Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Older references

GreenD - 13-4-2012 at 07:15

How can you find older references on making simple molecules. If you google it, you usually get the most cutting edge/specifically made materials.

I was looking for poly lactic-acid / glycolide hydrogels, but everything is so specific!

How do you guys find the "original" papers?

Nicodem - 13-4-2012 at 07:20

Quote: Originally posted by GreenD  
How do you guys find the "original" papers?

Ever heard about libraries? Most scientific libraries offer some access to reference databases. You can also use the free reference databases if you want, or else obtain an institutional access if you are affiliated with some such institution.

GreenD - 13-4-2012 at 07:26

Quote: Originally posted by Nicodem  
Quote: Originally posted by GreenD  
How do you guys find the "original" papers?

Ever heard about libraries? Most scientific libraries offer some access to reference databases. You can also use the free reference databases if you want, or else obtain an institutional access if you are affiliated with some such institution.


Scifinder was great. Don't have that luxury anymore, or an institutional library.

Nicodem - 13-4-2012 at 07:37

In Europe, most cities with population over 100,000 will have at least one scientific library, if nowhere else at least at the local university. Don't know what's the situation wherever you live, but at least you have access to the internet and most scientific literature publishers have an internet site with a search option.
Or just use the free resources. Some of them are not so bad. Even google scholar can give excellent results if your searching skills are decent enough. There are even some that allow structure searches, like RSC's ChemSpider/ChemSynthesis.

I'm currently in the process of writing the literature searching guidelines, because nobody volunteered my appeal. Unfortunately, it is not ready yet, but I will have to post a draft soon, as I need some assistance in regard to the non-organic resources. If you can wait...

GreenD - 13-4-2012 at 11:38

I can wait.

I'm a pro at google scholar, I think. But most of the stuff on there usually comes up around 2005-2010. The stuff that is older is harder to dig up.

I think I've been overlooking citations as well...

BromicAcid - 13-4-2012 at 12:29

You don't even need a library right away, just look at the footnotes for whatever reference you do have. Then you will likely need a library. The longer I am online the more I realize the huge amount of content leads many to believe it is comprehensive, but unless what you are looking up is cutting edge, it is far from complete. There have been entire industrial processes that I have been interested in that were in vogue 75 years ago that will only lead to one or two relevant google hits. With all the information online it's amazing how useless most of it is.

Polverone - 13-4-2012 at 15:27

I've posted a response here since I think the answer may be useful to a lot of people: https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=19...

I mostly covered how to locate citations to older primary literature and how to retrieve older secondary literature. The tricks to obtaining full-text copies of primary literature, both old and new, will have to wait for another post.

[Edited on 4-13-2012 by Polverone]

Nicodem - 14-4-2012 at 03:17

In response to Polverone's appreciated effort and exploiting the still hot topic I posted the above mentioned draft here. I would truly appreciate help in finishing it.

turd - 14-4-2012 at 04:44

Quote: Originally posted by Nicodem  
In response to Polverone's appreciated effort and exploiting the still hot topic I posted the above mentioned draft here. I would truly appreciate help in finishing it.

I have not much to add, but I'm glad that I'm not the only person annoyed by the SciFinder web interface. :P

The sister of the CSD for inorganic compounds is the ICSD: http://www.fiz-karlsruhe.de/icsd_content.html
Also note that both do not only publish structures from single crystal XRD but also from powders and neutrons.
In the ICSD there are also some structures calculated with DFT methods. I never understood why.
For powder diffraction patterns there is the powder diffraction file (PDF, http://www.icdd.com/). It contains data from all kind of sources (including all CSD and ICSD entries!). A seizable portion of it is bunk. It's expensive, but some libraries have access to it.
The entries in the above databases are of course always accompanied by bibliographic information, making them also very useful to people without the proper analytical equipment as a starting point for "spidering"[1].

Literature work is exactly that: work. Spending hours in the library. It's appalling that nowadays with access to electronic databases, literature work is actually much worse than it used to be, when people had to manually sift through CA, etc. Today many lazy bastards just do random experiments, write them up and let the referee do the work. In the very likely case that he doesn't (why should he spend weeks doing other people's work): all the better.

Other point: the clerk at the library is there to help you! Overcome your autism for a few minutes and they will show you how to use the microfiche apparatus, how to order from the archive, etc.

Finally: Libraries do interlibrary loans. Usually they can locate even the most obscure references and get a copy (nowadays electronic) for a small fee. It's their job.

[1] https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=39... ;)

turd - 15-4-2012 at 11:27

Quote: Originally posted by turd  
Also note that both do not only publish structures from single crystal XRD but also from powders and neutrons.

And electrons! :o
ICSD #240391: NiTi, Acta Crystallogr. (2006), 62, 966-971

(Only saying this for completeness. Structural data from electrons is so rare that it's hardly worth of note.)

GreenD - 16-4-2012 at 10:43

Wow Nicodem. You put a lot of effort into that. I will definitely thoroughly read your post over the next week or so...

Currently trying to find "reduction of nitromethane" to methylamine. This is the kind of thing I can't seem to find. It is too basic to find a paper on with experimental data.

Chem synth : 101859

[Edited on 16-4-2012 by GreenD]