Review and Comparison of the Search Effectiveness and User Interface of Three Major Online Ch

Article pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc

Review and Comparison of the Search Effectiveness and User Interface of Three Major Online Chemical Databases Neelam Bharti,*,† Michelle Leonard,† and Shailendra Singh‡ †

Marston Science Library, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, United States

‡

Division of Environmental Health and Safety, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, United States S Supporting Information *

ABSTRACT: Online chemical databases are the largest source of chemical information and, therefore, the main resource for retrieving results from published journals, books, patents, conference abstracts, and other relevant sources. Various commercial, as well as free, chemical databases are available. SciFinder, Reaxys, and Web of Science are three major chemical databases that contain extensive search options. Herein, we review these three databases for their search effectiveness and interface. This comparison will be useful to the undergraduates, graduates, nonchemistry majors, researchers, and new librarians.

KEYWORDS: Graduate Education/Research, Internet/Web-Based Learning, Undergraduate Research, Chemoinformatics

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and materials in other platforms and delivers the information about the topic, author, abstract, publication name and type, and references.10 There are various types of databases: citation or bibliographic databases and full-text databases, as well as databases that contain chemical structures, chemical reactions, and chemical and physical properties.11,12 Bibliographic databases provide detailed information depending on the subject and scope of the information and are often linked to other databases as well as to the primary source. A full-text database is a compilation of documents or other information available for online viewing, printing, or downloading. In addition to the text documents in a full-text database, images are often included, such as graphs, maps, photos, and diagrams which are often searchable by keywords, phrases, or both.11,12 Chemistry databases can be considered search-specific due to how they vary in content and thus in the various ways they need to be able to search different information such as structures, reaction schemes, and synthetic routes. Different types of chemical databases are available: (1) Bibliographic databases for searching authors, subjects, citations, or full-text; (2) Numeric databases for searching factual or property information; and (3) Structure databases for searching molecules or reactions. Some databases such as SciFinder and Reaxys can be searched using bibliographic, numeric, and structure searching information.

hemistry is commonly referred to as the central science, and is used by many other scientific disciplines. If you ask someone working in the sciences how often they use chemical information, the answer is going to be very often. The search for chemical information using different databases is complicated and time-consuming; it would be nice to know prior to searching, which database might provide the most informative and relevant results for a specific query.

For chemistry searches, commercial databases such as SciFinder, Reaxys, and Web of Science (WoS) and free sources such as PubChem and ChemSpider are available on the web.

There are also resources available for keeping track of recent updates on chemical information sources.1 Numerous articles have previously described the coverage and features for SciFinder, Reaxys, and WoS separately, but none of them have reviewed and compared them head-to-head after major redesigns in their respective interfaces and functionality in recent years.2−9 In this article, we will provide a brief overview of the three major commercial chemistry databases: SciFinder, Reaxys, and WoS, and compare their search methods available, options for refining search results, technical specifications, and citation export features.

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BACKGROUND A database is an organized collection of data in any field.10 A scientific database collects and organizes scientific information from research papers, review articles, conference proceedings, and case reports published in professional journals, patents, © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Received: July 20, 2015 Revised: February 8, 2016

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Figure 1. SciFinder search by the research topic. (Image used with permission from CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society.)

Figure 2. SciFinder search by the author name. (Image used with permission from CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society.)

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SCIFINDER (CHEMICAL ABSTRACT SERVICES (CAS), AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY) SciFinder background and description is available in Supporting Information. Academic subscriptions to SciFinder are available by individual login through the institutional IP Authentication.

To use SciFinder, the first-time user must register with an institutional e-mail account. Once the registration is confirmed

by CAS, the user can use the login and password. SciFinder has a user-friendly interface and provides many methods to analyze, refine, or narrow down the search results. In SciFinder, excerpted data includes experimental, derived, predicted, and calculated data.

