Finding Articles - Writing in Chemistry - Oakland Campus

Discovering Articles

Databases that list and describe individual articles that have been published in the chemical literature (indexing databases) are good sources of information for your work. Those listed here can help you identify relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature.

Databases

Academic Search Premier
Covers most academic subjects including biological sciences, chemistry, ecology, environmental and earth sciences, mathematics, medicine, and physics. It includes both scholarly journals and general audience publications such as magazines and newspapers. This database might be useful in identifying issues of broad public interest and finding background information, key terms, and researchers' names as you select and refine your research topic.
Knovel
A collection of electronic handbooks and reference books covering engineering and the physical sciences. Good source of chemical and physical properties of chemical compounds.
Medline (EBSCO)
Provides authoritative coverage of the medically oriented literature, including biomedical science, dentistry, nursing, and veterinary science. It includes journal articles, reviews, conferences, clinical studies, and more. Medline is produced by the National Library of Medicine.
Medline (ISI)
The Medline database is also available with another search interface through ISI.
PubMed
Searches much the same information as Medline. This free resource is maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine.
PubMed Central
A repository of full text articles on medicine and related sciences. Medline and PubMed records may link to the articles available in this database.
Web of Science
Broad coverage of the sciences includes: agriculture, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, ecology, engineering, environmental and earth sciences, mathematics, medicine, and physics. Pitt's access focuses mostly on journal literature. It includes extensive citation searching capability.
Chemistry Databases
Use this link to find a more complete list of chemically relevant research databases.

Search Engines

Search engines search broadly across the web. Remember that links to full text will only work if the article is freely available or the ULS has access to the article and you are searching through the Pitt network or have logged in through Pitt Passport.

Google Scholar
Google Scholar does a broad search across all subject areas. It retrieves more scholarly results than Google, but can't search everything that has been published. Use the Advanced Search feature to tailor your search.

PittCat

PittCat is the main searching tool for all of the materials owned by the University Library System (ULS), including articles, books, ebooks, journal articles, ejournals, audio and video, digital images, government documents, microfilm and movies.

PittCat
Access PittCat directly or use the ULS homepage.

Do We Own It?

Research databases often list articles from more sources than the library owns. If you already have a reference to a specific article, or a database record does not link to the full text of an article, how can you find out if the article is available?

Journal Finder
Enter the title of the journal to see if the year you need is available online. If not, check for a print version in a ULS location and request a scan of the article.
PittCat
Enter the title of the journal to find out if the library owns a print or electronic version. Records for print journals show what years are available and where. Records for electronic journals link to the webpage for the journal.

Alternatively, search PittCat for the article itself to see whether the full text is linked to its record.
PubMed Central
If the article is on a medical, biomedical, or related topic, check PubMed Central to see if a free copy has been deposited there.

Request Material in PittCat

You can request material through PittCat using Get It, even for material that we do not own. You must be signed in and then click on the item you need. Options within the item:

Request This Item
Use this to request print materials from a Pitt library or ULS - Thomas Blvd. After finding a book, click on the item, then look for Get It, Request, and follow the prompts.
Request a Scan
Use this to request a scanned book chapter or an article. After finding an article or to request a book chapter, click on the item, then look for Get It, Request, and follow the prompts.
Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
If you identify an item in PittCat that is not available through our collections, you can request it through our Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service.

If you have any questions about this, please contact us so we can work with you to try and get the material you need.

University of Pittsburgh Library System

Course & Subject Guides

Writing in Chemistry - Oakland Campus