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SciFinder Guide: Databases - Historic Document - No Longer Supported

Chemical Abstracts
Chemical Abstracts is an indexing and abstracting service begun by a division of the American Chemical Society in 1907. The Chemical Abstracting Service (CAS) performs two major functions: it registers new compounds as they are published in the literature, and it indexes articles from more than 9000 journals, as well as patents, technical reports, conference proceedings, books and book chapters, and dissertations. There are two major parts of the Chemical Abstracts database: the CAS Registry file and the Chemical Abstracts file.

  1. CAS Registry
    The CAS Registry is a listing of all compounds published in the chemical literature since 1907. The Registry listing for a compound includes the following useful information.
    2. CONTENT
    Chemical structure* Note: not all substance records have a structure
    Molecular formula Note: large biomacromolecules, protein sequences, and polymers may not have a molecular formula
    CAS Registry Number A unique, one-to-one identifier for a substance
    CAS Index Name A unique name assigned to the substance by the Chemical Abstracting Service, according to their rules of nomenclature
    Other names Synonyms for the compound may include trade names and common names
    Properties Experimental and calculated physical properties, complete with references

    HOW TO ACCESS INFORMATION
    Explore by Chemical Structure* You only access the Registry when you are doing a substance search or substructure search. Reaction searches don't automatically get you into the Registry
    Locate by Substance Identifier Use this tool if you have a common or chemical name or a CAS number. Include hyphens in the CAS number.
    Explore by Molecular Formula Type in the molecular formula, grouping all like atoms together. For example, for acetone, type C3H6O rather than (CH3)2CO. It is usually best to put spaces between the different kinds of atoms (ex. C3 H6 O, rather than C3H6O). The molecular formula search is case sensitive and should be able to tell the difference between Co and CO. However, spaces eliminate any ambiguity.
    Explore by Reaction Clicking on a reactant, product, or reagent in a reaction scheme will take you to the Registry listing for that substance.
  2. Chemical Abstracts
    This is a listing of all references in the database. It is where you go to get bibliographic citations and abstracts for papers. The CAPLUS file covers the dates from 1967 to the present. The CAOLD file covers the literature published between 1907 and 1967. Both can be accessed in a number of different ways.

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MEDLINE
MEDLINE is a database created by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in 1966. It indexes papers in medicine, medicinal chemistry, biology, biochemistry, and bioengineering. It can be accessed in many different ways, including through Ovid MEDLINE and using PubMed. SciFinder searches both MEDLINE and Old MEDLINE, a retrospective database including data from 1956 on. There are many ways to access the MEDLINE data included in SciFinder.

HOW TO ACCESS INFORMATION
Explore by Topic, Explore by Author, or Locate by Document Identifier* A research topic, author, or document identifier search of SciFinder Scholar retrieves MEDLINE references from 1956 to present. SciFinder is one of the few resources that does search the full file of MEDLINE. MEDLINE references appear in reverse chronological order after all of the Chemical Abstracts records, and duplicated records between the two databases appear twice unless you remove duplicates.
Locate by Substance Identifier, Explore by Chemical Structure, or Explore by Molecular Formula When you click on Get References from a search of the Registry, you will retrieve MEDLINE references from 1985 to present only. Prior to 1985, CAS Registry Numbers did not appear in MEDLINE indexing, so, there is no way to link the references to the Registry listings.
Explore by Reaction MEDLINE does not index reactions; so, a reaction search will retrieve no MEDLINE references.

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CASREACT
CASREACT searches a graphical database of reactions that have appeared in the literature since 1840. This database is not comprehensive, and, if you need a comprehensive search on a reaction, you should supplement a CASREACT search with a Registry search or a topic search. However, CASREACT is the only way in which you can draw a complete reaction and search for references that contain it. You can get to CASREACT in the following ways.

HOW TO ACCESS INFORMATION
Explore by Reaction* Draw a partial or complete reaction into the structure editor, and click Get Reactions.
Explore by Chemical Structure From a compound's registry listing, click on Get Reactions or click the little A->B button, and select the appropriate reaction role. Note: This is the only way in which you can search for a substance used as a solvent or a catalyst.
Explore by Topic, Explore by Author, or Locate by Document Identifier From the expanded view of an article's record (abstract), click on the Get Related button to get all reactions referenced in that article.

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CHEMCATS
CHEMCATS is a commercial availability database linked to the Registry database. Entries are provided by the chemical suppliers and should be taken on an "as-is" basis. The date of last update is presented for each entry. Supplier information includes contact information for the company (including address, phone number, Web page, and e-mail, where available) and, occasionally, sizes and pricing. Note that not all companies supply price and size. You can access CHEMCATS in one of the following ways.

HOW TO ACCESS INFORMATION
Explore by Chemical Structure* Click on the little flask icon in a substance's Registry record.
Explore by Reaction Click on a reactant, reagent or product, and select the Commercial Availability option from the pop-up menu, if available.
**You can also limit a structure search of the Registry by commercial availability**

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CHEMLIST
CHEMLIST is a regulatory information database. It gives a few synonyms of each substance included and lists the US and foreign regulations involving that compound. Unfortunately, the database only lists the appropriate sections of the various regulations and does not, for the most part, contain the applicable text. You can access CHEMLIST in the following ways.

HOW TO ACCESS INFORMATION
Explore by Chemical Structure* Click on the little scroll icon in a substance's Registry record.
Explore by Reaction Click on a reactant, reagent or product, and select the Regulatory Information option from the pop-up menu, if available.

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