LITERATURE SEARCH ASSIGNMENT

TYPES OF REFERENCES

Primary reference - A reference reporting the results of an experiment, calculation, observation, or other scientific investigation where the people doing the work are reporting the results. Scientific papers are almost always considered primary references.

Secondary reference - A reference reporting the results obtained by someone else. For example, a compilation of thermochemical data, or a table of densities of organic solvents would likely be secondary references. Secondary references will often (but not always) give references that allow you to go back to the primary sources.

COMMON SECONDARY REFERENCESData compilations:

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics - Available through the library website. A secondary source that is a compilation of physical and chemical data.

Landolt-Bornstein - Available in the reference section of the Green Library (2nd Floor, QC61). A continuing series of reference books that compile useful physical and chemical data about pure substances and mixtures. The main drawbacks are that it is written in German, and it does not usually contain recent data. A secondary source.

NIST-JANAF Thermochemical Tables - Available in the reference section of the Green Library (2nd Floor, QD511.N57). An excellent source of precise thermochemical data (with critical analysis of the literature) for approximately 2500 chemical substances. A secondary source.

NIST Website - A useful source for spectroscopic and thermochemical data for substances, though it does not contain many recent references, particularly for spectroscopic data. A secondary source. Found at http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/form-ser.html

Below is the main search page for the NIST website, indicating the various search options.

DATABASES

A database is a collection of scientific information. Here we refer to databases that are collections of scientific publications. Databases are usually the first place to search for primary sources for information.

Because of the enormous amount of research going on, databases are not particularly useful unless there are ways to search the databases for information. Searching a database has a lot in common with searching the internet using a search engine (with all of the pitfalls of such searches).

Common ways of searching databases includea) Author Searchb) Keyword or Topic Searchc) Chemical Substance Search

SCIFINDER

SciFinder - Available through the library website (though you must first register with SciFinder, which can also be done via the library website). This is an online database that replaced the older Chem Abstracts, and is maintained by the American Chemical Society. You can do “keyword searches”, though some care is required in this - if you use a restricted set of keywords you may miss some references, but if you use overly broad keywords you may get a large number of irrelevant references. You can also do author searches, and searches of chemical substances or chemical reactions.

The major advantage of using SciFinder is that it allows you to read the abstract of papers and other publications. Often the title and abstract of a paper is sufficient for you to decide whether or not a paper is worth reading.

The home page for SciFinder is given below. Note that you can search by research topic, author, chemical substance, or reaction.

DATABASES

Science Citation Index (SCI) - Available through the library website. SCI allows you to search the scientific literature in several ways.

a) By topic (though not as efficient as SciFinder).b) By author.c) By reference.One of the most useful features of SCI is that it will allow you to

identify all research papers that have cited a particular reference. This is a good way to find papers that have come out after a particular paper was published. However, since there are many reasons someone may cite a reference, you will find that not all of the references found this way will be of interest to you. Often looking at the title of the paper citing the reference is sufficient to identify whether the paper is worth looking into further. SCI will allow you to read the abstracts of papers that the FIU library has a substription for.

The home page for SCI is given below. Note that you can limit searches by author, journal, publication year, and so forth. You can also do a search by topic, though I’ve found this not to work as well as in SciFinder. The “Cited Reference Search” is the unique feature of SCI.

COMMON PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY JOURNALS

Journal of Chemical Physics (J.Chem.Phys.) - All issues available online.

Journal of Physical Chemistry (J.Phys.Chem.) - All issues available online. Since 1997 it has been split into two (now three) separate journals, labeled A, B, and C, each of which focuses on particular areas of physical chemistry.

Chemical Physics (Chem.Phys.) - All issues are available on the 3rd floor of the Green Library. Issues from 1995 to the present are available online.

Chemical Physics Letters (Chem.Phys.Lett.) - All issues are available on the 3rd floor of the Green Library. Issues from 1995 to the present are available online.

COMMON PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY JOURNALS

Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy (J.Molec.Spectrosc.) - All issues are available on the 3rd floor of the Green Library. Issues from 1995 to the present are available online.

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (Phys.Chem.Chem.Phys.) - A recent journal (first issue in 1999) formed from several older European physical chemistry journals. All issues available online.

ChemPhysChem - Another recent journal (first issue in 2000). All issues available online.

There are a large number of other journals that are devoted to various aspects of physical chemistry, or which on occasion publish articles of interest to physical chemists.

REVIEW JOURNALS AND BOOK SERIES

Accounts of Chemical Research (Acct.Chem.Res.) - All issues available online. Reviews in all areas of chemistry.

Chemical Reviews (Chem.Rev.) - All issues available online. Reviews in all areas of chemistry.

Annual Review of Physical Chemistry (Ann.Rev.Phys.Chem.) - All issues available online. Reviews in the area of physical chemistry.

Note that most online journals have their own searching subroutines.

ACCESSING RESOURCES

1) For databases (SciFinder, Science Citation Index) click on “Research Tools” to get an alphabetical listing of databases. You can also access the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics via Research Tools.2) For journals, click on “E-Journals” and then enter the journal name in the box.

CITATION FORMAT

Different journals use different ways to cite references. An example of the way I want you to use to cite a reference to a scientific paper is as follows:

Schinke, R., J. A. Schmidt “Photodissociation of N2O: Excita-tion of 1A" States” J. Phys.Chem. A, 116, 11083-11087 (2012).

The format is as follows:1) List of authors. The first author is listed as last name, first and middle initial. All other authors are listed as first and middle initial and the last name. List all authors, separated by commas.2) Full title of paper.3) Journal abbreviation (using standard abbreviation) - underlined.4) Volume number (but do not list the issue number) - underlined.5) First and last page (or paper identification number). 6) Year of publication.