SciFinder Web and SciFinder Scholar

We are currently monitoring user "turnaways" from SciFinder Web. If you cannot access SciFinder Web because too many people are logged in, please let us know.

SciFinder is the largest and most comprehensive index of chemical information:

• 30 million references to journal articles, patents, conference proceedings, technical reports and other materials (Chemical Abstracts); 45 million organic and inorganic substances, with 80% of the substances having at least one associated property (CAS Registry); 17 million single and multi-step reactions (CASREACT).
  
  
• These three databases are interconnected. For example, you can start with a substance record in the CAS Registry, then look for reactions in CASREACT where your substances plays a specific or any role, or jump to Chemical Abstracts to explore the article and patent literature for your substance.
• SciFinder is a core reference database for all areas of chemistry and biochemistry, as well as materials science, chemical engineering and nanotechnology. It's also excellent for the biomedical sciences, physics, environmental science, and other engineering disciplines.

UCSD currently offers 2 ways to get to SciFinder, and we encourage you to set up both.

• SciFinder Web (introduced in 2008). Complete the one-time registration using your ucsd.edu email address, then accept the confirmation from CAS (which may go to your spam folder). Then go to https://scifinder.cas org/ and login with the username and password you set up. You must login each time you use SciFinder Web.
• SciFinder Scholar 2007 "Client." Download the client software from the UC SciFinder site and install it on your computer (Windows users have to download 2 files). Then launch SciFinder Scholar from your computer; there is no login requirement for the client.

Differences Between SciFinder Web and SciFinder Scholar

Some Other Important Things to Know About SciFinder

• The references searching also includes MEDLINE (aka PubMed), another 18 million references from biomedical journal articles. After you run your search, you can remove the duplicate references that also appear in Chemical Abstracts.
• To use the structure editor in SciFinder Web, you may be prompted to update the Java plugin for your web browser. The first time you open the structure editor, it may take a few minutes for it to load.
• You can import molfiles (*.mol) from ChemDraw and Symyx Draw into the SciFinder structure editor, or draw structures within the editor. For reactions, the structures will import but not the reaction attributes. You can also save structures you've drawn to reuse in future SciFinder searches.
• Also in the CAS Registry: 2 million experimental properties and 1 billion predicted properties. This includes 23.8 million predicted proton NMR spectra and more than 713,000 experimental spectra (more than 400,000 NMR; the rest are IR and mass spectra, plus a small number of Raman spectra).
• If you want to export references into EndNote or RefWorks, select the references and click Export. For file type, select Tagged Format (*.txt).
• From the CAS Registry you can also access databases for commercial suppliers and regulatory information.
• With such a small number of SciFinder Web seats, we are monitoring the "turnaways" when you cannot get in because we've reached the maximum number of concurrent users. If this happens, try back in a little while (or switch over to the SciFinder Scholar client), and please contact the Chemistry Librarian.

Training and Tutorials

• How To Guides (SciFinder Web)
  Step-by-step guides to help you with all of the major features in SciFinder. You can also access an extensive set of help files within your SciFinder session. There are also strategies for intermediate topics: small-molecule searching, polymer chemistry and synthetic chemistry.
  • How To Guides and Strategies for SciFinder Scholar 2007
• Tutorials (SciFinder Web)
  Short recorded sessions on searching references, substances and reactions, plus several intermediate topics.
• CAS e-Seminars
  More tutorials on specific SciFinder topics. Register for an upcoming event, or watch a previously recorded one. If you want to work in a live session of SciFinder Web with a CAS/SciFinder specialist available to answer your questions, consider a CAS Virtual Lab session in the Training Center.
• Getting Started with SciFinder Scholar 2007
  Guides for Windows and OS X

For questions, concerns or comments about SciFinder, or to schedule training (individual consultations, research groups, classes):

Teri Vogel, Chemistry Librarian
534-1216 | tmvogel@ucsd.edu

Friendly URL: http://scilib.ucsd.edu/howto/guides/scifinder.html
Author: Teri Vogel (tmvogel@ucsd.edu)
Page last updated: April 2, 2009