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ThermoDex


Legend:

critical - Critically evaluated data
star - Recommended
e-book - Electronic resource
U.T. restricted - UT-Austin restricted
print - Print resource

Finding Thermodynamic and Physical Property Data



Searching the Literature

Doing It Right vs. Doing It Fast, or, What about Google?

Let's face it, if you're on this page you've probably already "googled" your search query and not found what you're looking for. Web search engines are not ideal tools for finding scientific data, but they can occasionally act as a useful shortcut when used creatively. On the other hand, they can be a waste of time: you could spend an hour sifting through Google results hunting for something that you could find in 30 seconds using the CRC Handbook.

Search engines like Google, Google Scholar, Scirus, and Google Books allow you to search within full text of myriad types of scientific literature and web repositories, but this is never comprehensive. Use several of them, taking note of the different kinds of content they index and the different kinds of hits they retrieve. Your success will depend on your selection of keywords and synonyms and the phrasing of your query (use the "advanced search" option where possible), as well as a good measure of sheer luck. You must remember to examine the source of data you find very carefully. Always look at the original document, not the search engine's summary. Context matters, and you'll soon realize that most of your hits aren't relevant because while your keywords do appear in a document, they're not in relation to each other. While searching is free, your ability to look at the original journal articles will usually require an institutional subscription.

Google Scholar (searches full text of undefined swaths of scientific literature)
Scirus (searches selected scientific publications and web sites)
Google (searches the "open web")
Google Books (searches full text of books that Google has scanned or indexed)

To do a "real" literature search, you have to use the tools below.

Beilstein (MDL) Crossfire critical star U.T. restricted
Beilstein contains a vast amount of factual data for organic compounds gathered from the journal literature. Data values designated as "Handbook" are to be considered the most reliable. Search for a compound by structure, name, or Registry number, then see the Field Availability table for a list of data fields for that substance. Access to Crossfire requires installation of client software and a campus IP address.

SciFinder Scholar star U.T. restricted
Registry
CAS has added an array of calculated and experimental property data to selected compound records in the Registry database. The calculated properties are primarily of use to pharmaceutical chemists: boiling point, melting point, density, logD, logP, H acceptors/donors, molecular weight, optical rotary power, pKa, refractive index, and solubility. These values are display-only (not searchable) in SciFinder. When a compound is found, you can easily retrieve all literature references that refer to it, or limit the retrieval to references containing property information.

Chemical Abstracts
Bibliographic databases (indexes) are key to searching the primary literature, but they are not ideally designed for locating data buried within original documents, especially if the document mentions the data in passing rather than as the main topic. It is not always easy to determine from a title and abstract if a paper contains numerical data at all. If it does, the actual data are generally not given in the abstract -- the original document must be consulted. Now that the CAPLUS file extends back to 1907, it is a more powerful tool for identifying older journal articles that may contain fundamental property data.

The SciFinder version of the Chemical Abstracts database (CAPLUS) can be searched fairly effectively for documents that may contain physical property information. Use Registry numbers as search terms (instead of chemical names) in the Research Topic search option. (Example: "enthalpy of 567-78-8".) Alternately, use the Property Role tool from a chemical substance search:

  1. Search for a compound by Registry number, molecular formula, name, or structure
  2. Click "Get References"
  3. Limit retrieval to articles with Property information
  4. Refine results if necessary by research topic keyword (such as a property name)
    This method works only for post-1967 documents.