Three basic methods for searching SciFinder are available from the main page “Explore Reference”, “Explore Substance”, and “Explore Reaction”, “Explore Reference” provides seven additional search options: research topic, author name, company name, document identifier, journal, patent, and tags (Figure 1).

Searching by “Research Topic” is a versatile search option and allows for searches by topic or keyword (name reaction). When searching a phrase or keyword, SciFinder retrieves the results exactly as entered in the search box, and/or any closely associated terms and concepts, and/or containing any one or more of the search words or anywhere in the reference. Closely associated terms indicate that the terms may be present in the concept, in the title, in the same sentence, in the abstract, or in a single Index Heading and its text-modifying phrase, while “anywhere in the

reference” means that the terms are present somewhere in the title, abstract, and index fields. As such, a user may retrieve more than one search set. To help filter these sets, the search results display the “Analyze,”, “Refine”, and “Categorize” tabs. The “Analyze” tab analyzes the references in-depth by author’s name, CAS no., company/organization name, document type, index term, concept heading, journal name, language, and publication year. The “Refine” tab limits the results by the year, document type, language, and author/company name. The “Categorize” tab provides more detailed analysis based on CAS indexing. The “Sort by” menu allows users to arrange the search results by the publication year, title, accession number, or number of citations. Once an article is retrieved, related citation information about the article, such as times cited and cited references, can be viewed by clicking on “Get Related Citations”. The substances and reactions in the retrieved references can be accessed by clicking on the symbols of molecules and green flask icon. The “Quick View” link provides an image of the abstract; the full text can be accessed using other sources tab, just below the retrieved record’s title.

SciFinder offers an option to search by “author name” in order to find variant and alternate spellings of any given author’s name.

The retrieved search results can be selected and combined to obtain the information indexed under the various configurations of an author’s name (Figure 2). The retrieved results can further be refined by the company/organization name.

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Figure 3. SciFinder search by the substance. (Image used with permission from CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society.)

Figure 4. SciFinder search result by the substance. (Image used with permission from CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society.)

The “Substances Search” tab can be used to search for a chemical structure (exact structure/substructure/similarity), a Markush structure (substructure or with variables), a molecular formula, a substance property (boiling point/density/electric resistance/electric conductance/glass transition temperature/ melting point), or a substance identifier (e.g., chemical name, CAS Registry Number). If the searched structure has any chiral centers, more than one set is retrieved based on the similarity to the searched structure. Data sets are generally classified according to the similarity score of the searched structure (Figure 3).

The retrieved results can be arranged by CAS Registry Number, molecular formula, molecular weight, commercial sources, and similarity score or number of references. If the compound is commercially available, a link to the vendor’s Web

site is provided. If synthetic reactions are available, there is a link to the reference reaction. The CAS Registry Number, molecular formula, and the chemical name appear with the structure, as well as the similarity score (Figure 4).

For a structure or reaction search, SciFinder provides Javadependent and non-Java chemical structure editors. As a result of CAS’s collaboration with the Cambridge software, a user can also launch a structure search directly from the ChemBio Draw Ultra 2014 or ChemDraw Professional software. In reaction searches, the “Retrieved reference” option displays information about the publication referenced, the reactants/steps/stages, the reaction conditions, and a link to the full text (Figure 5).

The commercial availability of the reactants/reagents and products is made known to users through the use of an orange flask icon that links out to the companies selling the C

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Figure 5. SciFinder search by the reaction. (Image used with permission from CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society.)

Figure 6. Reaxys main search page. (Reaxys is a registered trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties SA. Image used with permission.)

is necessary, users may create their own profile and customize their account settings.

The Reaxys interface is very straightforward and selfexplanatory. “Ask Reaxys” is a search box (similar to Google search) where the keywords, concept, or author can be searched (Figure 6).

“Keywords” can be substances (substance name/molecular formula/CAS Registry no.) or substance properties (melting point/solubility/ferroelectricity). “Concept” searches may include reactions (synthesis/reaction type/named reaction), and “author” can be searched by citation (author/topic/article).

