Locating Journals in the Chemistry Library
Electronic Journals
UT-Austin users have direct electronic access to thousands of journals and periodicals through the UT Libraries web site. Many journals, especially in the sciences, are no longer received in print and are available only electronically. Most (but not all) electronic journals have links from the
Library Catalog. When you find the title you're looking for, just click on the
button. Electronic-only journals not in the Catalog can be found in the separate Electronic Journals database, which you can search on the same page.
Shelving Arrangement of Print Journals
Journals in the Chemistry Library are shelved separately from the book collection, and are arranged
alphabetically by title, so you don't have to look up their call numbers. Signs on the end of each shelf range indicate what titles are on that particular section. Loose issues of journals still received in print are shelved in the New Journal Room.
Things to Note:
- Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) is shelved first in the journal stacks, in Ranges 1-2.
- Is it a Journal or a Book? Many "serial" publications in chemistry are actually book series--annuals, reviews, symposia, etc.--and these are shelved in the circulating book collection, by call number. Consult the library catalog or our Serials File when in doubt.
- Titles that contain acronyms (e.g. AIChE, JAOCS) are usually shelved by the acronym treated as if it were a word.
- Some titles with corporate authors are shelved by the author's name rather than the actual title. Example: Journal of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists is shelved under "Association".
Finding Aids for Journals and Serials:
Library Catalog - The library's online catalog is the best place to start looking for all books and journals in the University of Texas Libraries. If you need help finding a journal in the catalog, ask a staff member.
- The Serials File
- If you're in the library looking for the exact location of a journal or series title, check the Serials card file, located on the Circulation Desk. This file contains cards for over 1,000 current and past periodical and book series print holdings, including our titles in the Library Storage Facility. The file also includes cross references for the original Russian titles of translation journals held in the library. Shelf numbers, holdings, call numbers, and title changes are indicated on these cards.
- CASSI
- CASSI (Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index) is the comprehensive and retrospective list of sources that have been indexed by Chemical Abstracts since it began in 1907. It includes journals, books, conferences, and other series, arranged by CA abbreviation. This is the source you should use to translate title abbreviations into full titles for searching in the library catalog and other finding aids. CASSI is located at the Circulation Desk. CASSI is not online, but partial lists of abbreviations of key journals include the CAplus Core Journal List and a Univ. British Columbia listing.
Odds and Ends...
- New Journal Room
- Unbound issues of periodicals are shelved in the New Journal Room until they are sent for binding. If you have a question about the receipt status of individual issues of a journal, ask a library staff member. Remember that many journals are now available only on the Web. Check the Catalog to be sure.
- Library Storage Facility
- Many older, ceased, and foreign language journals are kept in the Library Storage Facility (LSF).
If you want an article scanned from a journal held in the Library Storage Facility, go to the Article Delivery Request Form and enter the article and volume information there. You must be a current faculty, staff, or student to use this service. See more information about this service.
You can request retrieval of any storage item in the Library Catalog by clicking the Request button and logging in with your UT-EID. If you don't have an EID, fill out a green request card at a library circulation desk. Turnaround time is 2-3 business days. The LSF is not open to the public, and requests cannot be expedited.
- Journals at the Bindery
- Completed journal volumes are continuously sent to the bindery. A list kept in the New Journal Room tells you which volumes are out at bindery at present, and when they are expected back. They are usually unavailable for about eight weeks, and they can't be rushed or recalled. During this time, articles from those issues that aren't available online can be obtained via Interlibrary Service. Remember to check for an electronic version of a journal before submitting an interlibrary request.
- Microforms
- Some journal backfiles and other materials are on microfilm (call number prefix = FILM) or microfiche (call number prefix = MCFICHE). These holdings are listed in the library catalog.
- The microform cabinets are in the back of the library, next to the readers.
- Please do not refile microfiche envelopes -- put them in the box on top of the cabinet.
- The Chemistry Library has only readers, not copiers. Film reels and fiche envelopes may be checked out for 2 hours if you want to take them to another library for copying. Microform scanners/copiers are located in Engineering and PCL.
- ACS Supporting Information (Supplementrary Materials)
- Supporting Information (SI, formerly known as Supplementary Materials) for articles from ACS journals is available back to about 1993 via the ACS Publications site. The SI files are now linked to each individual journal's home page. The library has microfiche SI for the Journal of the American Chemical Society and Journal of Organic Chemistry from 1970 to 1998. ACS stopped printing the fiche in 1998, and has no plans to digitize older SI material at this time. If you need to obtain older SI of other journals, consult with the librarian.
