CHEM 313: Synthetic Applications in Chem: Reference Searching

Save references or reference sets from your search results by using the bookmark icon. Navigate to saved references by clicking the four dots at the top of the page.

• Save selected references to project folders by either clicking the folder icon at the top right corner of a reference, or select as many references as you want, adding them with the larger folder icon at the top of the page.
• Navigate to your projects by clicking the four dots at the very top of your search results.

• As of September 2025, you can use natural language to query SciFinder. Below are some examples of queries:
  • Papers by Alber Einstein about mdr inhibitors
  • How do fireflies produce light through a chemical reaction?
• You can also put together a more traditional database query with keywords and/or author names
  • Use the "Advanced Search" module to easily craft a query using keywords and operators
  • See the "Literature Searching" section of the libguide for more information on constructing search queries and using boolean operators
• You may need to toggle into the "References" module after your initial search in order to see more relevant results

Explore aspects of a reference by clicking the title or any of the boxes under the title in the search results:

• Full Text  - Various options bring you to the library catalog, or to the publisher's website via the DOI
• Substances - Explore substances related to the reference.
  • Click any substance panel to pull up a pop-up window where you can get more details, including information on related reactions, synthesis, and references.
  • Click "Get Substance Details" in the pop-up substance window to go to the CAS Registry entry where you can find key physical and experimental properties
• Reactions - Explore reactions related to the reference. Some references may have no related reactions indexed.
  • View experimental protocols, including linked reagents and solvents
• Citing (compass) - Explore a citation map for this reference.
  • Explore references that are cited by the root document (backward citation chaining)
  • Explore references citing the root document (forward citation chaining)

Look to the left-hand side of your results set to filter or exclude by a number of different facets

• Search within results to filter or exclude by chosen query
• Choose "Filter by" or "Exclude" under Filter Behavior
• Some helpful facets:
  • Document Type (Ex. Exclude patents)
  • Publication year (Choose a desired date range)
  • Organization (See top 5 organizations publishing in your results set)
  • Concept (Ex. Search polymers to see all types that have been indexed in results set)
  • ***TIP: Click the "View All" link under a particular facet to see the full range of options. This is particularly helpful when using the concept facets.