Some records do not have CAS Registry Numbers. Reaxys can be searched by the reaction, substance, structure/ substructure, and literature. “Literature” can be searched for the title, abstract, and indexing terms, as well as authors’ names, patent assignees, publication title, year, volume, and page number (Figure 7).

The “Reaxys tree” is a unique feature of the database, and covers the information about chemical transformation, physicochemical analysis methods, and quantum chemical calculation methods (Figure 8). Moreover, it can be searched for the physical properties and spectra (NMR, IR, MS, UV−visible, and PR), as well as for isolated natural products.

One challenge is conducting a “topic search” using multiple words or phrases. For example, if the user searches “gold nanoparticles in nanomedicine”, the results do not include the phrase, but only include the individual words or combination of words (i.e., gold nanoparticles and/or nanomedicine) (Figure 9).

The “Open Analysis View” provides the histogram analysis of authors, publications, years, or properties, and can be sorted

reactants/reagents in question. The details of the reaction or any existent links to similar reactions are readily accessible via a link to the full text. “Experimental procedure” section provides the details of the experiment (Figure 5).

In addition to the search features outlined above, SciFinder offers the whole suite of diverse and custom search tools to aid researchers, such as SciFinder mobile and KMP (keep me posted) alert notification for relevant topics. Other features include the ability to save search queries and search results for a current session. SciPlanner is a function that allows users to plan reactions or syntheses and organize references. Users can also create and save the projects which can be printed or shared with other SciFinder users. SciFinder scope includes searches of single and multiple step reactions. Results can be analyzed and refined, and can also be grouped by transformation or by the document.

Recently, PatentPak functionality was made available to users as a one-click patent retriever.13 SciFinder is the only one of the three databases discussed here that allow users to export cited references in a tagged format for importing into a citation manager tool (CMT). Export of citations to various CMTs is handled differently, depending on the CMT.14 Users need to use .ris for a desktop reference manager and .txt for a web-based manager. More information can be found using SciFinder’s online tutorials at http://www.cas.org/training/scifinder.15

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REAXYS (REED ELSEVIER) Reaxys background and description is available in the Supporting Information. Reaxys can be accessed by subscription via institutional IP authentication as an anonymous user. Although no login D

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Figure 7. Reaxys query examples. (Reaxys is a registered trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties SA. Image used with permission.)

Figure 8. Reaxys search options by Reaxys tree. (Reaxys is a registered trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties SA. Image used with permission.)

Figure 9. Reaxys search by the topic or keywords. (Reaxys is a registered trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties SA. Image used with permission.)

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Figure 10. Reaxys open analysis view and histograms. (Reaxys is a registered trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties SA. Image used with permission.)

Figure 11. Reaxys search by the structure. (Reaxys is a registered trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties SA. Image used with permission.)

organization, address, document type, funding agency (for newer citations), grant number (for newer citations), accession number, and PubMed ID. On the search screen, users can also search by a range of years, and select or deselect the Social Science Index and/or Arts & Humanities Index. If the institution does not subscribe to a particular index or database, the option for search will not be visible. One feature that is new with the revamping of the Web site is lemmatization, where the search algorithm includes spelling variations (e.g., behavior vs behaviour; tooth vs teeth; fish vs fishes). On the main search screen, the user may also access all the Thomson Reuter products the institution subscribes to, such as EndNote Basic, which is free with a subscription. The main screen also informs the patron of the collection they are searching, and the type of search (basic, author, cited reference, or advanced) (Figure 12).

The Core Collection offers a wealth of chemical literature in various scientific disciplines like agriculture, medicine, and water resources. If the institution only subscribes to the WoS, Science Citation Index but not the chemical indexes, the user will only find chemical literature. When searching for a topic, the retrieved results contain information about the search topic and context.

On the left side of the search screen, the patron will view the search strategy, the ability to “create an alert” on the topic or author, and to refine results by various categories such as the subjects identified by WoS, research areas, author(s), year, document type, and publication type.

