Research Guides: Chemistry New Grad Student Orientation: Home

Where?

Wilmeth Active Learning Center

Science & Engineering Library
Open stacks
Study spaces and classrooms
Quiet reading room
Librarian offices
Open 24 hrs.

Other Libraries

Humanities & Social Sciences (HSSE)
Mathematical Sciences
Veterinary Medicine
Aviation Technology
Black Cultural Center
Hicks Undergraduate
Parrish Management & Economics

Why?

In your career at Purdue, you will...

Read and write papers, both for classes and for your own research
Write a thesis and/or dissertation
Manage the data you generate in your research
Teach classes
Look for a job

Purdue Libraries can help with all of this, if you know where to look and who to ask.

What?

These resources, and more, can be access through the Libraries' website.

Journals & Books

e-Journal List
Library Catalog
Interlibrary Loan (everywhere, not quite as fast)
Knovel (excellent introductory handbook information)

See individual links below.

e-Journals Search
Search for journal articles available through the Purdue Libraries' catalog.

Knovel
Knovel provides numerical and tabular data from leading engineering and science resources, including handbooks and encyclopedias. Some tables are interactively searchable.

Libraries' Catalog Search

Article Databases

Database List
SciFinder (the key resource for chemistry topics)
Reaxys (powerful organic & inorganic resource)
Web of Science (extensive interdisciplinary resource)
Google Scholar (powerful, but be careful)

See individual links below.

A-Z Database List
Access the Libraries' subscription databases via this alphabetical list.
Google Scholar
Provides access to a variety of different scholarly resources and enables users to see how frequently scholars and works are cited.

Reaxys (Beilstein/Gmelin)
Reaxys is a unique web-based 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. Combines the Beilstein (organic chem), Gmelin (organometallic and inorganic chem), and Chemical Patents databases into one search interface.

NOTE: Users will need to register and create a personal username and password in order to access the database.

New users, please send a request to Reaxys support at pharmabiotechEH@elsevier.com with your name, last name and email address containing your institution's email domain.
SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
CAS SciFinder-n is the latest scientific information solution from CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society. In addition to the reference, substance, reaction and supplier content found in CAS SciFinder®, CAS SciFinder-n includes relevance-ranked results, step-by-step procedures and protocols, citation mapping, biosequence searching, retrosynthetic analysis, patent landscape mapping, touch-screen enabled structure drawing and much more—all accessible in a simple, easy-to-use interface.
Web of Science: All Databases
Easily search across all subscribed products simultaneously using a common set of search fields for the most comprehensive results Including: Web of Science Core Collection, BIOSIS Citation Index, BIOSIS Previews, CAB eBooks Archive, CABI, CAB Abstracts and Global Health, Current Contents Connect, Data Citation Index, Derwent Innovations Index, FSTA-the food science resource, KCI-Korean Journal Database, MEDLINE, Preprint Citation Index, SciELO Citation Index, and Zoological Record.

How?

Off Campus Access

Go through the Libraries' website. This will proxy you through our system, and the database and journal websites will know you're affiliated with Purdue. More details about EZProxy and VPN access can be found here.

Citation Management

Create your own personal database of references relevant to you and your work. You can organize and share them, and even automatically generate bibliographies in your word documents.

You have a lot of options for citation managers, and it largely comes down to personal preference. Options include Zotero (free, open source), EndNote (free online, but the desktop version can be expensive), Mendeley (freemium), and many more.

Software

ChemDraw and MestRe Nova are available. See the Chemistry Software tab of this guide.

Presentation

Chemistry New Graduate Student Orientation
The orientation presentation, with links and in-lab exercises.
Deciding Where to Publish or Present Your Work
This is a handout from a GRIP workshop with the same title. You will eventually need to publish or present your work, and that means figuring out where to do it. This handout lays out a list of resources you can use to investigate and make decisions.

Chemistry New Grad Student Orientation

Library Links

Dave Zwicky

Where?

Why?

What?

How?

Presentation