Chemical Abstracts Service - CAS

Chemical Abstracts Service - CAS

CAS is a team of scientists, creating and delivering the most complete and effective digital information environment for scientific research and discovery. CAS provides pathways to published research in the world's journal and patent literature - virtually everything relevant to chemistry plus a wealth of information in the life sciences and a wide range of other scientific disciplines - back to the beginning of the late 19th century.

  • Trending News Stories

Featured Equipment

Latest interviews, trending stories.

All-Optical Imager Captures Phase and Amplitude Simultaneously

All-Optical Imager Captures Phase and Amplitude Simultaneously

New Thin-Film Membranes Revolutionize Infrared Imaging

New Thin-Film Membranes Revolutionize Infrared Imaging

Deep Neural Networks for Methyl NMR Spectroscopy of Large Proteins

Deep Neural Networks for Methyl NMR Spectroscopy of Large Proteins

Quasicrystal Metasurfaces: Dual-Function Holography and Diffraction Technology

Quasicrystal Metasurfaces: Dual-Function Holography and Diffraction Technology

New Technique Uses Sound Waves to Steer Objects Underwater

New Technique Uses Sound Waves to Steer Objects Underwater

Custom IR Lenses for Advanced Infrared Applications

Custom IR Lenses for Advanced Infrared Applications

Avantier offers custom-designed IR lenses and a selection of readily available options, including SWIR, LWIR, MWIR, and NIR lenses, for cutting-edge applications across manufacturing, defense, research, and medicine.

MIRcat Mid-IR Laser: Superior High-Speed, Broad-Spectrum Capabilities

MIRcat Mid-IR Laser: Superior High-Speed, Broad-Spectrum Capabilities

The MIRcat Mid-IR Laser provides high-speed, broad-spectrum capabilities with peak tuning velocities up to 30,000 cm1/s.

Advanced VideoMVP™ Single Reflection ATR Microsampler

Advanced VideoMVP™ Single Reflection ATR Microsampler

Discover the advanced VideoMVP™ single reflection ATR microsampler from Harrick Scientific.

Advancing Laser Technology: Ophir Discusses the Importance of Measuring M2

Reuven Silverman

Reuven Silverman of Ophir discusses the critical role of M2 measurements in laser technology for optimization and quality control in various industries.

Advancing Laser Technology: Ophir Discusses the Importance of Measuring M2

Nuclear Inspection – The Challenges for Optical Systems Now and in the Future

Rob Watkinson

In this interview, AZoOptics speaks to Rob Watkinson about the challenges for optical systems in nuclear inspection.

Nuclear Inspection –  The Challenges for Optical Systems Now and in the Future

New X-Ray Technique Allows Effective Imaging of Living Organisms

Rebecca Spiecker

AZoOptics features a new interview with Rebecca Spiecker of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, discussing the development of a new X-ray technique that allows better imaging and analysis of living organisms.

New X-Ray Technique Allows Effective Imaging of Living Organisms

Most Read Articles

Ultrasonic Techniques for Lithium-Ion Battery Diagnostics

Ultrasonic Techniques for Lithium-Ion Battery Diagnostics

2 the role of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in drug discovery.

How are AI and ML Revolutionizing Microscopy?

How are AI and ML Revolutionizing Microscopy?

Understanding Spherical Mirrors: A Comprehensive Guide to Concepts and Applications

Understanding Spherical Mirrors: A Comprehensive Guide to Concepts and Applications

Single-Photon LiDAR Revolutionizes Aviation

Single-Photon LiDAR Revolutionizes Aviation

Delivery Robots: A Deep Dive into Optical Innovations and Key Technologies

Delivery Robots: A Deep Dive into Optical Innovations and Key Technologies

Sponsored content, what are optical filters types and applications, beyond optical stereo microscopy, novel method of prescription vision compensation to measure ar/mr devices and smart glasses.

Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant

Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from AZoNetwork.com.

A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.

  • Use of “Azthena” is subject to the terms and conditions of use as set out by OpenAI .
  • Content provided on any AZoNetwork sites are subject to the site Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy .
  • Large Language Models can make mistakes. Consider checking important information.

Great. Ask your question.

Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms .

While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided.

Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles.

Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Read the full Terms & Conditions .

Provide Feedback

The function " Store search " is only available to registered users.

Important information

Currently, you are not logged in to my.chemeurope.com. Therefore, you can remember a maximum of 5 contents.

Chemical Abstracts Service

Chemical Abstracts Service

  • Bookmark list

chemical abstracts service address

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)

About chemical abstracts service.

At CAS, we curate, connect, and analyze scientific knowledge to reveal the unseen connections that inspire breakthroughs. We weave a fabric of discovery that scientific innovators can tap into to stimulate their creativity and accelerate their work. Because when the world turns to science, science turns to CAS. So if you're advancing research, repurposing technology, making strategic decisions, or leading digital R&D initiatives, take a look at our story below to see how partnering with us gets you there faster. A global company based in Columbus, Ohio, CAS employs over 1,400 experts who curate, connect, and analyze scientific knowledge to reveal unseen connections. CAS is a division of the American Chemical Society.

  • Focus : Service
  • Industry : Chemistry

News about Chemical Abstracts Service

09-Dec-2013 | business & finance

PerkinElmer Collaborates with Chemical Abstracts Service

PerkinElmer, Inc. and Chemical Abstracts Service, the authoritative and comprehensive source for chemical information, today announced plans to collaborate ...

12-Sep-2013 | people

Appointment of new President of American Chemical Society's CAS Division, effective Sept. 30

The American Chemical Society has appointed Manuel (Manny) Guzman to be the next president of CAS. Guzman will begin his appointment on Sept. 30. He ...

30-May-2011 | business & finance

CAS REGISTRY Keeps Pace with Rapid Growth of Chemical Research, Registers 60 Millionth Substance

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) announced that a patent application claiming compounds with potential therapeutic activity submitted to the State ...

13-Dec-2010 | science

CAS Chemistry Research Report: Nanofiltration Shows Promise in the Quest for Pure Water

Water scarcity is driving a wave of innovation in water filtration technology from Asian nations, according to a report issued by Chemical Abstracts ...

28-Jun-2010 | science

CAS: Forty Years of Biofuel Research Reveal China Now Atop U.S. in Patenting and Commercialization of Bioethanol

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) reports that in 2009, China surpassed all other countries in the production of bioethanol patents, emerging as the global ...

26-Nov-2009 | business & finance

China Leads All Nations in Publication of Chemical Patents According to CAS

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) reports that China's patent office is now the world's leading producer of patent invention applications in chemistry. ...

22-Oct-2009 | science

FIZ Karlsruhe and CAS strengthen partnership

A recent agreement between FIZ Karlsruhe and Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) strengthens a partnership that began in 1983 with the foundation of STN ...

09-Sep-2009 | business & finance

50 Millionth Unique Chemical Substance Recorded in CAS REGISTRY

Novel analgesic marks major milestone in scientific discovery

Here you will find Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)

© 1997-2024 LUMITOS AG, All rights reserved

ACM Digital Library home

  • Advanced Search

Chemical Abstracts Service

Columbus, OH, United States

Award Winner

Most cited author, top subject, top keyword, most collaborations, published items by year, collaborations, subject areas, institution’s latest publications, slow reception and under-citedness in climate change research: a case study of charles david keeling, discoverer of the risk of global warming.

Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany 70569

CAS Innovation LAB, CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service), a division of the American Chemical Society, Columbus, USA 43202-1505

Division for Science and Innovation Studies, Administrative Headquarters of the Max Planck Society, Munich, Germany 80539

What an Agile Architect Can Learn from a Hurricane Meteorologist

From search to social: innovation for today's researchers.

Vice President, Marketing, Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, OH, USA

The future is now

Chemical Abstracts Service, 2540 Olentanay River Road, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

Making a digital library: the contents of the CORE project

Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY

American Chemical Society

Author Picture

OCLC, Dublin, OH

Generation and Evaluation of Indexes for Chemistry Articles

Department of Computer Science, Mississippi State University, Box 9637, Mississippi State, MS 39762-9637; E-mail: [email protected] , [email protected]

MicroStrategy, Inc., 8000 Towers Crescent Drive, #1400, Vienna, VA 22182; E-mail: [email protected]

Dept. 7, Chemical Abstracts Service, 2540 Olentangy River Road, Columbus, OH 43202-1505; E-mail: [email protected]

Most Popular

We are preparing your search results for download ...

We will inform you here when the file is ready.

Your file of search results citations is now ready.

Your search export query has expired. Please try again.

We've detected unusual activity from your computer network

To continue, please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot.

Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy .

For inquiries related to this message please contact our support team and provide the reference ID below.

Chemical Abstracts Service

 
•  •  • 
•  •  • 
•  •  • 
•  •  • 

2540 Olentangy River Roa Columbus 43202 OH United States

Tel: +1 614 447 3600 Fax: +1 614 447 3713 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.cas.org/

  • Total number of liaisons: 1
  • A liaisons : 1
  • B liaisons : 0
  • C liaisons : 0
Reference Title Category
Common names for pesticides and other agrochemicals A

Liaisons A: Organizations that make an effective contribution to the work of the technical committee or subcommittee for questions dealt with by this technical committee or subcommittee.  Liaisons B: Organizations that have indicated a wish to be kept informed of the work of the technical committee or subcommittee.  Liaisons C: Organizations that make a technical contribution to and participate actively in the work of a working group.

  • Taking part
  • Who develops standards
  • Organizations in cooperation

Add to cart

  • Officers' Message
  • Program Highlights
  • 2012 Highlights
  • Board of Directors
  • Donors & Support
  • Publications
  • Career Services
  • Communicating

Back to home page

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)

CAS ― the World's Authority for Chemical Information

As the only organization in the world solely dedicated to finding, collecting and organizing all publicly disclosed chemical information, CAS serves chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-medical companies as well as universities, government organizations and patent offices around the world with the most comprehensive and authoritative sources of curated and quality controlled chemical and related information. By combining its databases with advanced search and analysis technologies (e.g., SciFinder® and STN®), CAS delivers the most current, complete, secure, and interlinked digital information environment for scientific discovery.

