Chemistry

Web Databases and free resources

Web of Science

Web of Science includes all the ISI citation indexes. Science Citation Index Expanded is a multidisciplinary database with searchable author abstracts. It indexes 5,300 major journals, covering 2000 more journals than its SCI print and CD-ROM counterparts. Our backfile goes back to 1988 at this time. This is the best source of articles for the past 22 years' worth of science writing, and has the added benefit of keeping track of articles which cite one another. VERY USEFUL! 

AccessScience @ McGraw-Hill

Provides the full text of over 7,000 articles, 115,000 definitions, and 1,200 biographies of scientists. 
Sources include the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, the McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science and Technology, and the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms.  Also offers weekly news articles, biographies, research updates, and lists of other resources. 
Updated weekly. 

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics

The place to go when you are looking for chemical and physical property information.

SciFinder Scholar (requires special software to access)

Digital access to the Chemical Abstracts Database (1967- present) is available to Duke users via the web. Our license limits use to three simultaneous users on campus. Consequently, please remember to logout when you are finished so other users can access the database. To access the database off campus, your computer must be running VPN software. The license agreement also restricts use. As Duke users you are responsible for following it to the letter. For more information about the capabilities of Scifinder go to: http://www.cas.org/SCIFINDER/

 Ingenta

An online periodical article delivery and current awareness service. 

American Chemical Society Journals

Full electronic access to all ACS journals back to Volume 1, Issue 1.

Sigma Aldrich 
Beilstein CrossFire

Beilstein Handbook of Organic Chemistry, ReactionsPlus, and the tables and facts from the Gmelin Handbook of Inorganic and Organometallic chemistry are available via telnet session from networked computers in the laboratory or Chemistry Library which have Beilstein Commander software installed. A database rich with data and references going back to the early 20th century, even earlier in some cases. There are several web-based tutorials for CrossFire.

NIST Chemistry WebBook

Recently updated, this date produced by the National Institute of Standards and Technology contains thermodynamic and property data for a wide range of compounds. In addition to data, tables give references to the literature.

Brookhaven National Laboratories Protein Data Bank

Searchable protein database. Contains data about each protein, bibliographic references, and molecule visualization with links to VRML browsers so you can see the images. Also included are links to other resources with information.

NCSA ChemViz

The NCSA ChemViz site will let you search the Cambridge Structural Database for structures, etc. You will need a password and login to get in: The login is woerner and the password is M26yu0Ww. You will probably need Chime to look at the structures, you can download that from the site (or if you are using this in the library, the computers should have Chime already).

Thermodynamic Data and Property Calculation Sites on the Web

UIC Thermodynamics Research Laboratory list of thermodynamic and related data and calculation sites on the Web.

Chemicool Periodic Table 

A clickable periodic table, giving information for each element in table form. Energies, Oxidation & electrons, Appearance & characteristics, Reactions, Other forms, Radius, Conductivity, and Abundance.

Study Guides

WWW Living-Book of Physical Chemistry

Online presentation of a Physical Chemistry book of 1000+ pages. Includes more than 1000 solved problems. Maintained by Bishop's Unversity, Quebec, Canada.

Enzyme Biochemistry Chapter

A textbook chapter covering enzyme kinetics: basic kinetics, Michaelis-Menten equations, measuring Vmax and Km. Includes practice problems. From the MIT Biology Hypertextbook, copyright 1998.

An Introduction to Enzyme Kinetics

A course in enzyme kinetics produced by Dr. Peter Birch of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Paisley. The course is designed to introduce you to the theoretical concepts and practical techniques associated with the use of kinetics as an enzymological tool. It is divided into a series of chapters which can either be followed in sequence as a complete course, or used as a reference book for help with individual areas.

Research Integrity

The world of chemical research changes daily, but the ethical standards for research integrity are a constant. It is vitally important to understand the bases for integrity and to be able to evaluate your own practices. Follows are some resources on research integrity and ethics which you will find useful:

• The Chemistry Library has created a Chemical Research Ethics Resource Guide which has links and references to handbooks, case studies, websites, and a newsgroup, among other resources.
•  The Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science - "Our mission is to provide...scientists and science and engineering students with resources useful for understanding and addressing ethically significant problems that arise in their work."

Software

To get software to run MATLAB from your dorm room/home computer, go to:

 http://www.chem.duke.edu/matlab

• To print directly from Matlab you MUST use one of the printers associated with the chem dept (from the menu on login)
  
• If you want to print to your own printer capture a screen image (use the print screen key) and dump the image into a paint program, word or some such. Then you can print it from your local printer.

Full instructions for what you need and what to do with it are at that site. 

If you are not on duke network, you may need to first run VPN. To get free VPN software from OIT, go to:

http://www.oit.duke.edu/remote_access/vpn.html

Evaluating Web Resources

When using any resource for data, it is important that you know how reliable that resource is. With print materials it is fairly easy to judge, who is the editor/author? Is the material published or sponsored by a reliable organization? Is the data referenced? The same is true of data you find on the Web. Remember that it is very easy to "publish" on the Web. So it is very important that you learn to evaluate what you find there. Here are a few sites that give information on learning how to evaluate Web resources.

• Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources from UCLA
  
• Thinking Critically about Discipline-Based World Wide Web Resources from UCLA
  

Citing Electronic Sources

When writing up your lab reports you will need to cite the sources you used. For print sources, there are books such as the ACS Style Guide. Some of the newer style guides include information on citing Internet resources. There are also many Web sites that give this information. Here are a few.

• Citing Electronic Sources from the Internet Public Library.
• Modern Language Association Contains the official MLA instructions for citing a source from the web. Click on style, then on Frequently Asked Questions.
• Duke's Citing Resorces online guide
• ACS citing guidelines - brief web version.