The UST Libraries Chemistry Subject Guide serves as a starting point for chemistry research by recommending sources for background information, books, UST proprietary electronic databases,  recommended web sites, and other print  and electronic resources.

 The intent of this exercise is to gain experience using scholarly Chemistry Literature sources to retrieve  information on a topic.  Internet search engines e.g. Google, Yahoo, etc. and Wikipedia may retrieve some reliable and valid scientific information but for a complete search of the Chemical Literature, you must use library resources.

1. Choose two partners.

2.    Select a topic and identify the key words.

There are four steps in the research process:

1. Thesis or topic statement
All research begins with a topic statement. If you don't know what you are looking for, you will not recognize it when you find it.  The topic statement should be specific and brief.  As you examine the resources you may either broaden or narrow your topic. Choose a Chemical topic of personal interest to you:

 

 
2. Identify keywords
You will use these to locate material on your topic. Check  Nomenclature Resources  Note synonyms for any chemicals in your topic statement:

 

 

3.  Gather Material 

3.  Gather material using the resources from each of the categories listed under Resources for the Chemical Literature Research Project on  the Chemical Literature Research Project web page to gather material on your topic.

4. Evaluate and select the best material
After you have gathered your resources select the best books, articles and web sites using the following six criteria for evaluating resources:  

• Authority
  Who is responsible for the work? (author, editor)
  What are their qualifications?     (degrees, associations, affiliations)

• Currency    (When was it written and updated?)

• Coverage
       What is the focus of the work?
       What aspects are covered and not covered?

• Accuracy
       Are there references available for cross checking?
       (bibliographic citations)
       Are sources of information listed for factual data?

• Objectivity
       Are biases clearly stated? (political, ideological or funding)
       Are affiliations clearly noted?
       Who is the intended audience?
       Is there an introduction that explains these points?

• Relevancy
       Is it primary or secondary research?

       
4. Prepare a short 5-minute presentation on your topic citing the resources (books, encyclopedias, handbooks, journal literature, and web sites) used.

5. Give the presentation

Resources for the Chemical Literature Research Project 

 From the following resources locate material background material on your topic:
Encyclopedias, Handbooks and Treatises are excellent sources for background information.
Cite general background articles:

 

Locate Books on your topic:  
CLICnet is the database of books in CLIC libraries. WorldCat contains more than 62 million bibliographic records and 1 billion holdings contributed by more than 9,000 libraries around the world.

Information Need to Cite books: 

Author(s):____________________________________________________________________

Title:________________________________________________________________________

Place of Publication:____________________________________________________________

Publisher:____________________________________Date:____________________________ 

To locate the book use the LC Call Number _______________________________

 

 Locate Journal articles on your topic:
 Central Search  searches across multiple resources, a type of all-in-one search.  Select a Chemistry from the list of subjects to locate journal articles related to your topic:
  

Information Needed to Locate and Cite Journal Articles   

Article Authors):__________ ____________________________________________________
  
 
Article Title: _________________________________________________________________
  
 
Journal Title: ________________________________________________________________  
 
Issue Date:____________________________________
   
Volume: ____ Issue:(often in brackets) ___  Article pages (e.g.25-39):_____________
 

 Use  the Journals A-Z list  to determine if the article is available in either print or electronic format at St. Thomas. 

If UST does not own an electronic online or print version of the journal article, you may request a copy of the articles from another library through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).  If you are not registered as an  ILLiad user fill out the form on the ILLiad Log in Screen and proceed to request the article using the information listed above.  There usually is no charge but if the article must be requested from a library in another state there may be a charge.  They will notify you before the request is made.

 

Locate Chem Web Sites on your topic:

Finding other chemistry web sites not listed above:
Anyone can have a web site.  If you find what you need on Google fine.  But Google does not search everything on the Internet.  Google only searches the web pages in the Google database.  If you don't find what you want on Google try searching Dogpile.  Dogpile searches several search engines at once.

Use the keywords from your topic statement.

1.      Check the Dogpile results for non-Google hits.

2.      Select a web site that looks good.

3.      Answer the following questions.

1.      Can you tell who is responsible for the web page?  

2.      What are their credentials?    

3.      Would you use this Web site for research? 

4.      Are there additional links to pursue?

5.      When the page was last updated?

 

For each web site note the following information to cite it:

Author, Moderator, or other responsible person or organization.

Date of publication:

Title of the site:

URL:

Date of Access:

 

Citing Resources
All research sources should be identified and cited in your research report/paper whether they are print resources, electronic articles or Web sites.  Not only does it enable others, as well as yourself, to find the source listed, but it also gives credit to the person whose work you quoted or paraphrased, or whose ideas you incorporated into your own report. 

When you do research for a paper, write down all the necessary information needed to locate the material in a citation format.  When accessing Internet resources, be sure to WRITE DOWN the URL.

For additional assistance with your chemical literature research, contact:Earl Belisle , or 651-962-5004 to answer a question or to set up a chemical literature research consultation appointment.

September, 19th, 2008
EMB