In 2012, CAS continued extraordinary database growth, analyzing more than 1.4 million patents, journal articles and other disclosed research sources, for a new total of more than 36 million records. Updated daily, the CAS reaction database saw even greater gains, with growth exceeding 9.1 million new reactions. Because of the work of the more than 1,000 scientists around the world who assemble, curate, and assure the quality of the CAS databases, researchers can also explore the largest collection of disclosed chemical synthesis information, including more than 47 million single- and multi-step reactions from 1840 to the present.  CAS added thousands of experimental procedures from three high-impact Taylor & Francis journals and also updated SciFinder® with nearly 200,000 additional experimental NMR spectra to help scientists better characterize and identify substances.  Front page graphics from USPTO and structure graphic additions for the CAS Markush database provide additional structure data.  CAS now provides access to more than 4 million experimental procedures for reactions from prestigious publishers including all ACS Publications journals, Taylor and Francis top synthetic titles, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry journals, and patents from the USPTO, European Patent Office, World Intellectual Property Organization, the Japanese Patent Office and the German Patent Office.

The CAS REGISTRY℠ is the world’s largest collection of small molecules.  In December 2012, CAS celebrated registration of the 70 millionth substance in the CAS REGISTRY℠, just 18 months after registering the 60 millionth substance. This potential T-type calcium channel blocker, disclosed in the patent application published by KIPO in Korea, may be useful in the treatment of epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, dementia, and other conditions. CAS REGISTRY℠ also contains more than 64 million sequences. The continual growth and updating of organic and inorganic substances in the CAS REGISTRY℠ database is reported with the REGISTRY counter on the newly-designed CAS website home page . This growth has been complemented by CAS’s expanding coverage of predicted and experimental property values, spectra, and data tags, to more than 3.8 billion by year-end.

CAS patent authority coverage expanded to include Eurasia in 2012. CAS now covers 63 patent authorities worldwide to ensure comprehensive patent information within its databases.  In addition, multiple basics coverage was extended to include patents from all covered authorities.  Scientists can now also uncover more disclosed chemistry in SciFinder® thanks to the backfile addition of Markush structure-containing patents from 1987 to the present.

Enhancements to SciFinder® Improve Researchers’ Workflow, Convenience, and Productivity

Major updates to the web version of SciFinder ® during 2012 provided scientists with new capabilities to further their research. 

  • New commercial sourcing features enable researchers to quickly link to, analyze and sort chemical sources by pricing and availability.
  • CAS expanded its collection of synthetic chemistry and reactions information in SciFinder® with the addition of experimental procedures from Japanese and German patents (2008–present) as well as from Taylor & Francis journals (1998–present).
  • SciFinder® users can now search substances by individual experimental or predicted property, and chemists can target results more efficiently by locating compounds with specific property characteristics.
  • Substance searchers now benefit from the convenience of inputting a CAS Registry Number to the structure editor in SciFinder®.  Instead of relying solely on their drawing ability, users can rely on the most widely recognized substance identifier to accurately produce a model for structure-based searching.
  • From multiple points within SciFinder®, users can quickly view details related to a select substance or reference using Quick View . This view makes scanning large answer sets easier.
  • A new default role (reactant) assigned to the substance or fragment to the left of the reaction arrow improves the precision of reaction searches (the former reactant/reagent role is still an option).
  • Researchers can quickly evaluate synthesis options and preferred pathways by grouping reaction answers by transformation type.
  • New SciPlanner™ import and export options let researchers share synthesis plans with other SciFinder® users.
  • The “Remember me” feature at login allows users to remain signed in to SciFinder® for more convenient access.

A new tagline was established for SciFinder®, the choice for chemistry research™.  This reflects the fact that customers rely on SciFinder® for their chemistry research and builds on the value of chemistry as the central science.  An ad campaign using this tagline was developed to position SciFinder® as the most important tool for chemistry research, with access to the most comprehensive and trustworthy chemistry-related content from CAS. 

Organizations around the globe rely on SciFinder® for accurate, timely chemistry and related information.  In 2012, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Library collaborated with CAS to provide enterprise-wide access to SciFinder® so scientists across NIH can now have on-demand access to the most complete and authoritative chemistry content in the world.  In addition, academic institutions around the world continued converting to the SciFinder® Unlimited Access Plan, including the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL), which comprises 39 academic institutions in Australia, including the University of Melbourne, Australian National University and the University of Sydney.  

ACS Publications and CAS Jointly Introduce Reference QuickView

Reference QuickView is a dynamic new feature powered by SciFinder® that enables readers of web content to view directly the text of abstracts linked to bibliographic citations within an ACS Publications journal article or book chapter. Readers viewing the full-text HTML version of an ACS article can scan abstracts from the broader literature, across millions of citations drawn from a broad array of scientific disciplines covered by CAS. Navigational features facilitate quick review of an article’s references and corresponding abstracts. Links to the Reference QuickView display are placed conveniently in-line within footnotes found in the article text.

Outstanding Ph.D. Students Representing 12 Countries Participate in the SciFinder ® Future Leaders in Chemistry Program

CAS selected 15 Ph.D. students in the chemical sciences for the 2012 SciFinder® Future Leaders in Chemistry program . Each of these students demonstrated academic excellence, a commitment to research and an appreciation of chemical information, as evidenced through their exceptional essays and impressive letters of recommendation, distinguishing them among the hundreds of students who applied. Since 2010, the SciFinder® Future Leaders in Chemistry program, formerly the SciFinder® Academic Exchange Program, has served as an intensive mini-university where graduate students from around the world exchange ideas and experiences in chemistry and informatics. Participants in the program have the unique opportunity to share their insights on chemical information and learn from their peers.

CAS and its STN® Partner, FIZ Karlsruhe, are Revolutionizing Patent Searching with a New STN®, The Choice of Patent Experts

In December, CAS and FIZ-Karlsruhe announced that Version One of the new STN® platform was made available in beta for fixed fee customers. This was the first major milestone in a multi-year initiative to create the next generation of STN®--The Choice of Patent Experts™.

The focus of this first version was on developing the core search and retrieval system for the new STN®. This release combines the complete CAS REGISTRY℠ and Chemical Abstracts content along with Thomson Reuters’ Derwent World Patents Index® and powerful new search features to support preliminary searches in these key areas:

  • Chemistry and general technology research
  • Intellectual property, such as basic novelty and prior art
  • Due diligence
  • First pass freedom to operate

A new approach for STN® is to allow organization of work in projects for easy management of search queries and results. New technologies are designed to process broad and complex searches with industry-leading performance. A new ad campaign was also launched to reinforce STN®’s role as the professional search tool.  The theme of the campaign is It’s hard to get professional results with amateur tools.  The STN® marketing campaign is targeted to professional searchers and appears in print and digital media in North America, Europe, Asia, and China.

  • Terms of Use
  • Copyright © 2013 American Chemical Society

Chemical Information for Chemists: A Primer

  • ‹ Prev
  • Next ›

1.1 Chemical Information Three Ways: The Big Picture Of Big Information

1.2 approaching the literature: principles to bear in mind when you are searching for chemical information, 1.2.1 scholarly literature is evaluated to uphold scientific integrity and vitality, 1.2.2 data provenance and evaluation is a critical part of the research process, 1.2.3 scientific literature is considered intellectual property, 1.2.4 scholarly literature is structured to facilitate research, 1.2.5 the literature is a web of potential, 1.2.6 libraries and other information providers offer disambiguation, 1.3 getting started with the chemical literature, 1.3.1 your literature research is only as good as your input and process, 1.3.2 how to use the literature to be a more efficient chemist, chapter 1: introduction to the chemical literature.

  • Published: 22 Oct 2013
  • Special Collection: 2014 ebook collection , RSC eTextbook Collection Product Type: Textbooks
  • Open the Chapter PDF for in another window
  • Get permissions
  • Cite Icon Cite

L. McEwen, in Chemical Information for Chemists: A Primer, ed. J. Currano and D. Roth, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2013, pp. 1-27.

Download citation file:

  • Ris (Zotero)
  • Reference Manager

To begin, we will consider the ways in which literature is involved in the research process, how scientists are involved in the production and consumption of this literature, and the role of information providers and the library. The scholarly communication cycle is at the core of the scientific endeavor for both research and teaching purposes and is standard practice across the disciplines. Published literature is the lasting product of scientific research. It captures and documents the ideas, methods, results, implications and applications of projects and makes this information available to the broader research community and society to further research developments, grants, products, marketing, competitive advantage, etc .

I recently welcomed a new group of chemistry graduate students with an orientation to the library at Cornell University. We started with a discussion of the role of literature in research, focused on the scope of specific library resources and services available, and highlighted a few key things the students could do right away to get started with their research. The idea was to funnel the vast world of chemistry-related literature into something bite-sized and immediately useful while not losing sight of how much is possible and how important robust literature research is to chemistry. We hope this book will accomplish something similar: provide a highly useful volume for a broad range of information-related needs across the chemistry research process. In this introduction, we hope to cover both the big picture of how information fits into the chemical enterprise and a few useful things to keep in mind when delving into the literature.

To begin, we will consider the ways in which literature is involved in the research process, how scientists are involved in the production and consumption of this literature, and the role of information providers and the library. The scholarly communication cycle is at the core of the scientific endeavor for both research and teaching purposes and is standard practice across the disciplines. Published literature is the lasting product of scientific research. It captures and documents the ideas, methods, results, implications and applications of projects and makes this information available to the broader research community and society to further research developments, grants, products, marketing, competitive advantage, etc. It is important for researchers to determine exactly when in their research process to disseminate their findings to the community and which of the many available avenues of communication is most appropriate. These decisions are influenced by place of work (academic, government, industry), job level, and practices in various chemistry sub-disciplines. The resulting published literature in chemistry is as varied and complex as the science it represents, and includes articles, patents, technical reports, conference proceedings, book chapters, and data sets.

Other complexities of publishing research lie in impact and prestige, discoverability and re-use, and availability and persistence. Tying one's name to research, being published and noted, is important to the success of many scientists. As purveyors of the literature publication process, publishers are also interested in procuring the most critical observations and ideas with the best potential. In addition to channeling the discovery of this research, they have high stakes in assuring the quality of research they publish and upholding the standards of scientific integrity. Peer-review is a long established and well-respected feature of scientific publication across most publishers. Clustering articles by disciplinary interest and novel potential further impacts discovery of worthy research. Well-respected publishers add value to the publication process through careful management of these and other editorial processes.

In addition to furthering knowledge itself, quality scientific research can also lead to new industrial applications and product development, improvements in scientific literacy and education, and informed public policy and national security. The field of chemistry is relatively unique, as it is both an academic discipline and an industry active in research and development. The extensive industrial sector is a heavy consumer of the published research literature, as well as a producer of its own research, primarily expressed in the form of patents. Commercial processes place special demands on presentation, authority, and accessibility of chemical information, which in turn significantly impacts the focus of government research and the experience of the academic chemistry research environment. In addition to publication of primary research, government contribution to the chemical information landscape includes high-quality data sets, standards for processes and safety, and education guidelines. Scientific societies such as the American Chemical Society in the US or the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK play major roles in advocating and focusing on infrastructure for producing, re-using and building on quality scientific information.

