Research Guides: Biology: Molecular Biology & Biochemistry

Biology Librarian

Hector R. Perez-Gilbe

He, Him, His

Email Me

Contact:

UC Irvine
Science Library
Room 232
Irvine, CA 92623
perezhr@uci.edu

(949) 824-6957

Subjects: Medicine & Health Sciences, Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Public Health

How to Find Chemistry Articles

SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
SciFinder-n, from CAS, is one of the core databases for chemistry and related sciences, including biochemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, nanotechnology, environmental science, physics, mechanical engineering, health sciences, and more. It indexes references from journal articles, patents, conference proceedings, and more, aw well as chemical substances, protein and nucleic acid sequences, and single and multi-step reactions.

Searching the Chemical Literature before Chemical Abstracts
Resources that can be helpful in identifying pre-1907 chemical information resources not included in Chemical Abstracts. Prepared by David Flaxbart, University of Texas Austin Chemistry Library.

Web of Science (WoS) This link opens in a new window
Global citation database provides access to the Science Citation Index expanded from 1900 to the present, Social Sciences Citation Index from 1956 to the present, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index from 1975 to the present.

OSTI.gov Search Tools
From the Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information. Proceedings and papers from scientific meetings can be found in these fields, among others: particle physics, nuclear physics, chemistry, petroleum, aeronautics and astronautics, meteorology, engineering, computer science, electric power, fossil fuels.
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Also included are over 500,000 proceedings and papers indexed in the Energy Citations Database covering 1948 to the present. This is a free distributed portal that provides access to science and technology conference proceedings and papers from nineteen professional societies plus a number of national labs.

Reaxys This link opens in a new window
Searches across the Beilstein, Gmelin, and EcoPharm databases, which include reaction and substance data for organic, inorganic, organometallic, and bioactive compounds. Reaxys also allows synthesis planning and chemical sourcing.
UC Library Search This link opens in a new window
Searches the collections of all UC campuses, including print books and journals, ebooks and ejournals, film, newspaper articles, book chapters, and more. This tool also allows you to limit your search to the UCI campus library collection, locate the full text of millions of print and online books, journal articles, and other content, and borrow and renew materials from any library in the UC system. Use subject keywords (with truncation symbol) such as "organic*" or "computational*" to find journals with that word in the title.

Key Chemistry Sites

The top websites and resources for chemistry and chemical information.
* UC Irvine access only

SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
SciFinder-n, from CAS, is one of the core databases for chemistry and related sciences, including biochemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, nanotechnology, environmental science, physics, mechanical engineering, health sciences, and more. It indexes references from journal articles, patents, conference proceedings, and more, aw well as chemical substances, protein and nucleic acid sequences, and single and multi-step reactions.SciFinder Scholar is now available on the Web for current students, faculty, and staff at all UC campuses. One time registration is required for new users, then login and search. Off-campus access requires use of the Cisco VPN software
Web of Science (WoS) This link opens in a new window
Global citation database provides access to the Science Citation Index expanded from 1900 to the present, Social Sciences Citation Index from 1956 to the present, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index from 1975 to the present.
Reaxys This link opens in a new window
Searches across the Beilstein, Gmelin, and EcoPharm databases, which include reaction and substance data for organic, inorganic, organometallic, and bioactive compounds. Reaxys also allows synthesis planning and chemical sourcing.
Engineering Village: Compendex This link opens in a new window
The Compendex database provides deep coverage of global engineering literature. Also includes literature in the following related areas: applied physics, optics, bioengineering, biotechnology, food science and technology, materials science, instrumentation, medical devices, and nanotechnology. Excludes patents. Subject: Technology -- Abstracts; Engineering -- Abstracts; Technology -- Indexes; Engineering -- Indexes
Scopus This link opens in a new window
An abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Content covers research output in the fields of physical science, health science, life science, technology, medicine, and social sciences.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
Index and full text of graduate dissertations and theses from North American and European schools and universities, including the University of California.
Knovel This link opens in a new window
Interactive books and databases containing a large number of online science and engineering handbooks, in subject areas of chemistry, materials science, and engineering.
CHEMnetBASE: Chemical Databases Online This link opens in a new window
A collection of interactive chemical databases, chemical dictionaries, and the CRC Handbook of Chemistry & Physics.
eScholarship This link opens in a new window
Institutional repository for the University of California's faculty, staff and students to deposit and post their creative output.
Current Protocols This link opens in a new window
Interactive source of research techniques. Its coverage includes cell and molecular biology, genetics, bioinformatics, protein science, and imaging. Protocols are presented step-by-step and are continuously expanded, updated, and annotated. See more on protocols on the Biology guide.
JoVE This link opens in a new window
JoVE is a peer reviewed, scientific video journal that offers educational videos to support the effective teaching of science concepts and laboratory methods in undergraduate and graduate courses at universities and colleges. These videos enable quick in-depth comprehension of complex STEM subjects to increase student engagement and learning outcomes, and support innovative teaching initiatives such as blended learning and flipped classroom.
Science of Synthesis This link opens in a new window
Full-text resource for methods in synthetic organic chemistry.

