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INTERNET RESOURCES

Chemistry sources: The number of sites have grown

C&RL News, November 2000
Vol. 61 No. 10

by Ibironke Lawal

Chemistry bears an essential tie with many diverse subject areas, from agriculture to zoology. It touches every human activity because it deals with the nature of materials, their composition, interaction with other materials, and the environment. It is of great interest whether the materials involved are precious metals used for fine jewelry, polymer used to coat electronic components, drugs used for healing diseases, or the pigments used by a Renaissance painter. Consequently, chemistry is called the ‘central science’. The literature of chemistry is dynamic, complex, and enormous.

Over the past five years Internet resources have grown dramatically. The Internet is now regarded as a stable medium of communication. However, Internet documents are not necessarily evaluated and do not need to comply with any standard. Therefore, intellectual integrity of information posted there is not always guaranteed. More recently, the Internet serves as an effective means of disseminating information about products and services of publishers and online vendors, and of research, teaching, and learning activities of academic institutions, and of government information. This is a select list of useful Internet resources in chemistry and related disciplines worldwide.

Metasites
ChemDex Plus. A database of chemical resources compiled by ChemWeb.com in collaboration with the University of Sheffield and edited by Mark Winter. It contains more than 4,000 browsable Web sites. Each site is reviewed and evaluated by a ChemWeb editor. The arrangement is hierarchical, starting from broad headings to narrow specialized topics. This new interface will eventually expand to include thousands of documented Web sites; reviewed Web sites for selected topics, directories of people, and institutions; and a new ChemWeb conference diary. Access: http://www.chemweb.com/databases/chemdex20a/chemdex20a.exe

Chemistryweb. This Web site is an annotated directory of Internet resources for students, educators, and researchers. Division of Chemistry, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore prepares and maintains this site. It covers ten sections: Directories, Software, USENET/Newsgroups, Listservs, Online Journals, Conferences & Courses, Reference Materials, Selected bibliography, Chemistry Departments, and Teaching Resources. Access: http://www.ssc.ntu.edu.sg:8000/chemweb/htmlj/

Librarians’ index to the Internet – Chemistry. The librarians’ index to the Internet is a searchable annotated subject directory of more than 6,600 Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries. Criteria for selection are content, authority, scope, and design. Access: http://www.lii.org/

Links for chemists. The University of Liverpool and its department of chemistry designed and manage this site. It indexes more than 7,500 chemistry Web resources in more than 60 categories. It provides links to university chemistry departments, including those of international institutions. It also indexes sites for chemical jobs/careers, chemical companies/industry, chemical literature and publishing, chemical information, chemistry software, and organizations. Access:

MetaChem. A searchable and browsable catalog of Internet chemistry resources. Provides access to electronic information resources of all kinds and links to document delivery and print information through library catalogs. Australian Defense Force Academy, the University of New South Wales, and collaborators maintain this site using metadata technology from the Distributed Systems Technology Center of the Australian Government. Users have the benefit of evaluated, classified and indexed entries in this database. The Research Infrastructure Program from the Australian Research Council provides funds for the MetaChem project. Access: http://metachem.ch.adfa.edu.au/index.html.

Rolf Claessen’s Chemistry Index. A detailed listing of chemistry and chemistry-related sites covering categories, such as companies, databases, journals, jobs, and societies. It features top 5% of chemistry sites each month. Selection criteria are content and design. Access: http://www.claessen.net/chemistry

Selected Internet Resources for Chemistry (SIRCh). An extensive collection of prime chemistry Internet resources. Gary Wiggins of Indiana University compiled and maintains this site as a major part of the cheminfo site. He organizes the resources into five functional groups, Communication in chemistry, How and where to start, How and where to search: general, How and where to search: specialized, and Miscellaneous. Access: http://www.indiana.edu/~cheminfo/cis_ca.html

Yahoo – Chemistry. This site indexes more than 1,200 resources in 39 categories in all areas of chemistry and related disciplines. It also provides links and annotations to sites labeled "most popular sites." However, it does not specify the criteria for the selection of these sites. Access: http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Chemistry/