The availability and persistence of published literature has a profound impact on the research process. Libraries and other information providers are concerned with the practical issues around discoverability and utility of published information. A variety of commercial and non-profit entities offer specialized tools to help researchers sift through the vast primary chemistry literature of journals, patents, registered compounds, and data sets. Abstracts are increasingly available online at no cost, publishers provide electronic alerts and news feeds, and conferences and social networks further highlight the availability of new research publications. In chemistry fields, most published content requires payment for access, reflecting both the expense to ensure quality and the potential for high-value re-use. With the advent of electronic information, pricing options have shifted from outright sale of copies to licensed access, which in turn has implications for ownership and responsibility of long-term archiving. Libraries remain major access points to and stewards of the chemistry literature; they maintain a high awareness of quality, and advise and collaborate with service providers.

In addition to providing researchers with access points to scientific information, libraries have historically taken on the task of preserving the scholarly literature to enable future use. It is easy to overlook the importance of older publications, but they constitute a significant portion of the accumulated scientific knowledge, and are responsible for supporting scientific development over the past several hundred years. In chemistry, where structural and reaction principles do not change drastically over time, older publications are very often still vital to current progress in a field, and in interdisciplinary research areas, past work is often re-considered from different perspectives. Research libraries worldwide store vast collections of journals in hard copy, often in state-of-the-art, climate-controlled, high-density storage facilities with sophisticated inventory control for easy retrieval. Publishers are also making digital back-files of older articles available for purchase or licensing, and libraries and publishers are working together to pursue preservation solutions, including the development of third-party archiving services, that will ensure access to the content in any future, foreseen or otherwise.

It is as important to develop good literature practices for your work as it is to improve your experimental and technical research skills. Good literature practices in scientific research require regular time spent reading or searching for journal articles and other relevant literature reviews.  One should cultivate this practice to build competence in a new area, keep abreast of activity in areas of interest, become aware of exciting new possibilities and strong research groups, and scope out advantageous opportunities for collaboration and publication. Be aware of the scope of literature and information sources available to support both the theoretical and experimental developments of your research endeavors. The remaining chapters of this volume will introduce and guide you through a broad array of the most critical information resources and searching methods in chemistry research. It is well worth a systematic read to be aware of the landscape, and frequent referral for more focused guidance as you practice your research.

Before proceeding farther into the landscape, there are a few general background areas worth delving into more deeply to better understand the literature resources you will use: basic information evaluation concepts; copyright and other intellectual property matters; how the published literature is structured; connectivity potential in the digital age; how libraries and other information providers can support your research; and the scientific input and approach you bring to your search process.

A basic distinction of scholarly literature is that it has been evaluated to some extent before publication. It is important to the quality of one's own research process to ascertain up front the quality of related research in a discipline. The researcher must ultimately make the final determination if a work is worth looking at, starting with an assessment of how it has already been evaluated by the larger scientific community.

The most common type of primary publication of scientific information for academics is the journal article, and the first entity that decides what primary research is published in journals is usually the journal's editor-in-chief. Editors of scientific journals look for research that is original, scientifically important, and that fits the journal's scope in subject matter and treatment. Further review of manuscripts by published peers in the same research area serves to “flag what's important, set aside what's pedestrian, and abjure what's fraudulent”. 1   A published article that has undergone a robust peer review and editorial process should contain data that tell a story and results that move the state of knowledge forward. The introduction of the article should set the stage for the story of the data analysis, and the novelty and intellectual interpretation of the research should be hammered home in the conclusion, giving a sense of the quality of thinking of the author.

Peer review is not a comprehensive evaluation system; reviewers do not generally repeat the experiments described, although review of supporting data is required in some characterization journals. The actual review process is not fail-safe and varies widely across publishers, which can significantly impact the reputation of a journal. The primary literature may be beset with a myriad of quality issues, including premature publication, lack of novelty, lack of focus or unclear explanation, inadequate review of the relevant literature, inadequate characterization of compounds created or altered in the research, missing or poorly designed experimental controls, failure to address alternate explanations, or unjustifiably strong statements.

Pre-reviewed research content is increasingly available online; conference proceedings, pre-print servers, research manuscript repositories associated with funding agencies, and community-supported, openly accessible and openly reviewed journals are a few of the examples. In the chemical disciplines, first disclosure and peer review of research findings carry significant weight in consideration of provenance, quality, and intellectual rights and are important considerations for the reputation and authority of the researchers themselves and particularly critical for commercial vitality in the industrial sector. Initial publication in an open or pre-peer-reviewed public venue may preclude later publication in journals with higher reputations or patenting to claim exploitable rights.

Even peer-reviewed journals vary widely in their reputation for quality and visibility of the research they publish, which in turn reflects on the reputation of the authors. One indicator of journal performance in contribution to scientific research is the number of citations by other research to the articles published in a particular journal. This principle underlies the Thomson Reuters Journal Impact Factor, which is often used by a broad range of literature users such as publishers trying to attract authors, institutions considering tenure for research faculty, researchers identifying top journals to monitor, and libraries attempting to prioritize access and preservation of journal content. Discovery service providers also consider the provenance of published literature and data, but tend to include a fairly broad approach to sources to give the chemical researcher the fullest information of the activity potential in their research area. Promising new journals may not be indexed until they have proven their potential, maybe through a high Journal Impact Factor, which takes two years to calculate.

Many research areas in chemistry generate and analyze significant volumes of data. Data associated with chemical research can appear directly in articles, in supplementary files referenced by articles, as part of compiled data sets, and in repositories of specialized types of chemical information. The provenance and quality of compound characterization and other published data are particularly important to chemistry research. Results and interpretation are only as good as the data on which they are based, and their potential for meaningful contribution to scientific knowledge depends on their correlation to other evidence or revelation of abnormal observations. As you work with both your own data and those you are re-using from other sources, it is critical to ascertain that they actually represent what they are purporting to and are reliable, based on the quality of the measurement process. The opportunity to apply promising methodologies on large production scales in the commercial sector hinges on adherence to standards and regulations of practice. You can imagine areas of chemistry, such as the development of drug formulations and construction materials, where lack of attention to safety, consistency, and reliability can not only compromise the outcome of the experiment but could potentially endanger vast numbers of people.

Quality data start with robust data collection practices, including documentation, using multiple sources of measurement, calibration of equipment, and using controls and/or standard reference data. It is most important for users of data to know how it was collected to determine if it is relevant, if it actually measures what was intended, and if its collection was executed in a sufficiently accurate and precise manner for re-use in the new context. Good documentation should include careful notation of all the parameters in which the data were measured, including equipment, conditions, methodology, characterized standards, and experimental context. Multiple sources of a measurement re-enforce the quality of the measurement technique and specific execution, and normalize inherent variability within and across chemical systems. Calibration to well-characterized standards also maximizes the technical quality of a measurement. The use of controls within an experiment or comparison of results to standard reference data establishes the value of the measurement that is distinct to a sample and of interest for further analysis. For example, the use of standard reference data to identify values related to specific structural characteristics of compounds is relevant to spectra searching, for example.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) concerns itself with supporting robust chemical and physical data evaluation and addresses standards across four stages: data collection, basic evaluation, relational analysis, and modeling. 2   How data is collected, documented and stored can impact later accessibility to that data. Basic evaluation questions generally focus on the reproducibility of the data using the same collection methods. Relational analysis is concerned with consistency of the data at hand with other data that describe the material, such as related properties or independent reports of a particular property. Modeling calculations can indicate the predictability of the data as an indicator for this property under the conditions at hand. In practice, processes for assessing and assuring quality of data are especially well developed in materials research and production. Depending on your need when looking at published data, you might require quality indicators ranging from general specifications for a class of material to certified standards of specific compounds. In active research, you might find yourself working with commercial data with specifications provided by the manufacturer, or with preliminary data from collaborating projects.

NIST provides a decision tree to classify property data and determine appropriateness in the context of purpose and use. This protocol is freely available as a simple interactive assessment tool originally developed for the NIST Ceramic WebBook and is a reasonable check-list when working with any published data where quality and provenance is a consideration. 3   Indicative questions for literature and data evaluation include:

Is the source journal peer reviewed?

Are the experimental methods adequately described to be repeatable?

Are any compounds characterized well enough to identify?

Are the results consistent with other indications in the published literature?

Does the explanation build on previously published research?

Do the authors address alternate explanations of the data with further experiments?

As with the scientific research process in general, the provenance of the resulting observations and explanations is important when considering whether the information is of sufficient quality. If little is known concerning the who, what, why, where, when, and how aspects of a research project, it could be considered of indeterminate quality and therefore unacceptable for reference. Referencing the original source of the data, as well as any available provenance, lets the reader make a judgment about the quality and applicability of these data.

Data management is of increasing interest to research-granting agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), which as of 2011 requires all granted projects to include a data management plan. In 2009, an Interagency Working Group on Digital Data developed recommendations for managing data, including some general components to consider for a management plan: “provide for the full digital data life cycle and…describe, as applicable, the types of digital data to be produced; the standards to be used; provisions and conditions for access; requirements for protection of appropriate privacy, confidentiality, security, or intellectual property rights; and provisions for long-term preservation”. 4   More or less specific guidelines are being developed by the various US funding agencies; the NSF is primarily leaving this to be determined at the level of peer-review and program management to reflect best practices for disciplines and other “communities of interest”. 5   The provenance documentation practices discussed above should be rigorous enough to cover most data management plan requirements.

Ultimately, the purpose of scientific research is to contribute to the greater scientific knowledge base in a useful way and lead to applications for society. The ideas and efforts towards this process are considered property of an intellectual nature and are governed through their documentation. The legal framework of intellectual property is to translate the association of scientists with novel ideas and processes into terms that can serve in the practicable everyday world of business, including documentation for provenance and remuneration. In legal terms, intellectual property is about ownership and the potential benefits therein. It was designed by Congress to address Article 1 of the United States Constitution: “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Tımes to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries”. 6  

Novelty is a core consideration in supporting scientists’ and companies’ rights to own an idea or a process. The definition of novelty in most jurisdictions is delineated by first public disclosure: anywhere, in any venue, for any purpose. Because of the high potential for value, most publishers in the field of chemistry will not accept work that has been extensively disclosed in a public venue. Patent applicability can hinge on the date and nature of disclosure and becomes especially critical when coordinating rights globally. Ideally, the first public appearance of an idea that is well enough researched to enter the scientific record should be well documented, most often in a published article or patent application. These forms of communication are readily citable, with fairly rigorous presentation of content. However, the first public disclosure of one's research may often be much less rigorous, such as a presentation at a conference. As a result, chemists need to be mindful of future plans to publish in journals or file patent applications as they prepare their presentations.

