Chemical Abstracts Online

• Just as Chemical Abstracts is the single most important printed tool for chemical information, so its online counterpart is the most important electronic source.
• Electronic CA is made available through several vendors, including DIALOG, DataStar, Ovid, Orbit, Questel, ESA-IRS, and STN International, and in several formats, including STN Online, STNEasy (web menu interface), STNWeb (web command interface), SciFinder (client-server menu interface) and SciFinder Scholar (similar to SciFinder, for academic institutions) . We will be primarily using STNWeb and SciFinder Scholar.

STN International

• Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) (Columbus, Ohio)
• Fachinformationzentrum Karlrsruhe (FIZ Karlsruhe) (Karlsruhe, Germany)
• Japan Information Center for Science and Technology (JICST) (Tokyo, Japan)

Key Features of the Various Forms of CA Online

• STN Online
  • Available only to account holders with STN International; pricing is by records displayed and connect time and/or subject terms used.
  • All CA databases are available, as well as numerous others from other sci-tech database producers.
  • Multiple databases may be browsed (EXPAND command) or searched simultaneously.
  • Uses Messenger command language (see below.)
  • Full power of CA databases is available...to those who have mastered the command language.
  • Connection by dial-up or direct TELNET connection.
  • For easiest searching, especially structure searching, you need to use STN Express, interface and communication software for Windows and Mac computers. STN Express is designed to expedite STN online searching in many ways.
  • With current versions of STN Express, user can jump to full text records from selected publishers and patent offices where available.
• STNWeb
  • Available only to account holders with STN International; pricing is by records displayed and connect time and/or subject terms used.
  • All CA databases are available, as well as numerous others from other sci-tech database producers.
  • Multiple databases may be browsed (EXPAND command) or searched simultaneously.
  • Uses Messenger command language (see below.)
  • Full power of CA databases is available...to those who have mastered the command language.
  • Connection through the World Wide Web.
  • Requires Netscape Navigator 4.X or higher or Internet Explorer 4.X or higher, with JavaScript enabled. Structure drawing requires a free, downloadable plugin.
  • Through "ChemPort Connection", user can jump to full text records from selected publishers and patent offices.
• STNEasy
  • Available only to account holders with STN International; pricing is by search and by answers displayed.
  • Most but not all CA databases are available, as well as numerous others from other sci-tech database producers.
  • Multiple databases may be searched simultaneously.
  • Uses a Web forms and menu interface.
  • Cannot use all the sophisticated features of Messenger -- the Web interface is simplified.
  • Connections through the World Wide Web.
  • Requires Netscape Navigator 2.0 or higher, or Internet Explorer 3.0 or higher.
  • Through "ChemPort Connection", user can jump to full text records from selected publishers and patent offices.
• SciFinder
  • Available only to subscribers at specified terminals.
  • Pricing is per "task" or by annual subscription.
  • Selected CA and other databases available.
  • Client-server system. Requires special SciFinder client software.
  • Designed for use by practicing chemists, the interface contains many built-in features to allow the user to take advantage of Messenger features without knowing the command language.
  • Client is available only for Windows and Mac operating systems.
  • Through "ChemPort Connection", user can jump to full text records from selected publishers and patent offices.
• SciFinder Scholar
  • Available site-wide at subscribing campuses; number of simulataneous users is limited.
  • Pricing is by annual subscription.
  • Client-server system. Requires special SciFinder client software.
  • Designed for use by practicing chemists, the interface contains many built-in features to allow the user to take advantage of Messenger features without knowing the command language. Features of SciFinder Scholar usually lag behind those of SciFinder by one or two versions at any given time.
  • Client is available only for Windows and Mac operating systems.
  • Through "ChemPort Connection", user can jump to full text records from selected publishers and patent offices.

STN Command Language

FILE Command

• FILE is used to switch from one database to another.
• To use it, type file followed by the name of the database, e.g.

	=> file ca

	=> file inspec

• You can also enter multiple file names or the names of file clusters.

	=> file biosis, ca, lifesci

	=> file patents 

EXPAND Commnad

• EXPAND may be abbreviated as EXP or simply E.
• Usually, each portion of a record has its own index. (e.g. author, title, language, publication year.)
• When expanding or searching, you can specify an index by following your search term with a slash (/) and the code for the index desired (au, ti, la, py)

	=> expand huber c/au

	=> e enzyme/ti

• In addition, each file has a basic index, which is the default index searched if you don't specify a particular index.
• The fields included in the basic index may vary from file to file.
• In most bibliographic files, it includes terms from the title, abstract and subject headings.
• In response to the EXPAND command, the system will display a portion of the index with the term you used at the third position (there may or may not be any records with that term.)
• It will display 12 terms unless you specify otherwise.
• By entering e again, you can see more of the list.