Cambridge Structural Database - downloadable client *
The complete packages are several Gigabytes in size and requires site and confirmation codes to register the product after it is installed and for the quarterly updates issued by Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre.
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The CSD contains X-ray and neutron diffraction analyses of carbon-containing molecules having up to 1000 atoms (including hydrogens):

* Organics
* Compounds of the main group elements
* Organometallics
* Metal complexes

The CSD covers peptides of up to 24 residues; higher oligomers are covered by the Protein Data Bank.

The CSD covers mono-, di- and tri-nucleotides; higher oligomers are covered by the Nucleic Acids Database.

There is a small overlap between the CSD and the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD) in the area of molecular inorganics. Information on other metal-containing structures can also be found in the Metals and Alloys Crystallographic Database (CRYSTMET).
Cambridge Structural Database - Web version *

National Technical Reports Library This link opens in a new window
NTRL (National Technical Reports Library) offers a public interface for accessing authenticated government technical reports in the U.S. Department of Commerce NTIS (National Technical Information Service) database. Provides indexing and access to historical and current government technical reports archived by the National Technical Information Service.
PubChem This link opens in a new window
Mostly contains small molecules, but also larger molecules such as nucleotides, carbohydrates, lipids, peptides, and chemically-modified macromolecules. We collect information on chemical structures, identifiers, chemical and physical properties, biological activities, patents, health, safety, toxicity data, and many others.
Landolt-Börnstein This link opens in a new window
A vast collection of volumes of tables of physical and chemical properties of materials. The University of California has access to the archival collection of LB online via the Portico site. At present, the volumes are listed alphabetically by their English titles, but eventually will be grouped into subject sections for easier browsing. Earlier volumes (to the 1980's) are in German.

Reference Ebooks

e-EROS *
Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis (ebook).
Fieser and Fieser's Reagents for Organic Synthesis *
Online database version of the standard reference work describing reagents of use to organic chemist.
Comprehensive Organometallic Chemistry III *
Presents a comprehensive overview of the major developments in the field since 1993 providing general and significant insights. Highlights the expansion of applications in organometallic chemistry with a strong organic synthesis focus. Provides a structured first point of entry to the key literature and background material for those planning research, teaching and writing about the area.
National Center for Biotechnology Information
Cross-database searching from NCBI.
Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology *
Presents a wide scope of articles on chemical substances—including their properties, manufacturing, and uses. It also focuses on industrial processes and unit operations in chemical engineering, as well as covering fundamentals and scientific subjects related to the field.

The Merck Index Online This link opens in a new window
Authoritative and reliable source of information on chemicals, drugs and biologicals.

NIST Chemistry Webbook
This site provides thermochemical, thermophysical, and ion energetics data compiled by NIST under the Standard Reference Data Program.
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General Searches Searches

* Formula
* Name
* IUPAC identifier
* CAS registry number
* Reaction
* Author
* Structure

Physical Property Based

* Ion energetics properties
* Vibrational and electronic energies
* Molecular weight
Organic Reactions *
Organic Reactions is the definitive resource for synthetic transformations, with an emphasis on preparative aspects. In addition to providing reaction scope, stereochemical aspects, and side reactions, a selection of representative experimental conditions are given.
Organic Syntheses
Annual collections of detailed, reliable, and carefully checked procedures for the synthesis of organic compounds.
ACersNIST Phase Diagrams Database *
Phase Online functionality includes:
* Search commentaries and diagrams by chemical system, published author’s last name, volume, language, publications year, and figure number.
* View diagram’s chemical system, figure number, figure notes, references, commentary and footnotes.
* Manipulate diagrams with zoom in/out, lever rule, curve follow, mirror, Mol% to Wt% or Wt% to Mol% and built-in calculator.
Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry *
Reference work in chemistry and chemical and life science engineering, covering inorganic and organic chemicals, advanced materials, pharmaceuticals, polymers and plastics, metals and alloys, biotechnology and biotechnological products, food chemistry, process engineering and unit operations, analytical methods, environmental protection, and much more.

Other resources

		Molecular Biology of the Cell (4th ed. 2002) A classic in the field this edition is available free to the world. © 2002 by Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, and Peter Walter.
		Scriver's OMMBID the online metabolic & molecular bases of inherited disease / Scriver ... [et al.] Online access to a compendium of genetic disorders and information from the entire field of genetics

Entrez browser
An online database search engine for retrieving molecular biology-related citations and records from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases.
UCSC Genome Browser
This site contains the reference sequence and working draft assemblies for a large collection of genomes. It also provides a portal to the ENCODE project.
The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR)
A database of genetic and molecular biology data for the model higher plant Arabidopsis thaliana . Data available from TAIR includes the complete genome sequence along with gene structure, gene product information, gene expression, DNA and seed stocks, genome maps, genetic and physical markers, publications, and information about the Arabidopsis research community. Gene product function data is updated every week from the latest published research literature and community data submissions.