Scientific research, particularly chemical research, is expensive. Public and private monies earmarked for basic research are available competitively. The chemical industry is interested in productive chemical technologies to make a return on the investment of development. Publications, including patents, are professional scientists’ and chemical companies’ key to sustainable funding and growth through claim to ownership. Most scientific publications are considered under one of two flavors of intellectual property, copyright, or patenting.

1.2.3.1 Copyright

In its legal form, copyright is at least two levels removed from the everyday world of scientific research. It does not relate to experimental design, nor does it contribute to the process of good writing. For most authors, it only seems to come into play when one is trying to publish, and then it often appears as a barrier. Why would a chemist want to have anything to do with copyright or even think about it? It comes down to basic issues surrounding the sharing of creative work with others and, in turn, re-using their work. Your greatness as a scientist lies in your ideas, but these remain in your head and might as well be mist unless you express them in a form that resonates with those whose attention you want. Once your audience takes notice, it will be of the idea, and, in the excitement, you want to be remembered as its originator. Copyright law provides a recognition stamp for a piece of work that captures an idea and governs the ways in which these ideas may be re-used by other scientists.

Copyright protects the expression of any creative act such as music, art, journalism, fiction writing, and many other endeavors where people may want to seek compensation and/or credit for their work. The author originally owns the rights to his or her work, meaning that, for the work to be “copyrighted”, he or she does not need to do anything more formal than capture it in a tangible medium (including online). However, as a legal tool, copyright must be able to stand up in court if the rights of ownership are in dispute. Every researcher hopes their work will be of sufficient interest in his or her discipline that it will be discovered and read by other researchers, granting agencies, and chemical businesses. The potential value of a paper is tied up in where it is exposed and what can then be done with the content, activities overseen by copyright. As the initial copyright owner, the author needs to consider how best to manage the exposure and re-use of the work to meet his or her personal and professional needs.

Copyright is automatically assigned to an idea “the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device”; 7   the rights and opportunities thereby granted are up to the owner to manage and stipulate to the public world. Currently, one of the primary roles of scientific publishers is to formally establish the first public disclosure of a work that invokes those rights, and reputable publishing houses are knowledgeable in both the scientific discipline and the ways of copyright. Publishers also provide additional value by coordinating with the vast network of publishing peers in a discipline to review the quality of the contribution and by placing the work among others of good quality in reputable journals, thus increasing the collective potential to be noticed by the right people. To manage and guarantee all of these services, publishers want a specified relationship with copyright that oversees the legal status of all these activities. In exchange for publishing your article, most scientific publishers will require transfer of your copyright: in effect, transfer of ownership of the work. As the original copyright owner, you always have the option to self-publish if you are prepared to manage your rights, the evidence of first disclosure and any further development and if you believe your work is strong enough to stand on its own.

For the vast majority of scientific articles published in traditional journals, once a manuscript is accepted for publication, it is likely that the authors will be asked to sign an agreement or contract that includes language regarding the copyright of the work. Many contracts require the author to transfer copyright to the publisher, meaning that they will then own all the rights to the article. To do anything further with the article, authors and readers alike will need to seek permission from the publisher as the new rights holder. This includes posting copies of the article on a website, sharing it with colleagues, and using figures in presentations or classes, even if the author is the one teaching them. It also includes reusing any of the content subsequently in a thesis or dissertation. Given the original intention of copyright to support the creativity of the original author and the rather dire impact of cutting you off from your work by transferring all such rights, many publishers will return several rights under the same contract, generally giving permission for the author to share copies with individual colleagues and re-use figures in presentations, classes and dissertations. Because the publisher continues to be the copyright owner, they will usually ask you to provide a citation or a copyright notice in the new venue for any part of your article that you re-use. The American Chemical Society presents FAQs and other learning materials on copyright for publishing authors. 8  

It is always an option to seek permission to do anything that is not specified in a contract, and most scientific publishers will grant this for non-profit oriented uses, especially by the original authors. To use other people's work, you will also need to seek permission from the copyright owner. It is not usually difficult to gain permission for common types of re-use, such as reproducing figures or quoting a brief section of text, many publishers now have automatic permissions systems, such as the RightsLink service used by the Publications Division of the American Chemical Society ( http://pubs.acs.org/page/copyright/permissions.html ) and other major publishers, which can be used to grant permission for certain pre-determined uses. It is important to note that the requirements for re-use will differ from publisher to publisher, so it is important to follow the form through to the end. Individual scientists in academic institutions making copies of articles (print or digital) for their own general reading purposes usually do not need to seek direct permission from copyright owners to keep these copies. This type of use is provisioned in the Copyright Act as “fair use”. The Fair Use provision addresses a number of types of re-use commonly associated with academic, educational and other non-profit endeavors, such as limited and restricted copies for individual research and teaching. The general understanding is that the use will be small scale and not translate to commercial potential that is still protected for the owner. For more information on acceptable fair use, see The Factsheet on Fair Use, 9   the Circular 21 from the U.S. Copyright Office, 10   or consult a legal authority.

1.2.3.2 Managing Rights in the Digital Environment

Rights associated with intellectual property are not defined relative to format or genre. However, in the digital environment, the scope of the playing field is changed. There is much broader access potential and a much richer technical environment for re-use and re-purposing of content, such as in data-driven research. Simultaneously, the global political and economic environment has encouraged increased participation in scientific research and the chemical enterprise. There are vastly more scientific manuscripts produced than the expanding journal options can absorb, and the peer-review system is swamped. There is a rapidly increasing readership and increasing pressure to publish manuscripts directly online to increase speed and availability. Emerging data-driven approaches to research and development demand greater technical treatment and access to content.

Players on the field have responded to these drivers accordingly by intensifying their approaches with overall compounding effects on the flow of information. Higher potential for global-reaching commercial value coupled with perceived higher competitive threat spurs content owners to tighten rights management measures. In the absence of acceptable standard practice, such measures have tapped into other legal tools such as contract law, and technically based restrictions on access and use, currently enforced through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA). Typically, these restrictions limit use far more than with analog information sources. The most visible restriction to researchers is the amount that can be downloaded from various information sources, including database result sets, journal articles, and book chapters. Printing, saving, filing in reference management tools, or forwarding to colleagues may all be restricted or disallowed altogether.

There are other subtler, but no less critical impacts on long-term access and use as specifications of ownership and hosting of the scholarly literature are shifting. Most electronic scholarly journal content is made available to users through license rather than sale as print subscriptions had been. Libraries have negotiated new terms for access in perpetuity to fulfill their mission to make sure that articles are available in the long term. Since publishers remain the content owners, they, rather than libraries, are now also responsible for archiving. Third-party services are emerging to support the ongoing technical integrity of electronic information.

The online environment has increased the potential for the sharing of work; however, it is still important to the integrity of a work to manage the rights of re-use and provenance even if the content is openly available for the initial use of reading. Creative Commons is a non-profit organization developing a new approach to managing and communicating terms of copyright of work in the digital space. The underlying principle is that the work will be openly available for public dissemination and use with a variety of conditions specified by the owners. Several licenses are available with various combinations of specifications for attribution, sharing and commercial purposes. Creative Commons licensing is based on copyright and provides the legal code to uphold it. Additionally the licenses include versions of the terms expressed for owners and users not legally trained and also in machine-readable form to communicate and functionally enable rights and permissions in the digital context; see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ for more information. As the global legal climate surrounding intellectual property establishes itself in the digital environment, content authors, owners, and users juggle a complicated information landscape.

1.2.3.3 Ethics

Authors have certain ethical obligations to the scientific enterprise. Publishing contracts will often include requirements that the work submitted presents original research, an accurate account of the research performed, and an objective discussion of its significance. They further stipulate that all coauthors must be aware of the submission, that the authors submit their work to only one journal at a time, and that they disclose the submission history of the manuscript. 11   Original work should not plagiarize text or figures from other published works, even if prepared by the same authors. The tendency towards self-plagiarism is particularly problematic as researchers build on their own previous work, but each newly published work should have enough novelty to stand as a separate and distinct contribution. Connections to previous work, by the authors or others, should be fully attributed and referenced. Permissions for more extensive use of previous content, such as figures in a review article should be sought from the copyright owner, as discussed above. Such practices constitute a code of conduct and personal responsibility that is core to the definition and ongoing integrity of chemistry research. For further reading on best practices for scientists, see “On Being a Scientist”, freely available from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. 12  

1.2.3.4 Patenting

Patenting is another approach to intellectual property that focuses on the design of technology, human-invented approaches to accomplishing a specified task. This type of intellectual protection involves a different form of documentation, and the resulting patent literature constitutes the primary contribution of the chemical industry. Rights owners are trading public disclosure of their approach for a limited period of exclusivity to develop any commercial potential. Patents allow the public to benefit in the longer term through healthy competition and additional development, while still supporting the pursuit of commercial viability by the originator. Otherwise, owners of commercial processes might keep successful technologies secret indefinitely. A granted patent supports this right for the first party to file, even if others come up with similar ideas independently, as long as the invention is novel. The United States also requires that the invention have utility and offer a non-obvious change to existing technology. Assignees have twenty years to develop and market the technology without competition should they pursue it.

The chemical syntheses and refinement processes developed in industry are patentable, which makes the window of exclusivity a highly valuable right in the commercial sector. As a result, patents are carefully construed to cover a broad a range of potential approaches within each technology to give companies flexibility and multiple stepping-stones to pursue. Technologies developed within the scope of academic research are also patentable, and universities will often contract with commercial partners to scale and market promising technologies. A few technologies out of millions of patents prove to be of high market value, and the owning companies will fiercely defend their exclusive advantage. While development rights are exclusive, the disclosed design is public information, and, although the patent is written in such a way as to obfuscate the critical pieces as much as possible, it can still be very useful for indicating the direction of proprietary research in a given area, as well as providing other important chemical information, such as characterization properties. As a result, patents are a rich body of chemical literature publically available to every research chemist and worthy of serious consideration; approaches to using patent literature are more fully discussed in a later chapter of this book. For further reading on patenting relevant to chemistry, see the handbook “What Every Chemist Should Know About Patents”, available from the American Chemical Society. 13  

1.2.4.1 Primary Literature

The first time an observation or idea appears in a public medium constitutes first disclosure and is categorized as primary literature. This is the important point for discovery and the critical point at which an idea has enough scientific potential behind it to become part of the development of a scientific discipline: “if your research does not generate papers, it might just as well not have been done”. 14   The primary literature represents the state of a research area and will supply you with information on methods and protocols. In chemistry, many primary publications appear in the form of research articles, clustered in journals ranging from general or multidisciplinary to specialized by sub-discipline, methodology, or nationality. Patents, conference papers, and technical reports also constitute a significant portion of the primary literature globally across the chemistry sub-disciplines. The authors, editors, and reviewers of the various primary resources have reviewed the information and deemed it publishable, but it remains to the researcher to locate it and decide if it is relevant to his or her own work.