Cited reference search is a unique feature of WoS. Through a cited reference search, a user can discover how a known idea has been confirmed, applied, improved, extended or corrected. Users

by count or value. The analysis window is available for all the retrieved searches (Figure 10).

For structure or reaction searches, Reaxys provides built in MarvinSketch (ChemAxon), a java-dependent drawing editor, and also supports various other structure editors such as ChemDraw or importing the drawing file from the desktop (Figure 11). Reaxys offers the option to generate a structure template from a chemical name. The retrieved structure results provide the name, Reaxys Registry number, CAS Registry number, and structure formula, as well as molecular formula, molecular weight, and InChI key.16 This also provides active links to the synthesis, details, and original references, as well as the available data information (Figure 11). In Reaxys, all excerpted data are experimental data, not derived, predicted, or calculated data.

More in-depth information for learning how to use Reaxys is available in online tutorials at https://www.elsevier.com/ solutions/reaxys/learn-and-support.17

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WEB OF SCIENCE (THOMSON REUTERS) Web of Science can be accessed by subscription via institutional IP authentication as an anonymous user. Although no login is necessary, users may create their own account and customize their account settings to use other features available. The “basic search” initially offers one search box with the option of adding more search boxes (Figure 12). The new WoS platform provides access to full text through Google Scholar. The user can search individually or through a combination of topic, title, author, groups of authors or author ID, editor, conference, language, journal title, digital object identifier (DOI), year published, F

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Figure 12. Web of Science basic search. (Image source: Web of Science, a Thomson Reuters product. Copyright 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Image used with permission.)

Figure 13. Web of Science H analysis. (Image source: Web of Science, a Thomson Reuters product. Copyright 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Image used with permission.)

Chemicus”. These indexes are not standalone databases, but a part of the WoS Core Collection and, nonetheless, need a special subscription. Current Chemical Reactions offer over 1 million reactions dated to 1986, and the INPI (Institut National de la Propriete Industrielle) archive from 1840−1985. More than 1,083,758 reactions are available in 598,871 reaction flows that include reaction diagrams, critical conditions, bibliographic data, and author abstracts (Figure 14).

“Current Chemical Reactions” contains synthetic methods reported in over 100 chemistry journals. Index Chemicus provides access to more than 2.6 million compounds dated from 1993 to present and covers over 100 chemistry journals.

Users can search Index Chemicus using both text, structure, and substructure. Other features include full bibliographic information, graphical summaries, and reaction diagrams (Figure 15).

When searching two chemical indexes, if a structure or compound is available, the symbol appears under the article title. By clicking on the individual record at the bottom of the

can view the H-Index and Create a Citation Report. Citation reports include yearly analysis of items and citations (Figure 13) In addition to the search features discussed above, WoS offers other diverse and custom search tools to help users, such as Marked List, Search History, and Researchers ID. In search history, saved searches can be combined or edited. InCites and Essential Science Indicators are also part of the Web of Science interface and provide analysis of top/hot/highly cited papers by the research field, author, institution, journals, countries and research fronts stating cites per paper. More in-depth information on WoS searching is available through online tutorials at http://wokinfo.com/training_support/training/web-of-science/.18

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WEB OF SCIENCE CORE COLLECTION: CURRENT CHEMICAL REACTIONS (CCR) AND INDEX CHEMICUS (IC) To gain access to the structure drawings, an institution must subscribe to both “Current Chemical Reactions” and “Index G

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Figure 14. Web of Science Current Chemical Reactions and Index Chemicus. (Image source: Web of Science, a Thomson Reuters product. Copyright 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Image used with permission.)

Figure 15. Web of Science CCR and IC search by the text or structure. (Image source: Web of Science, a Thomson Reuters product. Copyright ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Image used with permission.)

