Chemical Literature (Chem 184/284)

Lecture 13: SciFinder Scholar, Part 2
Research Topic Searching

Searching by Research Topic

The first option under "Explore Literature" on the SciFinder Scholar Explore menu is "Research Topic" -- what would be known in other databases as subject or keyword searching.

Research Topic searching does the following behind the scenes:

• It searches your terms in the title, and, if available, the abstract, supplementary terms and CAS subject headings of each article.
• SciFinder automatically right-truncates your search terms and checks for singular/plural variations. It will also search both British and American spellings of words (e.g. flavor and flavour.)
• It automatically checks the CAS standard abbreviations, and searches the abbreviation as well for any search terms you may put it (e.g. photochem for photochemistry.)
• Note that it will accept queries in "natural language form" and formulate them with appropriate proximity operators to query the database.
• Conversely, it does not use standard Boolean operators in the same way as other databases. Be cautious when using AND, OR or NOT.
• If you use the name of a specific chemical substance, it will usually retrieve the CAS Registry number for the substance and search it as well.
• For an in-depth examination of how SciFinder Scholar processes Research Topic queries, see: Wagner, A. Ben, "SciFinder Scholar 2006: An Empirical Analysis of Research Topic Query Processing", Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling 2006; ASAP Web Release Date: 24-Feb-2006 at http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ci050481b

Here's an example of the screen returned when searching on the single term phthalocyanines.

The first answer set is for the term as entered -- no truncations, no abbreviations searched. The second answer set is the result of using the truncated term. You may select either or both of the answer sets and then "Get References". Below is the first screen of references for the larger answer set. Notice how the search term is highlighted in blue, and that the singular form, phthalocyanine and the chemical name fragment phthalocyanato, have also been searched. It does not, however, search terms with prefixes, such as azaphthalocyanines.

You may Analyze or Refine the answer set, or use Get Related to build on the answer set as discussed in the lecture on author searching.

Here's the results screen for a more complex search: "electrochemistry of nickel phthalocyanines"

Notice how SFS picks out the concepts of the question, and searches them as first "closely associated", meaning in the same part of the record, then as appearing anywhere in the same record.

Rephrasing the query as "electrochemistry of nickel and phthalocyanines" gives very different results.

Ways to do more effective searching

• Try your query in different ways. Look at some of the results you get, and see which approaches seem to give you the most thorough retrieval, and or the most precise search.
• Build on your searches. If you do a topic search and find at least one good answer, look at the full record. See if there is any terminology used, especially in the CA Index Terms, which you might want to use in a follow-up search.
• Alternatively, use the Analyze References function to find what the key index terms in your answer set are. For example:
  
  
  Remember that the most recently indexed documents do not yet have assigned subject headings, so they will not be included in your Analysis by CA index terms, except under the general "No terms present" heading.
• Don't be afraid to start your search broadly and then use Analyze and/or Refine to home in on more specific areas. Remember that you can always back up to a previous step and try a new Refine/Analyze on the original answer set.
• If you want to add synonyms to a query, put the synonyms in parentheses next to the first word in the series. Example: "iron (ferric, ferrous) complexes with phthalocyanines (metallophthalocyanines, azaphthalocyanines)"
• Remember, too, that you can use "Get Related" to pull up lists of cited or citing references to build on your subject search, as well.

Here's an example of a search on the superheavy element, meitnerium. Notice how in the broader form of the search, SFS searched for the Registry Number of the element (highlighted in blue) as well as the name. In this case, it picks up an article on the synthesis of the element from before it was given its IUPAC name.

Analyzing the results, I find two different headings which might apply to this general class of elements:

I could then generalize my search using the topic "superheavy (transuranium) elements" You might also want to look at the substance record for the substance(s) of interest and add alternate names to your Research Topic search as synonyms for maximum recall of older documents, since for pre-1967 documents, Registry Numbers were assigned by computer matching rather than by the indexers.

"Filters"