chemrox - 13-5-2012 at 00:26
I'm confronted with a dilemma. Subscribe to SciFinder or STN. SciFinder is about $215/month paid annually or quarterly. The CAS folks are telling
me the STN searches can get really expensive so SciFinder might be the better deal. I haven't used either as I date back to CAS online (Clinton era)
when it was free or close to. Those happy folks that have access to both please advise.
Dr.Bob - 14-5-2012 at 06:38
Scifinder is much easier to use and flat rate. If you do several searches a month, it is the way to go. Each search on STN can be $100 or more.
They are all overpriced. The other choice is Reaxys by Elsevoir, which is also a flat rate, but may not be as good as Scifinder.
The key to flat rate subscriptions is using them enough to make them worth the cost. If you can be the main idea person for a lab, then it becomes
worth it.
chemrox - 14-5-2012 at 11:05
Here's what I'm doing: I'm looking up compounds for which I have the original, usually small scale, synthesis. The compound is produced
industrially. I'm trying to devlop 'greener' methods. So its a bunch of ag and pharma intermediates. Maybe they were synthesized in a university
tenor twenty years ago, worked up with chromatography, etc. etc. Which of these products, scifinder, stn and reaxys is most likely to get me to the
industrial methods? Any idea what a Reaxys subsciption costs?
Why is ACS now in the money making business?
kristofvagyok - 14-5-2012 at 15:03
I use both Reaxys and SciFinder, they are both good, but now the SciFinder has "upgraded" and if I find a recipe in a journal what am I not subscribed
to, then I can't see any detail about the reaction (solvent, reagenst, reaction time ect.), while with Reaxys these data are provided, even if I am
not subscribed to that XY journal.
I have never ever worked with STN, usually Reaxys or SciFinder is fairly enough, almost everything is in their databases, but if I have to choose, I
would vote to Reaxys, it is much better and sometimes it seems like it has a larger database.