Figure 16. Web of Science structure display in CCR and IC. (Image source: Web of Science, a Thomson Reuters product. Copyright 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Image used with permission.)

page, the user will find the structure and/or compound. To open the diagrams, the user will be prompted to open the Accelrys JDraw application. Figure 16 shows an example of structures rendered in the program. Unfortunately, this program only runs

on selected version of Java and a computer operating system that offers a 32-bit processor. Users should be aware that hardware compatibility issues that might prevent certain desktop configurations from running the JDraw software.

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Table 1. Comparison of Salient Features of SciFinder, Reaxys, and Web of Science Comparison Results by Database Features Comparison Provider (Start Date of the Database Interface) Ease of Access Common Search Features Scope of Coverage: Sources Scope of Coverage: Date Range Scope of Coverage: Subject Strengths/Unique Search Features

Weaknesses

SciFinder

Web of Science

Elsevier (2009)

Thomson Reuters (1997)

Individual login after registration on approved IP address Research topic, author, substance, reaction, properties, company name, literature, document identifier, journal, patent, tags, publication year Journals, book chapters, patents, conference proceedings, reports, meeting abstracts, chemical catalogs, dissertations Early 1800s−present

Accessed through approved IP address

Accessed through approved IP address

Keyword, author, substance, properties, reaction, literature, journal, patent, spectra Journals, books, patents, conference proceedings, and abstracts, Scopus and Science Direct 1771−present

Basic, advanced, citation, topic, title, author, editor, group author, publication name and year, conference, funding agency, grant number, organization Journals, book chapters, editorials, conference proceedings, book reviews 1900s−present (varies by file)

Chemistry, and life sciences

Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry

Multidisciplinary

User-friendly interface, one-click patent search (on subscription), easy result refinement, alternate author search with organization affiliation, Java, and non-Java structure editor Restricted access that requires individual login, unintuitive citation export to citation management tools

User-friendly interface, Reaxys tree, quantum chemical calculation methods, Java structure editor, searching by the large number of properties available No organization searches option with author search, limited citation export options, limited number of journals covered for deep indexing Up to 5000 references can be exported at once Biweekly Yes

User-friendly, exceptional citation analysis tools (h-index), easy citation export, citation map linking to the researchers ID, enhanced organizational field, cited reference search Difficult to use structure drawing editor due to system requirement

Citation Export

Up to 100 references can be exported at once

Update Frequency Full-Text Link

Daily Yes

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Reaxys

Chemical Abstract Services (1997)

COMPARISON OF SCIFINDER, REAXYS, AND WEB OF SCIENCE The authors compared the search features, the scope of coverage, subject and sources, reference age, strengths, and weaknesses in the chemical databases: SciFinder, Reaxys, and WoS. The results are shown in Table 1. All three databases offer extensive literature searches with their own uniqueness. SciFinder and Reaxys are chemistry-centric because of their structure drawing function and provide a healthy collection of literature ranging from books to patents, going back to the 1800s and 1700s, respectively. WoS is a multidisciplinary database for literature searches, and also provides exclusive citation analysis options.

Up to 500 citations can be exported at once (using marked list) Weekly Yes

835−843” was searched, and the citations were compared.

SciFinder showed 90 citations for this article, whereas Reaxys and WoS showed fewer citations, 74 and 65, respectively.

Conversely, the reference “Chemical Reviews (2009), 109(5), 1900−1947” showed a similar number of citations using all the three databases. In this case, a comparison of the given citations in all the three databases indicates that no database alone would be sufficient to generate an accurate picture of the available citation information for a given article. As each database gave a list of incomplete results, none of them can be said to be authoritative and complete. An additional note on these results: in looking at the number of citing references, the Reaxys data is mostly coming from Scopus.

Comparison by Subject Heading/Research Topic Search

Comparison by the Citation Search

For one search “gold nanoparticles and nanomedicine”, SciFinder retrieved 7 references containing “gold nanoparticles and nanomedicine” as entered, whereas 503 references had two concepts “gold nanoparticles” and “nanomedicine” closely associated. Reaxys showed no results for this search, but a separate search for “gold nanoparticles” or “nanomedicine” resulted in 43,177 citations and 6635 citations, respectively.