1.2.4.2 Secondary Literature

Over one million primary publications are indexed by the Chemical Abstracts Service each year in chemistry and its related fields. 15   It is not possible to follow the developments or even find relevant information in any one area without additional organizational tools. Publications that parse, abstract, index, or otherwise break down and group the information and ideas appearing in the primary literature are categorized as secondary literature. There are two general types of secondary literature, depending on the content and purpose. Abstracting and indexing services facilitate research of ideas by organizing the bibliographic information of the primary literature. These tools tend to be large-scale resources, covering a broad range of primary sources to facilitate multidisciplinary and comprehensive research. Databases extract and aggregate specific information from the primary literature to create high-value collections of experimental, analytical, or preparative information. These collections tend to be fairly specialized by type of information or research methodology.

Opportunities for searching in an area of interest simultaneously across multiple information sources and types are becoming more prominent in the web-enabled, digital information environment. Chemical Abstracts Service is one of the most prominent secondary literature providers, specializing in thorough coverage and indexing of the chemistry literature through a variety of systems, including SciFinder and STN (Science & Technology Network). SciFinder links different types of bibliographic, characterization, and preparative information from within the primary literature to enhance the research process from idea to experimental design. Successful use of the secondary literature tools will contribute to your knowledge of a research area. Developers of these tools carefully manage the inclusion and organization of primary literature sources based on scope and perceived quality, but no additional value-based judgment is offered beyond this. The intellectual process of identifying what specific articles and information is relevant information remains to the researcher.

1.2.4.3 Tertiary Literature

Even with the vast number of primary publications in the chemistry-related disciplines and the wide variety of secondary tools available to navigate them, a scientist may still seek additional input to ascertain the gestalt of the research in an area before trying to search it directly. Such scenarios could include a scientist pushing into an unfamiliar research area, a lab group changing its approach to an experimental methodology, or a chemistry graduate student learning to practice research. There are several types of literature in chemistry designed to give an overview of a research area, methodology or practice, these resources are referred to as tertiary literature. Review articles and chapter-books give an overview of a research field at a given time. They are written by experts in the field, long-time practicing scientists, and can cover the development of the primary theories, branches into other fields, applications in industry, primary educational models, future directions with high research potential, and even research lines that didn’t work out. Treatises and handbooks meticulously review the developments of specific research methodologies or experimental best practices in various areas of chemistry, such as organic synthesis. Graduate-level texts, encyclopedias and other primers, such as this book, are another type of tertiary literature designed to introduce an inexperienced researcher to a particular field. Tertiary literature sources offer expert value-based judgments of the published literature and assessment of data in the research area under consideration. It is important to keep in mind that these sources are out of date as soon as they are written in terms of the state of the science in any given area; they are a great starting point to a new area of research but not a robust finishing point for preparing your own experiments and publications.

Each published article has potential in the scientific enterprise, waiting to be found and read by another scientist who sees its potential and can build on it. A key aspect of this path to successful contribution is how other scientists who would be interested in the content of an article happen upon it. An early part of the discovery process for many researchers is the groupings of articles that make up issues of journals that are read regularly. There are many other points of connectivity; the units of the primary literature and the research experiments, observations and conclusions that they represent do not exist in isolation within their host journals. Research articles and patents build on previous reportings, and, in turn, influence those who subsequently read them; the scientific ideas in each article are linked to other published articles. There are many different ways that individual scientists approach their literature practice and process of finding new articles of relevance to their current research projects. However, they are all based on some kind of link from one article to another, one scientist to another, or one idea to another, with each subsequent link related to the former in some way.

For a specific research project, an idea may start with one article read by a scientist. The scientist may then read some of the article's references for better background, then find papers that cite the starting article to see how others have built on it, then examine articles that cite the same references as the original article to see how others have built upon the earlier research, and so on. Much like a pearl that builds up in layers upon the initial stimulation of a grain of sand, this technique of building up a cadre of articles and research awareness through following links is referred to as “pearl growing”, or “the Iterative Approach to literature searching.” 16   Common link paths highlighted by the discovery services in the secondary literature include journals, publishers, authors, institutions, sub-discipline, methodology, type of application, compounds, and physical properties, as well as both references and citations. It is the prerogative of the researcher to navigate the various paths to find the best literature for their particular purpose. The networked online environment is having a profound impact on the ability of researchers to move along these links to aid discovery of information and build knowledge bases. The majority of chemical information resources are available online. As more standards emerge and develop for encoding text and other information to appear on the Web, more links are being activated between common information elements across resources that go well beyond the traditional journal, author, and references.

Chemical information is in a unique position in terms of development potential in the online environment, influenced by a variety of factors that complicate the realization of this potential. The chemistry field is actually one of the earlier pioneers of online representation of information, with machine-readable encoding systems for chemical compounds dating back to the line notation systems of the late 1940s. Chemical information is also exceedingly complex and nuanced in what it represents; structural characterization of compounds, chemical and physical properties of compounds, preparation and purification methodologies, and analytical techniques are all considered by chemical scientists in their research. This intensity around information has been accompanied by elaborate representation schema for various aspects of the information since the heyday of alchemy. In 1919, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry was formed to more systematically consider and review chemical information representation and apply standardization in some critical areas internationally, including chemical compound notation for both human and machine reading purposes. 17   The latest example of efforts in this area is the IUPAC International Chemical Identifier (InChI), which provides interoperable chemical structure encoding between different publishers and chemical information systems. 18  

Robust and standardized machine-readable encoding of information has also enabled the emergence of new and powerful data-driven approaches to research. Informatics, as this type of science is generally called, is touching on many fields, including chemistry. Research processes that were previously managed by the researcher, such as data collection and management, are increasingly automated, and ultimately the computer can activate a variety of links among and between data sets to indicate patterns of potential interest. It is still up to the human researcher to make some determination of the value and to pursue further research of any of these patterns.

As these computer systems become increasingly sophisticated, they are beginning to perform more of the valuation themselves, “learning” from patterns of previously assigned values and performing self-assessment based on error rate analysis. This area, in which the computer applies value-based analysis to research input, is referred to as semantic processing. This approach is not only being applied to numeric or other non-textual research data, but to the linking patterns used by scientists when searching the literature, as well as the early stages of analysis of text in the primary literature and, by extension, a kind of analysis of the intellectual contribution of individual scientists. This sounds very much like the literature research process for individual humans that we have been discussing throughout this chapter. What could be lost with the automation of more processes formerly performed by educated chemists, and what more could those researchers do beyond what is possible now with more time freed from automated tasks? As more data, including the direct intellectual contribution of researchers, is presented online and linked to other information, pattern recognition and evaluation is enabled and the impact of these considerations will become increasing prominent. There certainly are implications regarding productivity value and re-use of material considered to be intellectual property and therefore protected by copyright or patent law. There may also be implications for what is considered by the chemistry community to be acceptable standards of practice when balancing machine and human analysis and valuation to further the research enterprise.

Amidst the complexities and complications of the chemical information landscape, libraries focus primarily on enabling use of scholarly materials. An ideal goal for searching the literature for researchers and information providers to strive for might be 90% unassisted use 24/7 anywhere, complemented by detailed support the remaining 10% of the time. Information providers are in the business to consider highly dis-intermediated experiences for researchers to enable the most efficient approach within a researcher's individual process and point of need. Both content and access are key components of a dis-intermediated research process, through combination of clearly defined scope of content, expert curation, value added content analysis, and automated organizational structure. Expert curation is the highest value added to most chemistry resources, involving scientists and other field experts to determine what content to include and highlight, what links to include and highlight and how to put these together to clarify the opportunities and potential indicators for researchers.

Researchers’ needs not covered by 90% solutions require expert assistance. These needs should not be underestimated; they could translate to “aha moments” for researchers, critical learning opportunities for students, or indicators of emerging areas of chemistry research and potential in the information landscape. The questions you are asking may be cutting edge and unique enough to not be represented in standard ways in searching tools. In a well-meant effort to maximize the opportunities of the online environment, database and information providers often try to make tools more intuitive. In reality, expert search functions are often diminished, resulting in more difficulty finding relevant information. If you have spent over 20minutes in fruitless searching, this is not good use of your time; ask for help. There are experts who search for information for a living; they often have access to better tools and have invested time to develop better work-arounds; they can save you a lot of time.

This volume is authored by chemistry-focused librarians across the United States and Canada who perceive a need to more broadly support graduate students and researchers in chemistry with their literature use. In addition to expertise in the literature landscape of chemistry, librarians have access to networks of other experts, and participate in a variety of services and activities to further broaden both the support and expertise they can provide. They curate specialized finding tools in chemistry, such as properties finders and virtual shelf browsers; offer training, guides, and feedback opportunities with specific resources and search techniques; and actively participate in scientific societies and liaise with publishers and other professional development programs for chemists. All of this expertise is only as good as it is useful for chemists; we welcome the opportunity to assist your literature research in a variety of ways. Another useful volume addressing the broad issues of publication is the ACS Style Guide, 3 rd edition published in 2006 by the American Chemical Society. 19  

The balance of supporting researchers in a robust searching process through independent options coupled with specified assistance represents a moving target as the research landscape continuously changes. Iterative development is critical for information providers to aim for a successful highly dis-intermediated environment. Follow-up analysis of assisted experiences is needed to assess what is indicated about gaps in dis-intermediated solutions or potential new service areas. Such are the requirements of robust information systems and services and chemistry information providers tend to invest significant resources into ensuring robust content, organization, support, and other added value. As the digital markup of chemical information improves, more direct engagement is possible with non-tactile literature and libraries transition support of print-based research processes to online-based research processes.

