Chemistry
Using Databases
As a student, staff, or faculty member at Macalester, you have access to a wide range of databases. Searching databases can help you to find articles written by expert researchers, specialized resources, and other sources that may or may not be available through a Google search.
Below are some options for searching chemistry literature.
For additional research support, reach out to your subject librarian.
General Science Databases
These databases can also be a great place to start, as they are multidisciplinary, but more focused on the sciences. These can be a great source as you start to look for more specialized research, but can also include some broader perspectives.
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Scopus
An abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature with tools to track, analyze, and visualize research.
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ScienceDirectDatabase of research covering 4 main areas: Physical Sciences and Engineering, Life Sciences, Health Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities. Article abstracts are freely available, but access to full text requires a subscription or pay-per-view purchase.
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Public Library of Science (PLOS)
Original published reports and research in the life sciences and medicine.
See also: All Macalester Databases A-Z
Chemistry Databases
These databases contain specialized research in chemistry. They are most useful when you're doing a deep dive into technical research.
Below are a few of the databases you might find helpful in chemistry research.
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SciFinder-n
Access to chemistry journal literature, patent information, chemical reactions, regulated chemicals, substance information, chemical supplier information, and biomedical literature. To access SciFinder, you must set-up an account from on-campus. Register for an account.
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American Chemical Society Publications
Provides access to full-text journals published by the American Chemical Society.
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Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN)Weekly magazine covering science and technology, business and industry, government and policy, education, and employment aspects of the chemistry field. Browse through the issues from 1998 to present. Published by the American Chemical Society.
Health & Biomedical
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PubMed
Contains publication in the area of health and medicine research. Includes MedLine which records are indexed with NLM's controlled vocabulary, the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®). Links to full-text online holdings are listed where the citations match Macalester Library e-journal resources.
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BioMed CentralAccess to publications including journals across all biomedical fields - from basic life sciences to clinical medicine. All research articles are peer reviewed and, if published, made immediately and freely available.
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MedlinePlusProvides information on diseases and conditions. Includes a medical encyclopedia and dictionary, health information in Spanish, links to thousands of clinical trials, and more.
See also: All Macalester Chemistry Databases
Multidisciplinary Databases
Multidisciplinary databases allow you to search for information on a topic across subject areas. This is often a great way to get started searching for articles or exploring your topic, as the results are not restricted to highly specialized sources.
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Academic Search PremierInterdisciplinary resource with popular, scholarly, and peer-reviewed articles and citations. Includes speeches, newspapers, and polls.
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Google Scholar
Search across a wide range of scholarly literature from around the world. This custom link for Google Scholar includes the Macalester Library code and will display a "MACLINKS FULL TEXT" link next to resources available from Macalester Library. You will also see MACLINKS if you are logged in to the on-campus network. If you are off campus and don't use the above custom link, you can configure Google Scholar to display MACLINKS by customizing your library links settings.
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JSTOR
Large collection of scholarly journals and books from all disciplines, with stronger coverage for the humanities and social sciences. Current issues from journals (the most recent 3-5 years) are generally not available in JSTOR.
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Annual Reviews
Annually synthesizes primary research literature and identifies principal contributions in many disciplines. Full-text available for online titles.
See also: All Macalester Databases A-Z
Datasets & Statistics
Some researchers openly share the data they collect as part of their grant or other requirements. These databases can be helpful in identifying a dataset that can support your research or project.
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National Center for Health Statistics
US health statistics and reports based on several major US health surveys.
See also: Working with Data Guide