out of significant papers

explore their:

Cited lists

related articles

reference lists

Using citation databases

Ancestors aka footnote tracing Use reference lists from review articles

Problem: author bias magnifiedtherefore, use in addition to other general search methods

Descendents Take most relevant articles Follow them forward in time

Scopus – times cited

Web of Science – times cited

Be aware of other possible problems with citation searching

Famous papers widely accepted therefore may not be cited as much

Important papers not written in English not cited in English literature

High cites may not measure QUALITY of a study, but may measure INFLUENCE

Reaxys

Can be used to find references to reactions or properties of chemical compounds

Can search by name or drawing of structure

Search reactions, substances & properties, text authors & citations

Practice exercise: article databases

Gaining context, comprehensiveness: some strategies

3. Use thesis/dissertation databases

who has been doing what?

get a fairly complete picture quickly

Dissertations & Theses Fulltext international coverage-search by school, advisor, author, or by keyword

Staying current: alerting services

mail alerts are sent after every database update

Sent if the update contains any new records that match your saved query

Save as Alert is found on the Search History page.

Login or create a password.

Citation alert

Web of Science has a similar citation alert.

patents

A patent is

“a right, granted by government, to exclude others from making, using, or selling your invention in Canada.”

Applicable for a pre-determined amount of time

Source: Canadian Intellectual Property Office retrieved November 23, 2010 from http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr00001.html

What makes something patentable?

NOVEL

-not yet available or disclosed to the public

INVENTIVE -is not readily apparent to a person skilled in the technical field on basis of generally

available information

-reproducible

USEFUL -must work!

- has a useful function

Source: Canadian intellectual Property Office. Retrieved November 23, 2010 from http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/wr01402.html

What can be patented?

Art, processes, machines, manufactures or composition of matter

any new and useful improvement to the above

Source: Canadian intellectual Property Office. Retrieved November 23, 2010 from http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/wr01402.html

Why use them?

Rich content

70% of information contained in patents not available elsewhere

when a catalogue or an article describes a product in a few lines, the corresponding patent often consists of 20 pages

Source: Introduction to esp@cenet. Retrieved February 21, 2005 from http://ep.espacenet.com

Why use them?

Very up-to-date

companies generally file patent applications at the earliest possible stage

normally published 18 months after their first filing date

Patents across borders

Patents do not cross national boundaries

harmonization of international patent laws is progressing rapidly

but at the moment each country grants its own patents based on its own standards

USPTO

United States Patent & Trademark Office http://www.uspto.gov

most US patents from 1790-present

for keyword or author searches of older patents, better to go to esp@cenet

USPTO: types of patents

Utility

what most people think of as an invention; for example, a machine or process e.g., 5594818

Design

granted on the appearance of something e.g., D277050

Plant invention or discovery and asexually reproduction of any distinct and new variety of plante.g., PP13845

Source: Wherry, Timothy Lee. Patent Searching for Librarians and Inventors. Chicago: American Library Association, 1995. p. 12

USPTO: patents vs applications

patent number:

given after patent is accepted and granted by the USPTO

application number:

file number the USPTO gives to a submitted application

claims

the ‘effective’ part of a patent

precise description of the invention

list all essential features

Owner vs inventor

Assignee (US) or Owner (Canada) the person or

company to whom the patentee has given rights to the invention

Inventor (US and Canada) person who is

named as the inventor of a patent

patent searching: ‘about-ness’

Patents are…….. legally binding descriptions technical disclosures

Therefore…

Best to look for concepts vs mere word match

A spade is a spade is … not always a spade?

in patent language:

substantially planar

earth moving implement

with

coaxial leveraging means!

Searching USPTO: one method

keyword search

1. locate one good patent

2. look at US class/subclass listing to find more patents on same subject

Searching USPTO: another method

use the

Index to the U.S. Patent Classification System

Canadian Patents: Canadian Intellectual Property Office

http://brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/introduction.html

a Canadian patent is effective only in Canada

contains patent documents from 1869 to the present

some idiosyncrasies with searching - check database for more information

Finding patents in Scifinder Scholar

search by subject keyword, then limit to patents

patent concordance lists patent number by issuing country and corresponding patent

number in other countries

European and worldwide patents: esp@cnet

http://ep.espacenet.com

patent information worldwide; divided into various databases

European Patent Office database most recent 24 months of applications from the European

Patent Office

European and worldwide patents: esp@cnet

Worldwide Patents database Older patents full collection of the EPO plus patent information from

approximately 50 countries including Japan

Japanese Patents database

Many national patent offices have individual web patent databases

Test your knowledge quiz – part 2

7. Which of the following can NOT be patented:

Blue - Chemical compounds Orange - Machines Pink - A law of nature Green - Alloys

8. Which of the following is NOT required for patentability?

Blue - Novelty Orange – Aesthetically pleasing Pink - Usefulness Green – Inventive

9. What is the term for a patent in Canada? Blue – 15 years from the date of approval Orange – life of the inventor plus 50 years Pink – 20 years from the date of filing Green – 18 years from the date of filing

engineering.library@utoronto.ca

416-978-6578

http://engineering.library.utoronto.ca

Reference Desk

Chat reference – AskON