A literature search is a significant part of the overall research process. It is up to you to leverage the structure of the literature, discovery tools, pearl growing, valuation, and good tracking skills to tap its potential. If you do not take the time and care to plan your process up front, you will quickly be swamped by the vastness of the literature, and likely miss key findings or painstakingly recreate experimental methods previously published. Please remember Frank Westheimer's aphorism, “Why spend a day in the library when you can learn the same thing by working in the laboratory for a month?” 20  

When searching through the literature, the information you have in hand – previous research, active authors, chemical structural information – can serve as starting and linking points. Since your search of the literature may be for background information, a comprehensive sweep of previously characterized compounds of interest, a specific set of physical properties, or a particular synthesis route, what you already know will help identify which information resources are best suited to help. The remainder of this book provides some description of the more commonly used chemical information resources designed to help the researcher determine which to use and how best to get started for various needs.

Given the complex nature of chemical compound characterization and the breadth of research fields that touch on chemistry, some types of chemical information are more complicated and require advanced searching methodologies. Good starting places and best practices for more specialized searching are detailed in the later chapters of this book. This is not a comprehensive sweep of all potential approaches to searching in chemistry, so as you specialize in your area of research, becoming thoroughly competent in the relevant advanced searching methodologies will be critical for a robust research program.

Reviewing and assessing the results requires an understanding of what additional relevant information may be available, evaluating new search leads, such as other associated compounds, and recognizing better index terms. Reviewing specific result records will indicate what can be expected in that information resource, and gives a sense of how structural, reaction or property information is encoded. To quote from the conclusion of the physical properties chapter: “important skills for a searcher are persistence, creativity, and a sense of what avenues are most likely to be successful and which ones are unproductive… not unlike the qualities of a good detective”. 21  

So what are some practical tips for mastering your work with the chemistry literature? At Cornell University, we have created a guide titled, “7 Ways to Be a More Efficient Chemist” that boils down several key activities you can set up right away to help yourself in the literature aspects of your research ( http://guides.library.cornell.edu/7chemistry , original guide by Kirsten Hensley, 2008). The guide points to specific resources at Cornell University, but the principles apply anywhere for any chemist at any stage of research.

1.3.2.1 Streamline Your Connections to the Literature Resources You Use Regularly So You Can Access Them Anywhere, Any Time, and from Any Device

Most research libraries have a proxy system in place for connecting to resources when you are off-campus; many also provide bookmarklets or apps for re-loading web pages with your institutional authentication so you can log in from anywhere. Set up bookmarks in your web browser of choice, or use a webroot or some other system with your most frequently and regularly used resources, using the links provided by your library, which should include the proxy authentication. Apps covering a variety of literature resources and searching options are also increasingly available if working on smaller mobile devices fits into your work style.

1.3.2.2 Organize the Hundreds of Articles and References You Collect in Your Literature Research

Many citation management programs are available with various organizational features and costs ranging from free to reasonable educational discounts. You can group references by topic, project or specific question you are researching. Most will import PDF files and some will pull out the bibliographic information for you so you can organize the papers. Some allow for collaborative work. Most literature databases will export references in formats directly importable to these programs; some programs can even be used to search other content or linked into directly.

1.3.2.3 Regularly Monitor the Contents of the Top Journals in Chemistry and Your Specific Sub-discipline Once You Start Actively Researching

Most scientific journals provide email or RSS feed alerts of issue content for free. JournalTOCs ( http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/ ) collects thousands of feed links to scholarly journal tables of contents, and you can create groups of journals to monitor from this free service. If you are not familiar with the journals in a particular sub-discipline, you can get an initial list to start by exploring the Journal Citation Reports ISI Impact Factor rankings if your institution subscribes to this assessment tool. These rankings are based on numbers of citations to a journal relative to the number of articles published within a fixed time-frame, roughly indicating how much impact the research published therein is having on informing further research in a given area. Review journals tend to show the highest impact with this measure, as they are broad in scope and can be particularly helpful for reference when new to a research area.

1.3.2.4 Set up Alerts in the Literature Databases to Monitor New Research by Topic

This technique will cut across journals and other literature sources and allow you to zero in on specific methodologies or compounds of interest on a more specific level. Most databases, such as SciFinder, Web of Science, MEDLINE, etc. , offer alerts based on your searches of interest. You can also save searches and come back to them to build up a critical mass of literature in an area to export to your citation management program.

1.3.2.5 Read Books and Review Articles for Background Material

You will be expected to build up knowledge of various areas pretty quickly as you begin more research. These could be the state of current research areas, chemical reaction or other experimental methodologies, or potential for application. Treatises and review journals as mentioned above are available that cover all these types of information, as well as periodic review articles in primary journals for more specific or timely topics.

1.3.2.6 Be Familiar with the Options for Acquiring the Full Text of Articles through Your Library or Information Center

Most research libraries have fairly robust collections of electronic journals that will be directly available to you or will provide document delivery for needed articles. Finding these links among thousands of others will vary by local institution. No research library has direct access to all published literature, digital or hard copy, but there are a number of collaborative systems that research libraries use to make content available among institutions. Most libraries participate in some kind of inter-library loaning system for hard copy, photocopies, and increasingly for electronic content as well. Systems for article sharing tend to be national or international, many regional approaches also exist for books, including service from joint storage facilities.

1.3.2.7 Ask for Help from Librarians with All of the above Tasks and More

If we don’t know specifically how, we will find the right assistance for you. This is the top priority and core responsibility of the public services librarians in any library. Most research libraries will have librarians who specialize their service in key disciplines, including chemistry, which tends to be a literature-heavy discipline.

1.3.2.8 Bonus: Be Aware of Specialized Electronic Reference Resources for Reaction Specifications, Physical Properties, and other Scientific Data

More and more of the data supporting chemistry research are becoming available in online venues. The traditional reference collections in research libraries supporting chemistry tend to be expansive and well used but cumbersome and probably not as well discovered as they could be for supporting experimental and technical work. As these resources become more available online and libraries are able to support them, it can have a positive impact on your workflow.

Overall, remember that the library is intended to support your literature research, in accessing content, improving your searches, and helping you become a more efficient and better prepared chemist.

  • Campaigning and outreach
  • News and events
  • Awards and funding
  • Privacy policy
  • Journals and databases
  • Locations and contacts
  • Membership and professional community
  • Teaching and learning
  • Help and legal
  • Cookie policy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Get Adobe Acrobat Reader
  • Registered charity number: 207890
  • © Royal Society of Chemistry 2023

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

  • Add a company

Google

Chemical Abstracts Service

Chemical Abstracts Service in Columbus, OH

General information

Places nearby.

  • Business Services Printing Services Miscellaneous Publishing Publishers , Yearbooks: Publishing and Printing , Yellow Pages Publishers
  • Manufacturing Printing, Publishing And Allied Industries Miscellaneous Publishing
Standard industrial classification code: 2741
Estimated number of employees: 5
Annual sales estimate: 1,370,000
City / suburb: Columbus, OH
County: Franklin

Is this your business? Claim this profile to get thousands of free views!

QR code with Chemical Abstracts Service contacts

QR code with Chemical Abstracts Service contacts

More details about this business

Or try our search form or quick navigation by category and location

University of Texas

  • University of Texas Libraries
  • UT Libraries
  • Chemical Abstracts
  • For New Researchers
  • Literature Tutorial
  • Support the Library
  • Science of Synthesis
  • Landolt-Börnstein
  • Gmelin Handbook
  • Beilstein Handbook
  • Textbooks & OER
  • Conferences & Symposia
  • Tech Reports
  • Historical Information
  • Free Resources
  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Biochemistry This link opens in a new window
  • Crystallography
  • Electrochemistry
  • General Chemistry
  • Inorganic Chemistry
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Physical Properties
  • Polymers and Plastics
  • Safety, Hazards, Environment
  • Spectroscopy

CA cover

  • Organization
  • CA Abstract Numbers
  • For Librarians

Abstracts There were 26 weekly issues per semiannual "volume." Each Abstract issue was divided into 80 Subject Sections. An abstract appeared in just one section, based on the novelty of the process or substance being reported in the literature. Each weekly issue also contained indexes by author, subject keyword (not official headings), and patent number. The issue indexes were superseded first by a volume index published every six months, and then by the 5-year Collective Index. (The library did not retain the issue and volume indexes.)

Collective Indexes Every five years CAS published a Collective Index (CI). The 14th CI was published in 2002 and covers the years 1997-2001. The library has all Collective Indexes up to this point. They are divided into:

  • Author Index , 1907-2001
  • Subject Index 1907-71 (included chemical substance names through 1971)
  • Chemical Substance Index , 1972-2001 (includes all CA Index Names used during the specific index period)
  • General Subject Index , 1972-2001 (includes all subject and compound-class terms that are not systematic CA Index Names)
  • Formula Index , 1920-2001
  • Patent Index , 1907-2001

Index Guides The Index Guide (IG) for each Collective Index period provides cross-references from commonly used chemical names to official CA Index Names (with registry numbers) used in the corresponding Chemical Substance Index. It also serves as a thesaurus of all controlled-vocabulary subject headings used in the General Subject Index. The Index Guide should always be consulted before looking up a chemical name or subject term in the Collective Indexes.

Ring Systems Handbook The RSH leads you from a ring or cage structure to the CA Index Name and Registry Number of a ring parent compound, for searching in the Chemical Substance Index. Entries are in ring analysis order and are indexed by molecular formula and Index Name.

Registry Handbook The Registry Handbook - Number Section was a cumulative numerical listing of Registry Numbers assigned to chemical substances from 1965 to 1996. If you have only a registry number and need the CA Index Name for that compound, look it up here first and then use the name to consult the Chemical Substance Indexes. A corresponding Names Section issued on microfiche provided registry numbers for several hundred thousand of the most-indexed common names.

CASSI CASSI (Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index) is the comprehensive and retrospective list of publications that have been indexed by Chemical Abstracts since it began in 1907. It includes journals, books, conferences, and other series, arranged by CA abbreviation. This is the source you use to translate journal title abbreviations into full titles for searching in the library catalog and other finding aids. The last print edition of CASSI (1907-2004) is kept in the Librarian's office. It is also available in a somewhat limited form on the web:

Doing a manual search in printed Chemical Abstracts is a tedious, mutli-step process.  This is how it was done.