WoS retrieved 583 articles when searching “gold nanoparticles” AND “nanomedicine” as a topic using the Core Collection, excluding the two chemical indexes. When searching the WoS Core Collection with only the two chemical databases, CCR, and IC, only two results were obtained for “gold nanoparticles” AND “nanomedicine”, and with “gold nanoparticles”, 874 records were obtained. As evident from Table 2, a significant difference was observed in the search results using SciFinder, Reaxys, and WoS Core Collection, probably because of different search algorithms. Reaxys and WOS use Boolean operators including proximity operators, whereas SciFinder uses sentences without operators. SciFinder uses some unpublished algorithms that work extremely well.19

We compared a few random references and the number of times these articles were cited (Figure 17). For example, the reference “European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2002), 37(10),

Figure 17. Comparison of reference citations in SciFinder, Reaxys, and Web of Science.

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Table 2. Comparison of SciFinder, Reaxys, and Web of Science by Research Topic Number of Search Results Research Topic

SciFinder

Reaxys

Web of Science

Gold nanoparticles and nanomedicine Nanoparticle Gold nanoparticles Nanomedicine Nanomedicine and gold nanoparticles

7a (503)b 295974 37647 8192 4a (503)b

0 323146 43177 6635 0

583 136874 12138 4453 583

Reference results containing the search term as entered. bReference results containing the two concepts “gold nanoparticles” and “nanomedicine” closely associated. a

Comparison by Author Search

Table 3. Comparison of SciFinder and Reaxys by Substance Search Results

One of the authors was searched as “Christuo, George”.

SciFinder retrieved results with alternate first and last names and provided different sets of results (Figure 18). A total of

Number of Search Results Substance

SciFinder

Reaxys

Deferitrin CAS no. 239101-33−8 4-Hydroxydesazadesferrithiocin C11H11NO4S

1 1 0 922a

4 1 2 371

a

All possible structures by SciFinder; some do not have an index name yet!

Reaxys, whereas the search by CAS no. provided one hit each in SciFinder and Reaxys (Table 3). 4-Hydroxydesazadesferrithiocin, which is a synonym of Deferitrin, appeared in references, but did not appear in the SciFinder search when searching by substance identifier. This may lead to incomplete search results.

Comparison by Citation Export to the Citation Management Tools

The citation export feature in SciFinder to major CMTs is a unique process.18 Export of citations to various citation management tools (CMTs) is dependent on the CMT, usually requiring users to export cited references in a format compatible with the citation manager of choice. To import into RefWorks or EndNote, the references are first saved in a file and then imported to the respective programs (Figure 19). It can be difficult to know which export file type to use if the user is not already familiar with the process.

Reaxys offers multiple citation export options but contains only one literature management tool option. The export screen appears when exporting substance results, but the management tool option is not available during this process. The primary export function page shows the steps to export citations to endnote after selecting the literature management system feature (Figure 20). Ideally, the direct export to Mendeley should be a standard feature because it is also owned by Elsevier, but that is not an option yet.

WoS offers an easy export option to some of the major CMTs. Because Thomson Reuters developed EndNote Basic and EndNote Desktop, these two CMTs are listed as the primary and secondary options, followed by other tools (i.e., RefWorks).

When searching the WoS, you cannot export selected citations displayed on multiple pages. Instead, you must select citations or all citations on each page and then add them to the marked list before exporting them. (You can increase the number of citations displayed on each page from 10 to 50 by changing the preference at the bottom of a search results page.) The citations may be exported from the page displaying the search results or in the individual record (Figure 21).

Figure 18. Comparison of SciFinder, Reaxys, and Web of Science searches by author’s name.

579 results were retrieved for “Christou, George,” whereas “Christuo, G” or just “Christuo” had 205 and 4 hits, respectively.

