Teaching Chemical Information:
Tips and Techniques

— March 1998 —

Science Citation Index: Why Teach?

Why search (and teach) SCI? Four main reasons:

1. Find articles on a subject — based on words in article titles in journals covered by SCI.
   • Does not do extensive indexing CA does.
   • Useful to compare and contrast a new index/information source with one students already know.
2. Locate articles by authors.
   • Often appears more quickly than in CA.
   • Covers Abstracts of Papers Presented at ACS Meetings, which CA only began in 1996.#
3. Locate articles that have cited, in their footnotes, a given article after it was published (i.e. Citation searching).
   Value of “citation searching”:
   • This is an excellent and unique way to extend a search forward in time.
   • Determine who has done research on a topic since publication of a specific paper.
   • Has this method been improved?
   Select a seminal article, or one that is especially useful. Search on the first author, only. Articles as old as 40 years are still cited — ex. articles by Einstein, Linus Pauling (bonds, Vitamin C, etc.) are still cited in 1995).
4. Locate “related” articles in CD-ROM and some online versions. “Related” articles share the same footnotes, so are likely to be on the same topic.
   Also, identify:
   • Review articles
   • Author’s address

Because SCI covers approximately 3,000 of the most important journals in all science, engineering, math, and some medical areas, it is an excellent source for interdisciplinary topics.

Teaching technique:

• Students understand citation searching more readily if a sample article of interest to them is selected. Bring article to class and comment on the technique of following up on footnotes. Then, by checking this article as a Cited Article, can locate more recent articles on that topic.
• Sample practice questions are attached.

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