  • Author: Entries are arranged by last name, then by first and second initials (not by first name). Qualifying text is the title of the document. Coauthors are cross-referenced to first author.
  • Formula: Entries contain only abstract numbers unless there is a large number of them, and no qualifying text. It's best to use the Formula Index to get the corresponding CA Index Name, then look up that name in the corresponding Chemical Substance or Subject (1907-71) index, where the entries are more detailed. Formulas are listed in Hill order: C, then H, then other elements in alphabetical order.
  • Chemical Substance name: Start with the Index Guide to see if there's an entry for the name you have. If not, use the Formula Index or Ring Systems Handbook to get the name. In the CSI you must use only the specific CA Index Name for that CI period. There are no cross references to earlier or generic names. Names are arranged by "parent" (the structural skeleton) followed by substituents and modifications. Qualifying text in each entry indicates what the document is primarily about, followed by an abstract number. About 600 of the most frequently indexed compounds are called "Qualified Substances." Their document entries are grouped into seven categories: Analysis, Biological studies, Occurrence, Preparation, Properties, Reactions, Uses and miscellaneous.
  • Subject term: Check the Index Guide first to find an appropriate term to look up in the Subject Index (1907-71) or General Subject Index (1972- ). Classes of compounds (e.g. Carcinogens), undefined compounds and mixtures (e.g. Gasoline), processes, plant/animal species, and other general topical terms are found in this index, along with cross references and scope notes.
  • Patent number: Arranged by issuing country/organization, then by patent number. CA abstracts only the first member of a patent family, and links later equivalent patents to this parent patent. Equivalents are cross-referenced to the parent. Prior to 1981 the equivalents were listed in the Patent Concordance.
  • Note Abstract Numbers from the entries of interest. Abstract numbers prefixed "R" indicate a review; "P" indicates a patent.
  • Go to the corresponding Abstracts volume and look up the abstract by its number.
  • Repeat this process for earlier or later index periods. Remember that Index Names and subject headings changed over time, so consult the Index Guide for each CI period.
Dates Example Notes
1967-present 74:23628c Represents a single specific abstract; searchable in SciFinder. The final control character appears only in the print abstracts and should be ignored.
1947-66 45:1541e Volume:Column number/column fraction letter a-h. Abstract numbers prior to 1967 do not necessarily represent a specific abstract, but rather the position in a column or page where that abstract begins.
1934-46 28:3714 Volume:Column number/column fraction digit 1-9
1907-33 6:571 Volume:page only.

For Librarians:  Retention of Chemical Abstracts

old CAS logo

  • Here's the most important consideration: It's highly unlikely that any scientist born after the mid-1970s would have any experience using print CA (or any printed index for that matter), or even be aware of its existence. Therefore academic libraries should expect all potential use to be initiated and mediated by a library staff member or senior faculty member who has working knowledge of this tool. If no such persons remain on the campus, then print CA is almost certainly a waste of space. (Similarly, there is no longer any practical reason to teach students how to use it!)
  • SciFinder is not identical to Chemical Abstracts. All (or nearly all) the metadata content of the latter is included in the CAPLUS file and robustly substance-indexed via the Registry file. But it is inaccurate to say that you can do everything in SciFinder that you could do in the print.
  • The Collective subject/substance/formula indexes allow browsing of chemical names, formulas, and subject headings in a way that isn't possible in SciFinder. SciFinder is great for snapshots, but it provides only a limited view of the hierarchical structure of the CA database, or its indexing and nomenclature practices; nor does it allow easy browsing for derivatives, salts, and other variants of a parent structure. In other words, you can't browse online for nearby entries like you can in the print, which removes a serendipity factor. For some purposes, this is an important distinction. Browsing and searching CA indexing terms for concepts, chemical classes, and taxonomic vocabulary from the CAS Lexicon (thesaurus) is possible in SciFinder, as of 2023.
  • When you can't figure out how CAS has defined the structure or formula of certain types of compounds, especially inorganic (salts, hydrates, ions, decimals, etc), coordination compounds, and multicomponent substances, SciFinder can be frustrating. Using the Index Guide and Chemical Substance Index can actually save some time, and when you find the Registry number then you can go back to SciFinder, locate the substance record and complete the literature search. (Of course, this method only works for compounds registered before your last Collective Index.)
  • Pre-1967 CA abstract numbers are not searchable or displayed in SciFinder, and can only be looked up or verified in the print. These numbers were occasionally cited in the older literature, especially as stand-ins for obscure and foreign documents.
  • Some older printed abstracts may contain structure graphics that aren't duplicated online.
  • If you have bound any of the six-month volume indexes, and you have the equivalent Collectives and their Index Guides, the former are expendable and should be discarded to save space. And hopefully the indexes in the back of the weekly issues were sliced out and discarded before binding -- those are indeed useless and add a significant amount of linear footage.
  • Production of printed CA ceased in 2009, and the hardcopy is now only applicable to historical searching. It is not a viable substitute for any form of current online searching.
  • Even if you decide to discard the bulk of CA, consider retaining the most valuable parts, such as the Index Guides (potentially useful for finding contemporary index terms, synonyms, controlled vocabulary, Registry Numbers, etc.). If you wish to split the run by time period, collective wisdom suggests that the older (and smaller) pre-1967 portion of CA is more useful than the post-1967 volumes.
  • If the facility lacks space and staff who can retrieve and consult CA volumes to mediate a reference question, stored CA can't be used as designed.
  • If storage space is at a premium, it's difficult to justify the space CA would occupy there. (A complete set of CA with indexes can occupy as much as 1000 linear feet of shelving, depending on how a library has bound it.)  The trend toward shared/consortial storage may allow multiple institutions to share a single print copy.
  • If the item-specific metadata in your catalog don't include abstract number ranges -- as opposed to issue numbers, which are useless -- remote usage/retrieval of CA volumes becomes even less practical.
  • UT's copy is in remote storage because it is one of the last copies in Texas.
  • ACS does not require institutions to retain print CA for chemistry program approval. (There's no requirement for SciFinder either. See ACS Committee on Professional Training guidelines for more information.)

Further Reading

  • History of Chemical Abstracts (Chemical Landmarks)
  • CAS History
  • Powell, E.C. "A History of Chemical Abstracts Service." Science & Technology LIbraries, 18(4) 2000, 93-110.
  • Schultz, H. and Georgy, U. From CA to CAS Online. 2nd ed. Springer Verlag, 1994.
  • Last Updated: Jun 18, 2024 1:44 PM
  • URL: https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/chemistry

Creative Commons License

Chemical Abstracts service centennial: Facts and figures

  • Published: December 2007
  • Volume 34 , pages 328–334, ( 2007 )

Cite this article

chemical abstracts service address

  • V. M. Efremenkova &
  • N. V. Krukovskaya  

90 Accesses

3 Citations

Explore all metrics

The history of the emergence and development of the abstracting journal Chemical Abstracts is considered starting from its first printed issue up to the present time. At present, the well-known Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) offers a wide range of information resources, including such massive databases (databases) as: CA/CAPlus (∼27 million abstracts), the CAS Registry (∼31 million organic and inorganic substances [compounds], ∼58 million biological sequences), CASREACT (∼13 million organic [chemical] reactions), CHEMCATS (∼14 million entries of commercially available chemicals and their suppliers), CHEMLIST (∼245 thousand high-priority industrial chemicals, their storage and transportation regulations [restrictions]), MARPAT (the CAS Markush database containing the keys to generic substances in patents), as well as specialty-specific [subject-oriented] issues of CA SELECT, the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI) list of journals, and many others. Information retrieval systems are presented that provide access to CAS databases, viz., the STN International and SciFinder.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save.

  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

chemical abstracts service address

Software for molecular docking: a review

chemical abstracts service address

Small-Molecule Library Screening by Docking with PyRx

chemical abstracts service address

An Overview of Scoring Functions Used for Protein–Ligand Interactions in Molecular Docking

CAS Centenary: A Foundation for the Future of Scientific Information, 2007 CAS European Conference & Forum, Berlin, Germany, 17–18 Sept., 2007, http://www.cas.org/aboutcas/cas/100/annivhistory.html

Massie, R.J., CAS opening Remarks http://www.cas.org/aboutcas/cas100/annivhistory.html .

Lawlor B., CAS: Its Role in the History and Evolution of Scientific Information http:/www.cas.org/aboutcas/cas100/annivhistory.html .

Ciechanover, A., The Ubiquitin Proteolytic System: From Basic Mechanism through Human Diseases and onto Drug Targeting http://www.cas.org/aboutcas/cas100/annivhistory.html .

Stang, P., Scientific Publishing in the Era of the Internet Perspectives of a JACS Editor. http://www.cas.org/aboutcas/cas100/annivhistory.html .

Baker, D.B., Horishny, J.W., Metanomski, W.V., History of Abstracting at Chemical Abstracts Service, J. Chem. If. Comput. Sci , 1980, vol. 20, pp. 193–201.

Article   Google Scholar  

CA today: The Production of Chemical Abstracts, American Chemical Society, Washington: D.C., 1958.

Subject Coverage and Arrangement of Abstracts by Sections in Chemical Abstracts, CAS, Columbus, 1997.

Crane, E.J., Training of Literature Chemistry, Adv. Chem. Ser., 1956, no. 17, p. 18.

Weil, B.H., Standards for Writing Abstracts, A. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci., 1970, vol. 21, pp. 351–357.

Little CA, No. 8, May 1, 1932.

2007 CAS Catalog. www.cas.org.

Efremenkova, V.M, Khutoretskii, V.M., et al. Sootnoshenie klassifikatsionnykh skhem bazy dannykh Chemical Abstracts i sootvetstvuyushchikh yey chastey sistemy baz dannykh VINITI : (The Relationship of Classification Schemes of the Chemical Abstracts Database and the Matching Parts of the VINITI Database System: Part 1 Biologicheskaya khimiya, NTI , Ser. 1, 1999, no. 12, pp. 20–34. Part 2 Organicheskaya khimiya, NTI, Ser. 1 , 2000, no. 2, pp. 26–30. Part 3 Makromolekulyarnaya khimiya, NTI , Ser. 1, 2000, no. 5, pp. 27–38. Part 4 Prikladnaya khimiya i khimicheskaya tekhnologiya, NTI , Ser. 1, 2000, no. 7, pp. 29–45. Part 5 Fizicheskaya, neorganicheskaya i analiticheskaya khimiya, NTI , Ser. 1, 2000, no. 10, pp. 20–34.

Potapov, V.M., Kochetova, E.K., Khimicheskaya informatsia (Chemical Information), Moscow: Khimiya, 1988.

Google Scholar  

Ridley, D.D., Information Retrieval: SciFinder and SciFinder Scholar, Wiley: Chichester, West Sussex, UK, 2002.

Download references

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Additional information

Original Russian Text © V.M. Efremennkova, N.V. Krukovskaya, 2007, published in Nauchno-Technicheskaya Informatsiya, Seriya 1, 2007, No. 12, pp. 24–33.

