Research Guides: Chem 105a/107a: General Chemistry: Catalog Search or Database Search

Catalog Search

The library catalog is useful for searching books, e-books, journals, DVDs, CDs, and other materials owned by USC Libraries.

Catalog Search

WorldCat

WorldCat is a catalog listing library items at participating institutions across the globe. Many times, if you are trying to find an item that USC does not own, WorldCat is a reliable place to look to see if any library owns the item. From there you can place a request via interlibrary loan (ILL).

WorldCat

General Science Databases

Databases are useful for searching for journal articles, newspaper articles, magazine articles, patents, etc. Most times when you use a database, you will be doing topic searching. The science database listed below, Web of Science, is a very powerful tool to search across various disciplines, journals, and years.

Topic searching is only as good as the topic being entered. Before you click search, utilize Boolean terms, like AND, OR, and NOT, to help refine your search. After clicking search, use refine results tools to help narrow down the number of citations.

Scopus This link opens in a new window
Large abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature in science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Includes bibliometrics tools to track, analyze and visualize research.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Interdisciplinary collection of journal articles, conference proceedings, and books. Collection of seven online database: Conference Proceedings Citation Index, Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Index Chemicus, Current Chemical Reactions, and Book Citation Index. Coverage is 1900-present.

Chemistry Databases

SciFinder This link opens in a new window
Articles, patents, and white papers describing chemicals. Includes information on structures, reactions, compounds, drug development, and manufacturing. Requires separate login. Go to USC's create an account page to register.
Reaxys This link opens in a new window
A chemistry database consisting of deeply excerpted compounds and related factual properties, reaction and synthesis information as well as bibliographic data, navigated and displayed via an actionable interface.
PubChem This link opens in a new window
Repository of chemical data focusing on biological activities of small molecules. Find physical, biological, and chemical properties, and relationships to health and disease.

Cambridge Structural Database
CSD is the world’s leading repository of small organic and metal-organic crystal structures with over 500,000 x-ray and neutron diffraction analyses.

USC subscribes both to the online web version and desktop version for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. The majority of users will be best served by using the web version of CSD, but if your research requires an offline, desktop version of CSD, please contact the Chemistry Librarian, Jane Lah - jlah@usc.edu, for more information.

Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD) This link opens in a new window
ICSD is the world's largest inorganic crystal database with over 169,000 entries dating back to 1913.
Legacy structures determined by the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) have also been added. Full access at USC is provided via the web interface. All completely identified structures peer-reviewed for quality and accuracy. New structures are being added daily.

SciFinder This link opens in a new window
Articles, patents, and white papers describing chemicals. Includes information on structures, reactions, compounds, drug development, and manufacturing. Requires separate login. Go to USC's create an account page to register.
Reaxys This link opens in a new window
A chemistry database consisting of deeply excerpted compounds and related factual properties, reaction and synthesis information as well as bibliographic data, navigated and displayed via an actionable interface.

Spectral Databases for Organic Compounds (SDBS)
Spectra for over 33,000 organic compounds, mostly FT-IR, MS, 13C-NMR and H-NMR.

PubMed@USC This link opens in a new window
PubMed provides access to millions of citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. This version is customized for USC users to find the full-text of articles.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Large abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature in science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Includes bibliometrics tools to track, analyze and visualize research.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Interdisciplinary collection of journal articles, conference proceedings, and books. Collection of seven online database: Conference Proceedings Citation Index, Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Index Chemicus, Current Chemical Reactions, and Book Citation Index. Coverage is 1900-present.

Engineering Village 2 This link opens in a new window
Simultaneously search across 3 large engineering databases, or select a single database to search. Includes articles, patents, conference proceedings, in all areas of engineering and applied sciences.
AccessScience This link opens in a new window
AccessScience contains various resources in science and technology: the unabridged McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, and much more.
AccessScience has over 7100 articles; 115,000 dictionary terms; hundreds of research updates in all areas of sci/tech, including medicine; over 2000 biographies of leading scientists; weekly updates on breakthroughs and discoveries; and links to Web sites for further research.
AccessEngineering This link opens in a new window
Access Engineering is an engineering reference tool that provides access to authoritative and regularly updated engineering reference information.
AccessEngineering provides integrated access to thousands of pages of trusted content from such renowned resources as Perry's Handbook for Chemical Engineers and Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers across desktop and mobile platforms. Users can access more than 530 books, 760 instructional videos, 3800 interactive graphs, and an Excel calculator tool to streamline calculations.
AccessMedicine This link opens in a new window
Provides access to a wide range of medical textbooks, board review books and clinical support books. In addition, there are self-assessment modules with case studies and multiple choice questions. Good for study and review of basic medical topics.
AccessPharmacy This link opens in a new window
Textbooks, drug monographs, quizzes, flashcards, videos, cases, and calculators, selected for relevance to Pharmacy education.
Thieme Pharmaceutical Substances This link opens in a new window
Reference information relating to the industrial synthesis and commercial applications of every licensed drug of significance. It provides ready access to syntheses, patents, and applications for more than 2,600 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), including intermediates from the six most important markets.
IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive database delivering full text access to the world's highest quality technical literature in electrical engineering, computer science and electronics.