These 579 references were further analyzed by the organization name (e.g., University of Florida) (203). It is important to mix and match the author’s first name/initial and last name to get better results in SciFinder. In Reaxys, the search was conducted using “published by Author’s name” and retrieved 449 citations for “Christou, George”, but did not provide the options for alternate spellings or analysis by company/organization name.

WoS provided 203 hits for “Christou, George”, and the organization enhanced option reduced the search results to 185. The organizational analysis option is particularly helpful when the author worked at more than one place, describing what was published from which lab.

Comparison by Substance Search

WoS does not offer this function as a part of Core Collection, but additional databases CCR and IC can be accessed for chemical structure search. Given the technical limitations, only SciFinder and Reaxys were compared. For reference comparison, the chemical name of the compound “deferitrin” was searched as a topic in WoS, Reaxys, and SciFinder and retrieved 13, 4, and 26 citations, respectively. We searched for the substance “deferitrin”

by CAS registry no. 239101-33-8, chemical name, or molecular formula. Deferitrin retrieved 1 result in SciFinder and 4 in J

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Figure 19. Citation export option displays in SciFinder. (Image used with permission from CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society.)

Figure 20. Citation export option in Reaxys. (Reaxys is a registered trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties SA. Image used with permission.)

Figure 21. Citation export options in Web of Science. (Image source: Web of Science, a Thomson Reuters product. Copyright 2015 Thomson Reuters.

All rights reserved. Image used with permission.)

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CONCLUSION In considering the question: Which database should be used?, the answer depends on the user and desired information. If a nonchemistry major is searching the ecological factors of water chemistry in swamps, the WoS is a great tool. If a researcher is searching the structure of a chemical compound for medicinal chemistry, then either SciFinder or Reaxys can be used. In some cases, all the three major databases may be required, or in other cases, a simple literature search is sufficient.

SciFinder, Reaxys, and WoS offer wide-ranging literature in the chemical sciences. All the three databases offer unique graphical user interfaces, features, and functionalities. Each database offers its own version of search strategies, and the relevancy of the retrieved results vary significantly. It is important for the user to understand that the search results retrieved differ depending on the database.

Overall, SciFinder is user-friendly, and the drawing editor is intuitive and easy-to-use. This database is recommended for users with a chemistry background as well as novice users.

Reaxys is also user-friendly, especially for novice or nonchemistry users with the “Ask Reaxys” search feature. SciFinder topic searching is much easier to use than Ask Reaxys. The Reaxys tree is very valuable in providing the reaction methods, physicochemical properties of compounds, and quantum chemical calculation tools. SciFinder has indexed single-step and multiple-step reactions for many years, whereas Reaxys mostly contains single-step and some “half-step” reactions (products only).

WoS is an excellent overall database and can be easily searched by all users with great citation management feature. Cited/ Citing references go back to 1900 in WoS; so in order to find information on older citations, users should definitely use WoS. Subject Categories in WoS are at Journal title level, whereas categories in SciFinder are done at the article level. There are no broad subject categories in Reaxys (but Reaxys through Scopus data does have broad categories). We tried few additional searches on the topic, author, and substance, but the trend was mostly consistent throughout. The user, with the help of a professor or librarian, should consider the use of the desired information and the educational level and experience before selecting a database. The online tutorials offer a great way to learn basic searching skills. The three commercial chemical databases described here provide extensive chemical information, and users should consult one or all the databases for any chemistry-related research.

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Images in the graphical abstract from SciFinder (a division of the American Chemical Society), Reaxys (a registered trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties SA), and Web of Science (a Thomson Reuters product) are all used with permission.

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ASSOCIATED CONTENT

S Supporting Information *

The Supporting Information is available on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00601.

Additional descriptions of databases.(PDF, DOCX)

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AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Author

*E-mail: neelambh@ufl.edu.

Notes

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to acknowledge all reviewers for their constructive comments and Jose Baca for editorial assistance.

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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00601 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX