LibGuides: Chemistry: Articles

Recommended Index Databases

SciFinder This link opens in a new window
Search the full Chemical Abstracts database back to 1907.
Updated daily. Requires users to register with a utexas.edu email account. Provides integrated access to the Chemical Abstracts suite of databases with millions of bibliographic records covering the worldwide chemical literature, including patents; as well as over 100 million substance records, with chemical structures, names, synonyms, and associated property data; plus millions of searchable organic reactions. Search by topic, author, chemical identification terms (names, formulas, Registry Numbers), and chemical structures.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Search by keywords, authors, and also for papers that cite earlier papers. 1900-present.
Updated weekly. The Web of Science Core Collection is a group of databases (Science Citation Index Expanded, 1900-present; Social Sciences Citation Index, 1900-present; Arts & Humanities Citation Index, 1975-present) that together cover more than 21,000 journals across all disciplines. The Emerging Sources Citation Index (2005-present) tracks thousands of additional journals that are being considered for inclusion in the main citation indexes. Other files track references from conference proceedings (1990-present) and citations to books (2005-present).
The Web of Science platform currently also provides temporary access to several databases that are not part of the Core Collection, including Biosis Citation Index, Data Citation Index, and Zoological Record.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Search engine indexes full text and citations of millions of digital journal articles, patents, preprints, reports, and other scholarly content. If you use/bookmark this institutional link GS will provide links to articles we have access to.
Google Scholar uses the popular Google search engine to enable searches for scholarly materials such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from broad areas of research. It includes a variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. Google Scholar includes full text and citations.
Use this link to access Google Scholar, and see our Google Scholar Guide for information on using this resource.
If you encounter a warning about the security certificate when using the FindIt@UT tool in Google Scholar, you can learn more about that using this guide.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
Many chemistry-related journals are indexed in MEDLINE and PubMed because of their life science content. PubMed also indexes and links to many post-prints of NIH-funded articles housed in the PubMed Central repository.
Updated weekly. Provides access to over 10 million citations in MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE, and other related databases. Links to the full text articles are provided when available, subject to UT subscription status.
1. Click "Log in" in the top right-hand corner.
2. Chose "more login options".
3. Select "University of Texas at Austin".
4. Login with your UT EID and password.
5. Click on your login and select DASHBOARD.
6. Select NCBI Site Preferences
7. Under PubMed Preferences, select Outside Tool.
8. Select F and scroll down to select Find it@UT.
MEDLINE (Clarivate) This link opens in a new window
Articles from 4500 selected biomedical journals are indexed for MEDLINE using NLM's controlled vocabulary, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). MEDLINE is a subset of the larger, more inclusive PubMed. MEDLINE can also be searched within SciFinder.
Updated monthly. Provides bibliographic indexing from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences. Contains bibliographic citations (e.g., authors, title, and journal reference) and author abstracts from 4,500 biomedical journals published in the United States and 70 foreign countries.
Journal articles are indexed for MEDLINE using NLM's controlled vocabulary, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). Citations are created by the National Library of Medicine, International MEDLARS partners, and cooperating professional organizations.
Corresponds in part to the following print indexes: Index Medicus, Index to Dental Literature, and International Nursing.
INSPEC This link opens in a new window
Indexes many journal and conference publications related to chemical physics, spectroscopy, solid state materials, and physical chemistry.
Updated weekly. Indexes the research literature of physics; electrical engineering and electronics; & computers and control. Offers over 15 million records and strong international coverage. The archive portion, which was formerly separate, is now integrated with the current file.
OSTI.GOV This link opens in a new window
Index to millions of articles and tech reports from the Department of Energy (DOE), with many full text reports.
Updated regularly. Provides bibliographic and full text access to the Department of Energy (DOE) research and development reports in physics, chemistry, materials, biology, environmental sciences, energy technologies, engineering, computer and information science, renewable energy, and other topics.

Finding Open Copies of Paywalled Articles

If UT doesn't have a subscription or other paid access to a restricted journal, you can look for open versions of a paper. These include preprints, post-publication copies, or peer-reviewed accepted manuscripts -- that have been deposited in open, legal repositories. (This is known as "Green Open Access.") You can also contact the author and ask for a copy.

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
In addition to finding the official published version, GS also indexes alternate versions of articles that are available on sites not controlled by the journal itself. Search the article title and these versions should pop right up. Examples include postprints in PubMed Central; preprints, free copies in ResearchGate, etc. (Not all "versions" listed are full text: some are just alternate sources of the bibliographic reference from other databases, e.g. PubMed.)
Google Scholar uses the popular Google search engine to enable searches for scholarly materials such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from broad areas of research. It includes a variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. Google Scholar includes full text and citations.
Use this link to access Google Scholar, and see our Google Scholar Guide for information on using this resource.
If you encounter a warning about the security certificate when using the FindIt@UT tool in Google Scholar, you can learn more about that using this guide.

PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed indexes content posted in PubMed Central, the NIH repository for articles published based on NIH grant funding. Articles are posted in PMC after 12 months embargo and consist of accepted manuscripts and publisher-authorized postprints.
Updated weekly. Provides access to over 10 million citations in MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE, and other related databases. Links to the full text articles are provided when available, subject to UT subscription status.
1. Click "Log in" in the top right-hand corner.
2. Chose "more login options".
3. Select "University of Texas at Austin".
4. Login with your UT EID and password.
5. Click on your login and select DASHBOARD.
6. Select NCBI Site Preferences
7. Under PubMed Preferences, select Outside Tool.
8. Select F and scroll down to select Find it@UT.

NSF Public Access Repsitory
Official repository of NSF-sponsored research. Articles are available publicly after 12-month embargo.
DOE PAGES
PAGES is an open repository of over 65,000 accepted and published journal articles (author manuscripts) resulting from DOE grant funding, analogous to NIH's PubMed Central.

There are browser add-ons that can automatically perform a search for free versions when you land on a paywalled article:

Unpaywall
Search here or install a free browser plugin that will automatically find free versions across thousands of repositories.
Open Access Button
Search here or get the browser extension to find free versions, and request from authors if necessary.
EndNote Click
This browser plug-in looks for PDF copies (from institutional subscription or open access) of an article you've pulled up in your browser or in an index like Google Scholar, and provides a one-click pop-up access path. A free tool (formerly known as Kopernio) from the Web of Science Group and optimized for integration with EndNote.

If you already have a reference:

Chemistry Reference Resolver
Paste in an ACS-style journal reference (Journal, volume, year, pages) and go straight to the article page. (You may hit a paywall.)
SciFinder - Journal search
Open the "Journal" search form and enter parts of the reference that you know, and it will look for matching records in the CAPLUS database.
CASSI Journal Abbreviations
If you have to translate a mysterious abbreviation for a journal title, look it up in the CAS Source Index.