- Translation Journals
- The library has a strong archival collection of English translations of Russian chemical journals. If you have a citation to a Russian journal, be sure to consult CASSI to see if an English translation was published, and then check the library catalog or the Serials File (by English or Russian title) to see if UT owns the translation journal in print or on microfilm. You can also consult the guide called "Journals in Translation" at the Circulation Desk for further bibliographic information. Most of these translations are no longer currently received and are not available online. Titles that contained "USSR" or "Soviet" changed around 1992-93.
Chemical Abstracts usually indexed only the Russian original and did not refer to the translation at all. Bibliographic citations and CA references to the original Russian titles have Russian edition page numbers, which are different from the English edition page numbers. The table of contents of each English issue provides side-by-side page numbers for both Russian and English. Some letters and short communications were not translated.
Some of the most commonly cited Russian journals and their English equivalents are listed here. Check the Library Catalog for exact holdings and locations.
| Russian Abbreviation |
Russian Title |
English Title |
| Dokl. Akad. nauk SSSR.
|
Doklady Akademiia nauk SSSR.
|
The Doklady were translated into English in multiple subject sections. Those relevant to chemistry include:
Doklady. Chemistry. (on microfilm)
Doklady. Chemical Technology.
Doklady. Physical chemistry.
Doklady. Biochemistry. (at Life Science)
|
| Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR. Ser. Khim.
|
Akademiia nauk SSSR. Izvestiia. Seriia khimicheskaia.
|
Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Division of chemical sciences.
(Later title: Russian chemical bulletin.)
|
| Kristallografiia.
|
Kristallografiia.
|
Soviet physics. Crystallography.
(Later title: Crystallography reports.)
|
| Usp. Khim.
|
Uspekhi khimii.
|
Russian chemical reviews.
|
| Zh. Fiz. Khim.
|
Zhurnal fizicheskoi khimii.
|
Russian journal of physical chemistry.
|
| Zh. Neorg. Khim.
|
Zhurnal neorganicheskoi khimii.
|
Russian journal of inorganic chemistry.
|
| Zh. Obshch. Khim.
|
Zhurnal obshchei khimii.
|
Journal of general chemistry of the USSR.
(Later title: Russian journal of general chemistry.)
|
| Zh. Org. Khim.
|
Zhurnal organicheskoi khimii.
|
Journal of organic chemistry of the USSR.
(Later title: Russian journal of organic chemistry.)
|
| Zh. Prikl. Khim.
|
Zhurnal prikladnoi khimii.
|
Journal of applied chemistry of the USSR.
|
Angewandte Chemie was translated into English as Angewandte Chemie, International Edition in English starting in 1960. This was a selective cover-to-cover translation that occasionally omitted some short communications. The library stopped receiving the German version after 1988. Consult the author index at the end of each English volume for a page number concordance.
- Journal of the Chemical Society Genealogy
- A chart is posted in the journal stacks showing the long and complex history of this famous set of journals. J. Chem. Soc. split into multiple sections after 1965. The Royal Society of Chemistry provides licensed online access to all these sections as part of its Journal Archives.
- Comptes Rendus
- This French journal, established in 1835 by the Académie des Sciences, has one of the most complex title histories of any scholarly publication, and searching the library catalog for a particular part of it can be very frustrating. It is often cited only as "C.R." in bibliographies. The University of Washington has created a handy genealogy chart of its many title changes and sections over the last 40 years. This chart is annotated and posted in the journal stacks. The UT Libraries own most sections from 1835 to 2000 in print. The base title (1835-1965) is at the Life Science Library. After that it splintered into many ever-changing sections: the math and physics sections are at PMA; the chemistry sections are at Chemistry; the natural science sections are at Life Science; etc. Some sections are in storage. All sections since 1995 are available on the Web through ScienceDirect; from 2001-forward access is online only. A free online version of the parent title from 1835-1935 is also available. For links just enter the title "comptes rendus" in our Find a Journal database.
- Biochimica et Biophysica Acta Decoder Chart
- Use this chart when you have a reference to a known BBA volume but don't know which section it's in. The online version of BBA on ScienceDirect is divided up between the 25 different section Web pages, not in volume sequence.