=> e fragran 6

E1		1 FRAGRAEA/BI

E2		1 FRAGRAMENTS/BI

E3		0 FRAGRAN/BI

E4	     1226 FRAGRANCE/BI

E5	      158 FRAGRANCES/BI

E6		3 FRAGRANOL/BI

• The E# corresponding to a listed term may be used as a substitute for the term in either further EXPANDs or SEARCHes.
• Note that, in Messenger, a subsequent EXPAND command normally wipes out the first list, so you must use any E#'s you wish to search on before doing a second EXPAND.

SEARCH Command

• SEARCH commands the system to locate records containing your terms in the index(es) you designate.
• SEARCH may be abbreviated SEA or S.
• Searches generate answer sets which are designated with L numbers. The L#'s may then be used in display commands, or reused as search terms.

=> s fragrance

L1	1226 FRAGRANCE

=> s perfume

L2	 869 PERFUME

=> s L1 or L2

L3	1835 L1 OR L2

Truncation

• Like most electronic search systems, Messenger allows truncation of terms, but with much greater flexibility than most.
• "#" is treated as 0 or 1 character at the end of a word. So child### will catch "child", "child's", "children", "childish"
• "!" is used as a wild card character in the middle of a word. So analys!s will catch "analysis" or "analyses"
• "?" represents any number of characters, usually at the end of a word. So photo? will catch "photo", "photos", "photolysis", "photographic", "photochemical", etc.
• In some indexes, most notably the Basic Index in the CA file, you can use ? on the lefthand side of a term. So ?fluorocarbon will pick up "fluorocarbon", "perfluorocarbon", "chlorofluorocarbon", etc.
• Where lefthand truncation is available, you can combine left and right truncation, e.g. ?porph? will pick up "porphyrin", "tetraphenylporphyrins"

Operators

• Messenger uses the standard Boolean operators: AND, OR and NOT, as well as a variety of specialized operators.
• Proximity operators allow you to specify the relationships between terms.
  • (W), (not W) -- Looks for terms next to each other in the order given. If you enter two terms with no operator between them, Messenger assumes the (W) operator, so s magnetic resonance is the same as s magnetic (W) resonance.
  • (nW), (notnW) -- Looks for terms up to n words apart in the given order: s nuclear (1w) resonance will pick up nuclear magnetic resonance or nuclear quadrupole resonance.
  • (A), (notA), (nA), (notnA) -- Same as above, but terms can be in either order.
  • (S), (notS) -- Looks for terms in the same sentence. This is very useful for searching abstracts or full-text files.
  • (L), (notL) -- Looks for terms in the same indexing unit, e.g. abstract, index phrase, keyword phrase.
• Numeric operators work with numeric fields, such as publication year (PY) to specify ranges.
  • = equal to
  • > greater than
  • < less than
  • >= or => greater than or equal to
  • =< or <= less than or equal to
  • nnnn-mmmm specifies a range.
• Order of Precedence
  FIRST
  • Expressions in parentheses
  • Numeric operators
  • (W), (notW), (nW), (notnW), (A), (not A), (nA), (notnA)
  • (S), (notS)
  • (L), (notL)
  • AND, NOT
  • OR
  LAST

DISPLAY Command

• DISPLAY is used to show answers from an answer set (or other displayable items).
• DISPLAY may be abbreviated DIS or D.
• In the DISPLAY command, you may specify the answer set, specific answers to be displayed and fields to be displayed, in any order.
  

  
  => display L2 1, 3-5, 11 bib abs
  
  => dis all L3 1-
  
  

• Note that in Messenger "all" is a display format (the full record) NOT "all records in a set". To display all records, use "1-"
  

  
  => d
  
  

• Using the short ("expert") form, Messenger assumes default values: the last answer set, the first record in the set, and the default format (usually "bib").

PRINT Command

• PRINT works the same way as DISPLAY, but creates an offline print, which can be sent to you via mail, fax or e-mail.
• Do not use PRINT if you want to print directly from the screen display.
• PRINT can save money if you have a large volume of records to print and/or a slow online connection and/or a slow printer.

Searching and Displaying in the CA File

• The STN online equivalent of the basic Chemical Abstracts database is the CA file.
• The basic commands described above operate in the CA file, but details of searching (see below) may vary depending on the searchable fields available and how they are structured.
• For detailed information on the searchable and displayable fields, see the CA Database Summary Sheet at http://info.cas.org/ONLINE/DBSS/cass.html.

Author Searching (/au)

• In the online files, all author's names can be searched directly -- there's no need to deal with cross-references for co-authors.
• Note that in online CA, there is no attempt made to unify the versions of an author's name -- all are listed as they appear in the document - with or without full first name or initials.
• Always use EXPAND to check on the forms of the author's name -- even without complicated names, different documents may use different forms.
• In CAS files, the general form of author names is:
  

  
  	lastname firstname m/au
  
  	lastname f m/au
  
  

• It is often convenient (and cheaper) to search using truncation to pick up variant forms.

