Teaching Chemical Information:
Tips and Techniques

— August 1998 —

Chemical Abstracts (Print): Subject Sections

• For ease of browsing, abstracts are grouped by subject area.
• Currently there are 80 subject sections, divided into five broad groups.
  • Biochemistry
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Macromolecular Chemistry
  • Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
  • Physical, Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry
• CAS web site provides details on the sections.
• Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry used to come out in odd-numbered weeks.
  Macromolecular Chemistry, Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and Physical, Inorganic and Analytical Chem. used to come in even-numbered weeks.
  Now, abstracts are added in all sections each week.
• Cross-references are used where a given abstracts might appear in more than one section.
• Subject sections change with time to reflect current research.
• Subject Coverage Manual gives a detailed definition of each section, and a table of changes over the years.
• Some online versions allow searching by Section.

Grace Baysinger, Head Librarian and Bibliographer
Swain Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Library, Stanford University Libraries
graceb@stanford.edu