American Chemical Society
Teaching Chemical Information:
Tips and Techniques
— March 1998 —
University of Scranton: Chemistry 388: Introduction to Research in Chemistry
Syllabus — 1995
Lecture 1: Intro to Chemical Research (Woolsey)
- Definitions and Concepts of Research
- Research in Chemistry
- Ethics
- Policies Affecting Research
- Where is Research Conducted
- Costs Associated with Research
- How is Researched Financed
- R & D Budgets
Lecture 2: Chemistry as a Profession (Woolsey)
- What do Chemists do
- Employment Opportunities
- Salaries for Chemists
- Who does Chemical Research
- How to Learn to do Research
- How to Get Research Experience
- Qualifications for Research
- In What Fields to do Research
- How to Find out about Research Underway
Lecture 3: The Chemical Literature (Woolsey)
- Dissemination of Research Results
- Introduction to the Chemical Literature
- The Primary Literature — Journal Characteristics
- The Secondary Literature
- Tertiary Sources — Textbooks
- Indexes
Lecture 4: The Chemical Library (Woolsey)
- Introduction
- Organization/Cataloging
- Photocopying/Copyrights
- Journal Citation
- Library Search System — ODIN
- Tour of Library
- Demonstration of ODIN
Assignment No. 1: Location of materials in Library
Lecture 5: Chemical Abstracts (Woolsey)
- Introduction
- The Abstracts
- Chemical Titles
- CASSI
- The Registry Handbook
Lecture 6: Chemical Abstracts Indexes (Woolsey)
- Collective Indexes
- Index Guide
- General Subject Index
- Chemical Substances Index
- Author Index
- Ring Index
- Formula Index
- Patent Index
- Search Routines
Assignment No. 2: Location of information in Chemical Abstracts
Lecture 7: Literature Searches (Woolsey)
- Uses of the Chemical Literature
- How to do a Literature Search
- Science Citation Index
- Browsing
- CHEMINTOSH/CHEMWINDOW
Assignment No. 3: Hands-on CHEMINTOSH/CHEMWINDOW drawings
Lecture 8: Organic & Inorganic Literature (Woolsey and Abrahamson)
- Specific sources for each field
Assignment No. 4: Write an Abstract of a journal article
Lecture 9: Physical & Analytical Literature (Thomasson and Pierce)
- Specific sources for each field
Lecture 10: Preparing & Giving a Seminar (Woolsey)
- Searching and Reading
- Organizing Information
- The Written Abstract
- The Oral Presentation
Assignment No. 5: Prepare Seminar
Lecture 11: Databases and Searches (Pierce)
Lecture 12: Structure-Based Searches (Woolsey)
- Introduction — using Registry File and CA File
- Search Types
- Complete Name
- Exact Structure
- Molecular Formula
- Partial Name
- Partial Structure
- Examples using real, live searches using computer and view-screen
Assignment No. 6: On-line searches using STN Mentor/Overview
Lecture 13: Laboratory Safety; Chemical Wastes (Abrahamson)
Lecture 14 & 15: (All course faculty)
- Meet to hear 10-minute seminars from each student. Entire faculty present for grading of the presentations.
List of Assignments — 1995
Lecture 4
Assignment No. 1: Location of journals, books and articles using the ODIN system and the library
Lecture 6
Assignment No. 2: Location of items using the CA printed version
Lecture 7
Assignment No. 3: Drawing structures using either CHEMINTOSH or CHEMWINDOW
Lecture 8
Assignment No. 4: Preparation of an Abstract for CA
Lecture 10
Assignment No. 5: Final term project assignment for each student with due date of April 17:
- For the project present a ten-minutes oral report to the class during one of the last two class periods.
- Prepare for the class a single page handout which is an abstract of your findings. The abstract must include chemical structures drawn with CHEMINTOSH or CHEMWINDOW and the abstract must be typewritten in abstract format. (The abstract is due on April 17 prior to the seminar presentation).
Lecture 12
Assignment No. 6: Simulated on-line search using STN