Introduction
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The purpose of this guide is to help you find information in the field of Chemistry, the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances, their properties and reactions. Whether you are looking for information for a short assignment, writing a dissertation, or just need brief handbook information, this guide should help you.
The guide is not exhaustive, but primary sources of information and those available at Emory University are listed. Access to electronic resources is emphasized.
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Facts and Figures
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Background Information on a topic
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Detailed information from recent research
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Information on specific or specialized topics
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Keeping up-to-date on areas of interest and research
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Scientists continually strive to keep up-to-date on what is appearing in the new primary literature. Keeping up-to-date, often referred to as current awareness, involves the scientist choosing and setting up an interest profile in electronic resources which match his interests.
- The scientist wants the process to require minimal labor to set up and monitor.
- He wants the time log between pre-publication notification or the appearance of the primary document and his notice of its existence to be rapid.
- He wants time from his own manual searching of the literature to be significantly reduced.
Two types of alerting or current awareness profiles include the table-of-contents profile and the search strategy profile. For more information and a list of databases providing these features, go to Current Awareness & Alerting services
Try these first Academic Press/Elsevier (Science Direct)
Springer-Verlag
Web of Science |
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Building a database library using EndNote
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EndNote is a citation management software package that allows you to build a database library or references specific to your interests. While conducting research, EndNote can help you by incorporating references of interest taken from the results of searches conducted in library catalogs and databases. Bibliographic references are then stored, managed and searchable. References can be organized and citations incorporated into word processing documents and bibliographies using customized formats. APA Style, Turabian, ACS Style, and specific journal styles are but a few of the customized formats that can be chosen for automatically formatting paper footnoting and references.
(1) EndNote Availability
(2) EndNote Handouts
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Internet Resources in Chemistry
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There are many sites on the internet that provide links to a broad range of Chemistry topics. Many sites are referred to as "chemical super sites", "meta-sites", or "portals" and point to fairly comprehensive coverage of many aspects of chemistry. Other sites are very specific and highlight narrow areas of interest. The following sites are generally recognized as reliable, well-maintained chemistry super sites and are fairly comprehensive. It is always good to remember, however, that "anyone can publish anything" on the web. When using internet resources, evaluate the sources for authority, objectivity, accuracy, scope, currency and style. For a full discussion of evaluating internet resources see the following guide, Internet Critical Evaluation.
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Explore the newest sources of information
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Looking for more information?
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There is a type of literature which explains, teaches you how to use, and leads you through the primary and secondary literature. These are referred to as guides to the literature. Since they cover both primary and secondary sources, they are often called tertiary sources. Reasons for using guides to the scientific or technical literature include: a guide may contain descriptions of primary or secondary sources or search tips which can lead to information on a specific topic. Guides include both printed and electronic resources and can be helpful in selecting and learning to use appropriate sources to solve information problems.
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Writing up and presenting your research
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The real reward to the scientist is the laboratory work and ultimately the publication of the results of experiments. The recognition by one's peers of significant research is valued highly in all fields.
Format your paper and references using End Note with help from the ACS Style Guide, journal style sheets; and suggestions from other books focused on "how to write" scientific papers and dissertations/theses.
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