About this article

Efremenkova, V.M., Krukovskaya, N.V. Chemical Abstracts service centennial: Facts and figures. Sci. Tech.Inf. Proc. 34 , 328–334 (2007). https://doi.org/10.3103/S0147688207060093

Download citation

Received : 11 October 2007

Issue Date : December 2007

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3103/S0147688207060093

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

  • American Chemical Society
  • Technical Information Processing
  • Information Retrieval System
  • Chemical Abstract
  • Patent Document
  • Find a journal
  • Publish with us
  • Track your research

CAS REGISTRY®

CAS REGISTRY, the CAS substance collection, is the premier source relied upon by scientists, manufacturers, regulators, and data scientists worldwide for accurate information on chemical substances.

chemical abstracts service address

What is a CAS Registry Number®?

Chemical compounds are described in many different ways including molecular formulas, chemical structures, generic, systematic, common, and trade names. This lack of clarity can cause frustration, delays, and even safety concerns.

A CAS Registry Number is a unique and unambiguous identifier for a specific substance that allows clear communication and, with the help of CAS scientists, links together all available data and research about that substance. Governmental agencies rely on CAS Registry Numbers for substance identification in regulatory applications because they are unique, easy validated, and internationally recognized.

Authoritative source for accurate chemical names, structures, and CAS Registry Numbers®

219 million organic substances, alloys, coordination compounds, minerals, mixtures, polymers, and salts disclosed in publications since the early 1800s.

~75 million protein and nucleic acid sequences

Enriched with ~8 billion experimental and predicted property data points and spectra

Updated daily with thousands of new substances to alert you to the most recent discoveries

Linked to relevant publications, reactions, chemical suppliers, formulations, and more, as part of the CAS Content Collection™

CAS REGISTRY and CAS Registry Number

Still have a questions in mind? Contact us directly!

What is CAS REGISTRY?

What is a cas registry number (cas rn), what does a cas registry number look like, how does cas assign registry numbers, what kinds of compounds does the cas registry contain, why have cas registry numbers become the world standard, why do regulatory agencies rely on cas registry numbers, where can i find cas registry numbers, why do some substances in cas registry have zero references how can i learn more about these substances, how can i obtain or request assignment of a cas registry number, why is it important to come to cas for registry numbers, what is the cas rn verified partner program, latest from cas insights™.

chemical abstracts service address

Scientific search engines: Why designing them takes art plus science

chemical abstracts service address

Idea in brief: Emerging trends and future opportunities for carbon nanotubes

chemical abstracts service address

CAS and Westlake University publication on biomaterials: Full-length report

IMAGES

  1. Chemical Abstracts Service

    chemical abstracts service address

  2. Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) and FLAVIS numbers and some

    chemical abstracts service address

  3. Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) and FLAVIS numbers and some

    chemical abstracts service address

  4. -2. Analyte names, chemicals formulas, and chemical abstracts service

    chemical abstracts service address

  5. chemcats

    chemical abstracts service address

  6. Full names, chemical abstracts service (CAS) numbers, purity, and

    chemical abstracts service address

VIDEO

  1. Chemical Abstracts Sample Record

  2. SAEM24 Awards Ceremony, Dr. Peter Rosen Memorial Keynote Address, and Plenary Abstracts #1-4

  3. Oak Symposium

  4. HOW TO: Register For SciFinder

  5. Chemistry w/ Molly Strausbaugh

  6. Explore Spring Data Abstraction for Reactive Applications

COMMENTS

  1. Chemical Abstracts Service

    Chemical Abstracts is a periodical index that provides numerous tools such as SciFinder as well as tagged keywords, summaries, indexes of disclosures, and structures of compounds in recently published scientific documents. Approximately 8,000 journals, technical reports, dissertations, conference proceedings, and new books, available in at least 50 different languages, are monitored yearly, as ...

  2. Contact Us

    Your privacy is important to CAS. More detail about how we use your information is in our privacy policy. Monday 8:00 a.m. - Friday 12:00 a.m. EST (midnight) [email protected]. +1 (800) 753-4227 (North America) +1 (614) 447-3731 (if calling outside of the United States)

  3. About CAS

    This achievement reflects our ongoing commitment to sustainability aligned with our mission as part of the American Chemical Society. As a leader in scientific information solutions, CAS curates, analyzes, and connects the world's published science to accelerate research and development breakthroughs.

  4. Empowering Innovation & Scientific Discoveries

    High-quality data is the lifeblood of today's digital R&D pipeline. Every day, our scientists curate, connect, and analyze the valuable data disclosed in scientific publications from around the world to build the CAS Content Collection™, covering over 150 years of discoveries. Our data underpins all CAS Solutions and can be licensed for ...

  5. Chemical Abstracts Service

    The American Chemical Society designated the Chemical Abstracts Service a National Historic Chemical Landmark in a ceremony at CAS headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, on June 14, 2007. The text of the commemorative plaque reads: Founded in 1907 with the first publication of Chemical AbstractsTM, CAS has provided generations of scientists with ...

  6. Chemical Abstracts Service

    Chemical Abstracts Service - CAS. Address. 2540 Olentangy River Road. Columbus. Ohio, 43202. United States. Phone: +1 800 753-4227. Visit Website Request Information/Quote Download PDF Copy.

  7. Chemical Abstracts Service

    Chemical Abstracts Service. Chemical Abstracts Service. Share this page: Facebook LinkedIn X Pinterest Email. Accept & Close The ACS takes your privacy seriously as it relates to cookies. We use cookies to remember users, better understand ways to serve them, improve our value proposition, and optimize their experience. ... Contact; Help ...

  8. Chemistry.org: Science that Matters: American Chemical Society

    Contact ACS. How can I update my email and address information? ... Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), the world's largest and most comprehensive databases of chemical information, is located in Columbus, OH. ... Chemical Abstracts Service. 2540 Olentangy River Road PO Box 3012 Columbus, OH 43210 Phone: 614-447-3600 Fax: 614-447-3713 ...

  9. Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)

    A global company based in Columbus, Ohio, CAS employs over 1,400 experts who curate, connect, and analyze scientific knowledge to reveal unseen connections. CAS is a division of the American Chemical Society. Facts about Chemical Abstracts Service. Focus : Service.

  10. Chemical Abstracts Service

    CAS Innovation LAB, CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service), a division of the American Chemical Society, Columbus, USA 43202-1505, Lutz Bornmann. Division for Science and Innovation Studies, Administrative Headquarters of the Max Planck Society, Munich, Germany 80539

  11. Chemical Abstracts Service

    Chemical Abstracts Service is an authoritative source for chemical information. The Company provides products and services, solutions for researchers and professional searchers, and support and ...

  12. Chemical Abstracts Service

    Chemical Abstracts Service contact info: Phone number: (614) 447-3600 Website: www.cas.org What does Chemical Abstracts Service do? Founded in 1907, Chemical Abstracts Service is a division of the American Chemical Society.

  13. Chemical Abstracts Service

    Address: 2540 Olentangy River Road, P.O. Box 3012, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA ... Profile: Chemical Abstracts Service offers digital information environment for scientific research and discovery, as well as pathways to published research in the world journal and patent literature. Our products include scifinder, STN family of products, science ...

  14. ISO

    2540 Olentangy River Roa Columbus 43202 OH United States. Tel: +1 614 447 3600 Fax: +1 614 447 3713 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.cas.org/

  15. CAS Content

    Stay abreast of rapidly changing chemical regulations with CAS regulatory resources. Our collection provides the information you need to manufacture, import, export, transport, and use chemical products in key markets across the globe. Covers more than ~417,000 unique chemical substances; Includes information from 150 regulatory inventories and ...

  16. Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)

    This growth has been complemented by CAS's expanding coverage of predicted and experimental property values, spectra, and data tags, to more than 3.8 billion by year-end. CAS patent authority coverage expanded to include Eurasia in 2012. CAS now covers 63 patent authorities worldwide to ensure comprehensive patent information within its ...

  17. PDF Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)

    Review of American Chemical Research. He believed that the American Chemical Society should publish a comprehensive and inclusive separate journal of abstracts, and in 1906 the ACS Council approved publication of Chemical AbstractsTM (CA). The first issue appeared in January 1907, with Noyes as editor. William Noyes' contribution to the

  18. Introduction to the Chemical Literature

    It was designed by Congress to address Article 1 of the United States Constitution: ... Chemical Abstracts Service is one of the most prominent secondary literature providers, specializing in thorough coverage and indexing of the chemistry literature through a variety of systems, including SciFinder and STN (Science & Technology Network). ...

  19. Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, OH

    Business profile of Chemical Abstracts Service, located at 2540 Olentangy Rd., Columbus, OH 43202. Browse reviews, directions, phone numbers and more info on Chemical Abstracts Service. ... Contact name: Robert Massie. Contact title: Executive Director. GPS Longitude:-83.0201443. GPS Latitude: 40.0127533. Places nearby. Chemical Abstracts Service .

  20. Chemical Abstracts

    CASSI (Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index) is the comprehensive and retrospective list of publications that have been indexed by Chemical Abstracts since it began in 1907. It includes journals, books, conferences, and other series, arranged by CA abbreviation. This is the source you use to translate journal title abbreviations into full ...

  21. Chemical Abstracts service centennial: Facts and figures

    The history of the emergence and development of the abstracting journal Chemical Abstracts is considered starting from its first printed issue up to the present time. At present, the well-known Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) offers a wide range of information resources, including such massive databases (databases) as: CA/CAPlus (∼27 million abstracts), the CAS Registry (∼31 million ...

  22. Working at CAS? : r/Columbus

    Working at CAS? So I've generally heard pretty positive things about working at Chemical Abstracts Service over the years and I was thinking about applying to a software engineering position there, but I checked Glassdoor and the reviews have gotten very, very negative over the past year or two. Something about new management at the upper ...

  23. Cas Registry

    A CAS Registry Number is a numeric identifier that can contain up to 10 digits, divided by hyphens into three parts. The right-most digit is a check digit used to verify the validity and uniqueness of the entire number. For example, 58-08-2 is the CAS Registry Number for caffeine.

  24. Safety evaluation of an extension of use of the food enzyme α‐l

    1 INTRODUCTION. Article 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1332/2008 1 provides definition for 'food enzyme' and 'food enzyme preparation'. 'Food enzyme' means a product obtained from plants, animals or micro-organisms or products thereof including a product obtained by a fermentation process using micro-organisms: (i) containing one or more enzymes capable of catalysing a specific ...