According to ACS Ethical Guidelines for authors:

"An author is obligated to perform a literature search to find, and then cite, the original publications that describe closely related work." (ACS, Ethical Guidelines to Publication of Chemical Research, p. 2)

A literature search, much like lab work, usually goes better if you have thought about what you want to accomplish. After you have completed your background research (see Looking at the Literature), you should be ready to start planning your search. This includes first determining what questions you need to answer from the literature, and then using information you have already gleaned to come up with a list of keywords, and then a search strategy. You also need to consider which databases are appropriate for your research.

Chapter 3, "Search Strategy", of Maizell's How to Find Chemical Information (Ref QD 8.5 M34 1998), lists 24 questions that you should ask yourself about your research. I won't recount them here (you should really read the chapter), but I will list a few I feel are important:

• What is the goal of my research? What do I need to do to reach this goal?
• What do I already know? (Maizell says, "What information do I already have on hand?")
• What do I still need to learn?
• Why is what I am researching important?
• Has my project been done before? If so, how? What new spin can I put on it?
• What techniques/methods/tools/compounds are used? What do I need to know about them?

The answers to these questions will help you as you are planning the research process.

Creating a Search Strategy

Choosing Keywords | Boolean Operators | Truncation

Choosing Keywords

Taking the time to think about the terms you will search is an important step in the research process. Poorly selected terms can result in inaccurate or incomplete searches. For me, the most effective way to come up with keywords is to just keep a list while I'm skimming the literature. I jot down chemical names, registry numbers, formulas, names for techniques and methods, and even author's names. As I do more involved research, the list evolves, but it is a very useful starting point.

I'm interested in the behavior of methane gas in landfills. After doing a little background research and finding this article, I came up with the following keywords:

• 174-82-8 (CAS Registry Number)
• methane (substance name)
• CH₄ (formula)
• landfills
• cover soil
• soil
• oxidation
• oxygen limitation
• ammonium
• NH₄⁺

Boolean Operators

Remember that when searching indexes for more than one term it is necessary to combine your keywords into one search statement by using Boolean operators, OR and AND (and sometimes NOT).

If the search doesn't yield enough results, you might try a broader search without so many restrictions.

Truncation

Attaching a wild card symbol to the end of a root word is called truncation. When used in a search, the database will search for the root word and alternate endings. For example, oxid* will retrieve items with the words oxidation or oxidize or oxidate. The symbol used for truncation varies from database to database. For example, Web of Science uses an asterisk (*). Use the individual database's Help system to determine if it allows truncation and what the symbol is.

Selecting a Database

Each database usually covers a particular subject or sub-discipline, but there are also other factors to consider when deciding which database to use:

• subject coverage
• dates of coverage
• types of resources that are indexed (journals, patents, technical reports, reviews)
• type of searching available (controlled vocabulary, citation searching, structure/substructure searching)

A complete list of databases of use to chemistry-related research is available from the Chemistry Research Guide.

Maintained by: Linda Maddux, Science Librarian & Pat McDougal, Chemistry Professor