  
   => s lastname f?/au
  
  

• But beware of multiple authors with the same lastname and initial. Check with EXPAND first.
• Remember that all the rules about umlauts, transliterations, etc. apply online, too.
• If you wish to search for patents ONLY, use the Inventor field (/in).
• Example:

e st john/au 8

E1      6    	st jeor stephen/au

E2      6    	st jeor stephen c/au

E3      0 --> 	st john/au

E4      1       st john allan k/au

E5      1       st john d j b/au

E6      1       st john fisher ian/au

E7     13       st john manley r/au

E8	1       st john smith p/au



e manley r/au 8

E1	7 	 manley paul william/au

E2	6	 manley philip/au

E3	0 -->	 manley r/au

E4	1	 manley r m/au

E5	3	 manley r s j/au

E6	9	 manley r s john/au

E7	7	 manley r st j/au

E8     47	 manley r st john/au

Corporate Source (/cs)

• Note that the Corporate Source field unlike the Author field, contains both individual words and phrases.
• Note also that corporate names are highly abbreviated, and names may vary with time.
• Use EXPAND to check search terms and search the minimun necessary distinctive terms.
• Example: Du Pont

L2          SEL L1 1- CS :      61 TERMS



TERM #   # OCC  # DOC  % DOC CS

------ ------- ------ ------ ---------------

     1      33     33  23.91 DU PONT DE NEMOURS, E. I., AND CO.

     2      14     14  10.14 DU PONT DE NEMOURS, E. I., AND CO. , USA

     3      10     10   7.25 DU PONT DE NEMOURS, E. I., AND CO., USA

     4       6      6   4.35 CENT. RES. DEV. DEP., E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOUR

     5       5      5   3.62 CENT. RES. DEP., E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS AND

     6       4      4   2.90 SAVANNAH RIVER LAB., E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS

     7       3      3   2.17 SAVANNAH RIVER LAB., DU PONT DE NEMOURS (E.I.

     8       3      3   2.17 SAVANNAH RIVER LAB., E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS

     9       2      2   1.45 DU PONT CO., WILMINGTON, DE, USA

    10       2      2   1.45 E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS AND CO., WILMINGTON

Journal Title Searching (/jt)

• Journal titles may be searched either as as individual terms or as a bound phrase. Note that titles are in the CASSI abbreviation form.
  

  
  => s j am chem soc/jt
  
  

• Use EXPAND to be sure of the full abbreviated title.

Limiting Fields

• Some fields are primarily useful for narrowing searches.
• Document Type (/dt) can be used to limit to or exclude journals (j), patents (p), technical reports (t), books (b), dissertations (d), conference papers (c) or reviews (r).
• To limit by language, use the /la field. Remember that this may exclude articles which are available in translated form..
• Publication Year (/py) may be searched numerically.
• Update Code is used mostly to allow you to repeat a search and limit it to records added since the last search, e.g. => s L1 and up>971201

STN Easy: Basics

• When you log into STNEasy, you are given a menu of broad subject areas, each of which points to more specific subject areas, which in turn point to specific databases. This allows users unfamiliar with the assortment of STN databases to pick likely sources of information.
• Then, scroll down and enter your search. Basic keyword and author searching is available, or, more specific field searching under advanced search. Note how the search screen customizes for a particular set of databases. Each search is $2.00.
• Initial results are displayed as a list of titles. Viewing individual references incurs further charges.
• Individual reference records give the basic bibliographic information plus abstracts. There are also links to ChemPort to obtain full text, and a link for searching for articles which cite the parent article.
• Transcripts of searches are available online.

SciFinder Scholar: Basics and Author Searching

• When you log into SciFinder Scholar, after accepting the licence agreement and passing the "Message of the Day", you'll see four options:
  • Chemical Substance or Reaction
  • Research Topic
  • Author Name
  • Document Identifier
• Note that no database choices are offered. SciFinder Scholar assumes it know what you want.
• For author names, SFS prompts for a last name, and first name and/or middle initial. The system then retrieves a list of matching names (including common spelling errors.) You may then select the desired authors for searching and "Get References".
• Records are displayed with basic bibliographic information. Clicking on the microsscopy icon displays the full record with abstract and subject headings. Note that the Registry Numbers are hotlinked to compound records with structure diagrams. Note that there is a hotlink for patent family information where available.
• A terminal icon appears in the summary if a potential link to full text is available.
• To narrow a search, use the "Refine References" button: Additional author names, keywords, document types, languages or publication years may be added. Note that refinement by author address (the CS field) is not currently available.

This page created by Chuck Huber (huber@library.ucsb.edu). Last modified: February 17, 2000.