Chemistry Issues Project Research Guide

Preliminaries

• Oxford Reference Online - Check here for brief definitions and overviews of terms.
• Chemists Without Borders Blog - Might be a good place to look for topics.
• “Controversy in Chemistry: What Counts as Evidence? Two Studies in Molecular Structure,” Angew. Chem Internat. Ed. 2004, 43, 2612-2619. (full-text PDF)
• “Controversy in Chemistry: How Do You Prove a Negative? The Cases of Phlogiston and Cold Fusion,” Angew. Chem. Internat. Ed. 2005, 44, 1916-1922. (full-text PDF) 

Good places to start reseaching your issue

• Annual Reviews Online - Summaries written by leading scientists which provide the worldwide scientific community with a useful and intelligent synthesis of the primary research literature for a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines. Annual Reviews are not peer-reviewed, but are very reliable and are amongst the most highly cited in scientific literature. (Once you find a review you want, it can be located full-text in Academic Search Premier)
• Opposing Viewpoints - Database which features articles presenting the different viewpoints of contentious issues. Includes "topic overviews, full-text magazine and newspaper articles, primary source documents, statistics, images and podcasts, and links to websites."
• CQ Researcher - Comprehensive reports on issues in the news including an introductory overview; background and chronology on the topic; an assessment of the current situation; tables and maps; pro/con statements from representatives of opposing positions; and bibliographies of key sources. Make sure you check the date of the report for currency.

 Find Articles and Citations

SELECTED RESEARCH DATABASES AND JOURNALS

• BioOne - A unique collection of full-text articles produced by societies and non-commercial publishers, including 86 high-impact bioscience research journals from 63 publishers. All articles in BioOne are peer-reviewed.
• Toxnet - Databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, environmental health, and toxic releases. Use in conjunction with Journal Finder tool and InterLibrary Loan.
• BearHunt - Search multiple databases simultaneously. Tradeoffs include less nuanced searching and slow loading results.
• AGRICOLA - Database of citations for books, journal articles, and other resources covering agriculture and allied fields found in the National Agriculture Library (NAL), including some links to full-text.
• Academic Search Premier - An all-purpose database which includes general science articles.
• General Science Collection - Consists of over 200 journals encompassing the most popular scientific titles available today. This resource provides information needed to stay current on the latest scientific developments.
• Highwire Press - Portal to online versions of high-impact (more than 70 of the 200 most-frequently-cited journals in science are hosted), peer-reviewed science journals provided by the Standford University Library. Some full-text is available.
• PubChem - Technical chemical information. A database which contains the chemical structures of small organic molecules and information on their biological activities, and is maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).

• Regulations.gov - Search to see government policy and regulations.

 SPECIFIC PEER-REVIEWED SCIENCE JOURNALS

• Analytical Chemistry - (ACS journal) Exploring the latest concepts in analytical measurements and the best new ways to increase accuracy, selectivity, sensitivity, and reproducibility including the latest peer-reviewed research and select significant applications. (full-text 1996 - present)
• Accounts of Chemical Research - (ACS journal) Concise, critical, and significant articles offering easy-to-read overviews of basic research and applications in all areas of chemistry and biochemistry. (full-text 1996 - present)
• Nature and Science - Highly cited and well-respected general science journals which specializes in publishing original research about new advances in multiple fields.

SCIENCE JOURNALISM ONLINE (not peer-reviewed)

• Scientific American
• New Scientist
• American Scientist
• Science News
• Discovery Channel

OTHER TOOLS

• Journal Finder/Article Linker - This tool has multiple uses and will be very handy in all your classes.
  • Use it to find the full text when you only have a citation
  • Use it to browse for journal titles that may be in your subject area (in the Browse journals by subject area, choose Health and Biological Sciences)
  • Journal Finder/Article Linker

    Title begins with Title equals Title contains all words ISSN equals
    
     
• Google Scholar - A Google interface for academic materials.

Finding Books 

CATALOGS

• CLICnet : Joint catalog which spans the collections of the libraries at Concordia, Augsburg, Bethel, St. Cate's, Hamline, Macalester, Northwestern, and St. Thomas. 
  • Search CLICnet by Keyword, Author, Title, or Standard Number (ISBN or ISSN):
    Search for books (CLICnet)
    

    Keyword Author Title ISBN/ISSN
  • or browse CLICnet by subject: Chemistry
• Worldcat.org : Catalog of over 1 billion items in libraries across the world. If the title you want is not available via CLICnet, request via the proper Interlibrary Loan Form.
• DeweyBrowser - Locate the Dewey Decimal System call number of the general area to browse at the library with this this tool

 E-BOOK COLLECTIONS

• Bookshelf
• NetLibrary 
• Gale Virtual Reference Library