Chemistry Courses & Research

REFERENCES is the literature search in SciFinder.

Useful Filters:

1. Document Type - types of artifacts you'll find, such as journal articles, reports, conference proceedings, patents, and more. These will be both primary and secondary sources.
2. Concept - controlled categories in SciFinder. Example: all artifacts about White Wine (not just mentioning white wine) will be labeled with the Concept label of "white wine". Not all topics have a Concept tag.
3. Language - the language of the artifact.
4. Publication Year - set a range to only look at artifacts within specific dates.

PRIMARY

• Brand new information
• Original thinking
• New discoveries
• Direct observation
• Usually peer-reviewed

SECONDARY

• No direct observation
• Discusses and analyzes findings from other researchers

Use quotes to indicate a meaningful phrase:

• "total acid content"
• "white wine"
• "climate change"

Use synonyms for your keywords and key phrases when appropriate:

• total acidity = total acid content
• car = vehicle = automobile

Use Boolean operators (AND, OR) to connect your terms:

• "total acid content" and wine
• ("total acid content" or "total acidity")

Use parentheses around OR statements.

Use the asterisk (on the 8 key) to truncate a word:

• wine* (returns wine, wines winery)

Do searches one step at a time. Layer in key words/phrases and filters, so you know where something goes wrong.