215H Guide to SciFinder Scholar

SciFinder Scholar is a computer program which allows you to search through chemistry journals using chemical structures and reactions in the same way you would use a keyword in, for example, an internet search.

When SciFinder Scholar starts up, wait for it to connect to CAS, “Agree” with the statement, and you should see this window:

The top option, “Chemical Substance or Reaction,” is of prime importance here, just because the other three are rather self-explanatory.

When you click on “Chemical Substance or Reaction,” you should get another set of options:

Clicking on the top option will bring you to a drawing screen similar to ChemDraw. The next page shows a summary of the toolbar.

The toolbar:

Let’s try an example. Suppose I wanted to find some examples of Diels-Alder reactions with various substituted dienophiles. I might draw something like this:

Putting the reaction arrow between the reactants and the products automatically assigns reactant or product status, but you can also do this manually by selecting the molecule and using the reaction role tool . The group is a generic alkyl chain group, selected with the tool. Now, you can click the button.

If the structure is too general, SciFinder will tell you and allow you to fix it. You can use the Lock tools to help this. When your search results are displayed, you should see several examples of similar reactions to the one you drew. You can use the citations to go find these articles in the library. All references have the microscope button in them, but some also have this button: . Clicking this will take you directly to the article online, so you don’t have to go to the library. NOTE: This does not work when using SciFinder on the library’s Citrix service.

You can also search for a specific chemical structure, without defining a whole reaction. This is useful if you want to find a laboratory preparation, for example. Simply draw the molecule and click and follow the directions.

Another useful part of SciFinder is searching by research topic. In the beginning, main window, select “Research Topic” instead of “Chemical Substance or Reaction.” Enter a topic, such as “Regioselectivity in Diels-Alder reactions,” and you'll get a list of possible references containing these ideas. These can be refined and analyzed by many different parameters like date, journal name, publication type, etc.

To use SciFinder Scholar on your home computer, go to the library’s SciFinder link, http://www.lib.umich.edu/citrix/scifnd.html and select the “download software…” option. This will tell you how to install the Citrix program that allows you to access SciFinder. Then, you can return to this website and select “Use SciFinder Scholar” to start the program.