Chemie.de Information Service. Chemie.de is a collection of chemistry resources in two languages, German and English. The German Academic Network Organization supports this resource with funds from the German federal Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Access: http://www.chemie.de/

ChemGuide. A powerful search engine that enables users to carry out full text searching on more than 1 million English and German Web pages on more than 1,000 chemistry Web servers worldwide. This is a product of Fiz Chemie of Berlin. There is free access to all the records through ChemWeb (http://www.chemweb.com/). Access: http://www.chemweb.com/databases/chemguide/chemguide.html

Chemistry Index. A rich collection of chemistry and related sites from online journals, software, to chemistry teaching and learning aids, chemicals, safety, magnetic resonance-NMR, physical constants chemists’ address/phone book, and e-mail. The site features both English and German languages. The department of biology, chemistry, and pharmacy of the Institute of Chemistry Freie Universität of Berlin prepared and maintains this index. Access: http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/chemistry/index_en.html

Databases
Beilstein Abstracts. Beilstein Abstracts is one of the world’s most important sources of organic chemistry information. Users can access titles, abstracts, and citations from more than 140 top journals in organic and related chemistry published from 1980 to the present. There are currently 600,000 articles in the database. It is available free on the Web to Chemweb members (registration is free). Through Chemweb, there is a transparent access to the abstracts of any bibliographic citation in any database or journal that has been enhanced by LitLink/Pro (dynamic linking system). The abstracts database is also integrated in Beilstein Crossfire system (). Access: http://www.chemweb.com/databases/bel/badisplay.exe?jcode=belabs

Analytical Abstracts. Analytical Abstracts from the Royal Society of Chemistry is the premier specialist database for analytical chemistry information covering new techniques and applications. Contains more than 257,000 items from more than 250 journals and books. Updates are monthly with about 1,200 items. The database contains details of methods and results written from an analytical perspective covering relevant papers in more than 12 languages. It has a unique indexing system that facilitates easy retrieval of relevant analytical information. Access: http://www.chemweb.com/databases#2

Chemical Abstracts. Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) (), a division of the American Chemical Society (ACS ) produces the world’s largest and most comprehensive databases of chemical information, chemical abstracts, and associated databases. Collectively, the CAS databases include more than 19 million abstracts of chemistry and chemistry-related literature and patents and more than 26 million substance records. It covers all areas of chemistry and related disciplines from 1907 to the present. CAS databases are offered on the Internet in two interfaces: a user-friendly Web interface () and STN on the Web (), a command-based Web interface. Access to any of the interfaces is through subscription.

PubScience. PubScience provides users the capability to search across a large compendium of peer reviewed journal literature with a focus on the physical sciences and other disciplines of interest to the Department of Energy (DOE). Developed by DOE's Office of Scientific and Technical Information and made available to the public in partnership with the government Printing Office (GPO). More than 30 publishers are represented. This is one of the few free literature searching sites available on the Web. Access: http://pubsci.osti.gov/

Service-oriented sites
ChemPort. Connects to full text documents on the Web. Its features include direct links from databases like Medline, Embase, Biosis, and Inspec to the corresponding electronic full text at publisher’s sites and patent offices; single article sales of documents in portable document format (pdf) for some journals; customized links to in-house library Web-server application; convenient access to document delivery service; forward via e-mail the bibliographic information of the citation to the address of choice. More than 70 trade, society, government publishers, and patent offices worldwide participate in providing access to full-text information. Access: http://www.chemport.org/.


Chemweb.com. This Web resource is regarded as the worldwide club for the chemical community. Access is through free membership. Its features include free structure searching, live 3D molecules, full-text searching in many trade and society journals, conferences and meetings information, and a browsable Web index. Full-text access to some journals is fee based. In the "people and news" section, users can attend virtual lectures, find a job, advertise for staff, and contact other members. This site also offers Beilstein abstracts free to its members. Access: http://www.chemweb.com/

Preprints
Chemistry Preprint. Though it came a decade after its counterpart, the Los Alamos Physics Preprint, the Chemistry Preprint sever represents a new initiative for the chemistry community. It is a permanent Web archive and distribution medium for research articles in the field of chemistry and allied sciences. Modeled after the Los Alamos preprint server, it is recognized by open archive and delivered by chemweb.com. Access: http://preprint.chemweb.com/

PrePRINT Network. PrePRINT Network is a searchable gateway to preprint servers of the Department of Energy. It deals with scientific and technical disciplines of concern to DOE. Such disciplines include physics, materials, and chemistry, as well as portions of biology, environmental sciences, and nuclear medicine. Users can search one or a collection of existing preprint servers with a single query. Access: http://www.osti.gov/preprint/

Technical reports
NASA Technical Reports. Contains reports of about 20 government agencies, some of which are full text. Contains bibliographic citations to worldwide aerospace-related information on aeronautics, astronautics, chemistry and materials, engineering, geosciences, life sciences, mathematical and computer sciences, physics, social sciences, and space sciences, published from 1915 to the present. Access: http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/NTRS

GrayLit Network: A science portal of technical reports. This is the world’s most comprehensive portal to federal gray literature. Federal agencies participating in this project are Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Aeronautics and Space Agency. Access: http://www.osti.gov/graylit/

DOE Information Bridge. Like PubScience and GrayLit, this is a product of the Office of Scientific and Technical Information of the Department of Energy (DOE). It is a research resource for scientists and students. It offers access to full text and bibliographic records of DOE research and development reports in chemistry, physics, biology, environmental sciences, engineering, and other subject areas. Free access to this resource is possible through Government Printing Office. Access: http://www.osti.gov/bridge

Patents
Patents are an integral part of chemical literature. In addition to the ones listed below, the metasites cover patents also.

Chemical Patent Searching. This is a well-organized list of important patent information, featuring free patent searching sites, sites that need registration, commercial patent databases, patent classification, country, and kind codes. Access: http://www.indiana.edu/~cheminfo/ca_cps.html.

Chemical Patents Plus. A product of the American Chemical Society, it gives full text of all classes of patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office from 1975 to the present, with complete images from 1995 to the present. It is searchable by CAS Registry number or subject. Searching is free although some fees apply to some displays. Access: http://casweb.cas.org/chempatplus/.

Dagostini Patent Translation Service. Offers free five-language patent classification searching. Provides links to patent offices. Languages covered are English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Patents could be sent by e-mail for translation into any of five languages, for a fee.
Access: http://www.dagostini.it/

Intellectual Property (IP) Mall. This is an internationally acclaimed resource providing information and links to the most valuable online resources in the world. It is the product of Franklin Pierce Law Center’s John Cavicchi and Site Surfer Publishing’s Bill Shaw. Access: http://www.ipmall.fplc.edu/. An affiliated site Patent Searching on the Web has an extensive list of patent offices worldwide. (http://www.ipmall.fplc.edu/ipcorner/bp98/boxell.htm).

Intellectual Property Network. The Delphion Intellectual Property Network (IPN) has evolved into a premier Web site for searching, viewing, and analyzing patent documents. The IPN provides you with free access to a variety of data collections and patent information including: U.S. patents, European patents and patent applications, PCT application data from the World Intellectual Property Office, Patent Abstracts of Japan, INPADOC family and legal status data, and IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletins. IPN offers alternative searches by patent number, boolean text, and advanced text that allow for multiple field searching. All collections are cross referenced and forward and backward linked to all other referencing documents for immediate access. Delphion acquired IBM’s existing Intellectual Property Network as the foundation for an online marketplace that will enable users to search, analyze, buy, sell, and license millions of patents and other intellectual property across a variety of industries. Access: http://www.patents.ibm.com/

Reference tools/data/spectra
Finding chemical data poses challenges of its own. Sometimes the task could be compared to looking for a needle in a haystack. The Internet does make it possible for specific information to be readily and easily accessible now than ever before. The following are some of the reliable sources of data on the Internet.

Web Elements. This is one of the most up-to-date and complete periodic tables on the Web. Mark Winter of University of Sheffield manages this interactive table. A click on any element leads users to comprehensive data information about that element. Winter promises a search option in the next version. Access: http://www.webelements.com/Webelements.html

Basics of NMR. An electronic book authored by Joseph Hornack a professor of Chemistry and Imaging Science at Rochester Institute of Technology. There are 13 chapters, the first of which gives background materials and underlying information for the beginner. The later chapters are for more advanced students. There is a free glossary and a fee-based software package. Access: http://www.cis.rit.edu/htbooks/nmr/nmr-main.htm

ChemFinder. This is a quick fact-finding database. It is searchable by chemical name, molecular formula, molecular weight, CAS registry number, and chemical structure. It offers free download for ChemDraw, a structure drawing software. There is a list of the sites indexed, a glossary of terms used and answers to frequently asked questions. Access: http://www.chemfinder.com/

The National Cancer Institute Database. A database of more than 200,000 molecules with anti-HIV and anti-cancer assay data. It is searchable by chemical name and CAS Registry number. Access: http://nci.chemfinder.com/nci99/index.asp

NIST Webbook. A gateway to the data collection of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Provides access to the data compiled and distributed by NIST under the Standard Reference Data program. It contains thermochemical data for more than 5,000 organic and small inorganic compounds, reaction thermochemistry data for more than 8,000 reactions, Infra Red spectra for more than 7,500 compounds, Mass spectra for more than 10,000 compounds, UV/Vis spectra for more than 400 compounds, electronic and vibrational spectra to more than 3,000 compounds, constants of diatomic molecules for more than 600 compounds, and ion energetics data for more than 14,000 compounds.
Access: http://www.webbook.nist.gov/

ThermoDex. Thermodex is an index of selected thermodynamic data handbooks. This site contains records for printed handbooks and compilations of thermodynamic and thermophysical data for chemical compounds. Type of compound and/or property could be used to search, and the database will return a list of handbooks that might contain the data. Access: http://thermodex.lib.utexas.edu/.

SDBS – Integrated Spectral Data Base System for Organic Compounds. Offers free access to six different spectra. The spectra are EI mass, 1H decoupled 13C NMR, 1H NMR pattern (90 and/or 400 MHz), 1H NMR parameter (300 MHz pattern generated), FT-IR, laser-Raman, and ESR. Download is limited to 50 per day. The National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research of Tokyo, Japan, the producer of this database, measured most of the spectra. There are almost 100,000 spectra information in the database. Access: http://www.aist.go.jp/RIODB/db004/menu-e.html

Electronic journals
Each of the indexes and directories under the category Metasites features online versions of print journals of trade and society publishers. The service-oriented sites such as Chemport (http://www.chemport.org/) and ChemWeb (www.chemWeb.com) also offer access to electronic journals. Downloading or viewing full text is free to the journal subscribers but fee-based to non-subscribers.

Online Only Journals. This is a collection of approximately 50 online only journals that the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) monitors. Access: http://info.cas.org/EO/ejourn2.html

Commerical source of supply of chemicals
Chemists are inevitably linked to commercial sources for the supply of chemicals and laboratory equipment and supplies. The Internet has fostered the growth of commercial activities over the past several years. Chemical industries are no exception. Information about chemicals and related products and services are now readily available to potential customers worldwide.

ChemACX. ChemACX.com is a chemical searching and buying site. Offers scientists the most powerful and convenient way to locate and purchase chemicals. Represents a comprehensive online catalog containing the most up-to-date product information from more than 210 of the top chemical suppliers serving the research community. Searchable by chemical name or (CAS) registry number, chemical formula, molecular weight, chemical property, and chemical structure. Access: http://www.chemacx.com/

Sigma-Aldrich. Sigma-Aldrich family of chemical companies develops, manufactures, and distributes the broadest range of high-quality biochemicals, organic chemicals, chromatography products, and diagnostic reagents available in the world. The services on this site include Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), product information of more than 200,000 products, and career opportunities. It is searchable by substructure, chemical abstracts service registry number, and browsable by brand name and area of interest. Access: http://www.sigma-aldrich.com/saws.nsf/Home?OpenFrameset

Associations, organizations, and societies
American Chemical Society (ACS). American Chemical Society is a 161,000 members strong professional body that seeks to promote the public’s perception and understanding of chemistry and the chemical sciences and assist the federal government with advice on scientific and technological issues involving the chemical sciences. Items on their homepage include career information, meetings, programs, and services. Access: http://www.acs.org/.

Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). Royal Society of Chemistry is the counterpart of ACS in the United Kingdom. With 46,000 members, it is a major publisher and provider of chemical information. Like its counterpart, it supports teaching of chemistry at all levels, organizes meetings, and is a leader in communicating science to the public. Access: http://www.rsc.org/

ChemSoc. This is an online directory of worldwide chemistry societies. It has the unique indexing feature that allows searching of individual sites without leaving ChemSoc. The directory lists the names, addresses, and contact details of all the major national chemistry societies including Web address for those that have Web sites. Access: http://www.chemsoc.com/

Chemical information resources and instructional materials
ChemInfo. Gary Wiggins of Indiana University compiled and maintains this resource. Compilation started before the Internet came into existence. He expanded, updated, and adapted it for the Internet by 1997. There is a wealth of resources on this site, from databases to chemistry course materials to the archives of the chminf-l listserv. Access: http://www.indiana.edu/~cheminfo/

Clearing House for Chemical Information Instructional Materials (CCIIM). Collects and distributes items that are developed by librarians, chemists, and commercial organizations to teach the use of chemical information sources. Access: http://www.indiana.edu/~cheminfo/cciimnro.html

Other Chemical Information Resources. This is a collection of resources that the Division of Chemical Information, American Chemical Society manages. Access: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/cinf/selected_links.html

Teaching Chemical Information: Tips and Techniques. This valuable resource is a product of the Chemical Information Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS). It is the resource guide for a workshop that members of the division develop and teach at the National Meetings of the ACS. Access: http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/swain/workshop/cont.html

News/newsletters/magazines
ChemNews.com. This is a product of CambridgeSoft.com. Chemnews.com is a prime Internet news publication serving more than 250,000 chemists worldwide. It keeps the chemical community informed on the latest events in the Internet chemistry world as well as educates chemists on new and existing products. It is available in four languages--English, French, German, and Japanese. It has an e-mail edition, chemists@Internet. Access: http://www.chemnews.com/

Alchemist. This is a ChemWeb.com, Webzine for the latest chemistry news. Access: http://www.chemweb.com/alchem/2000/homepage/hp_current.html

Chemistry. Published by the American Chemical Society for its members, student affiliates, and those interested in learning more about chemical sciences and the American Chemical Society. It is called the chemistry tabloid. It is published quarterly with each issue packed with short and moderately long informative articles. Access: http://www.acs.org/Chemistry

Chemistry newsgroups and discussion lists
A list of general and specialized newsgroups and discussion list s featured under ‘Communication in Chemistry’ on the cheminfo site. Access: http://www.indiana.edu/~cheminfo/ca_cncl.html

Chemical Information Sources Discussion List Chminf-l. A virtual reference desk staffed with some of the world’s most knowledgeable people. It features frequently, announcements of new chemistry reference products and services. There is an archive of all messages posted since 1991 on the cheminfo page, http://listserv.indiana.edu/archives/chminf-l.html. Gary Wiggins of Indiana University is the moderator. Subscribe: chminf-l@listserv.indiana.edu

Safety
Materials Safety Data Sheets (MSDS). Contains approximately 250,000 Materials Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) files, from the United States Government Department of Defense MSDS database, a mirror data from University of Vermont and the Cornell University. It has an efficient searching interface. Access: http://msds.pdc.cornell.edu/msdssrch.asp

Vermont SIRI MSDS. This is a searchable database of more than 100,000 Material Safety Data Sheets. The objective of this site is to make safety information as easily and universally accessible as possible. It replaces thousands of paper MSDS indexes at individual worksites with a universal online archive. The archive is searchable by chemical name, chemical trade name, and Chemical Abstract Service registry number. There are mirror sites at the University of Florida http://siri.org/and University of California at Davis http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/msds/. Provides links to other Internet MSDS and hazardous chemical archives. Access: http://hazard.com/msds/

About the Author
Ibironke Lawal is engineering and science librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond; e-mail: iolawal@vcu.edu