Chemistry  Tags: chemistry chemical_information chemical_data  

CITATION GUIDES AND STYLE MANUALS

The ACS Style Guide: effective communication of scientific information, 3rd ed. American Chemical Society: Washington, D.C., 2006. (O'Neill Reference QD 8.5 .A25 2006)

This is the style guide for chemical literature publication and other forms of communication in the chemical sciences. Here you'll find information on citing electronic sources of many types, punctuation and grammar guidelines and conventions for chemistry, poster session presentations, copyright, etc.

ACS Reference Style Guidelines

A useful synopsis of ACS style elements for different types of materials. You will still need to use the print ACS Style Guide for any variations on the examples given.

Writing the laboratory notebook. Kanare, H.M. American Chemical Society: Washington, D.C., 1985. (O'Neill Stacks Q180.58 .K36 1985)

Council of Biology Editors (CBE)/Council of Science Editors Citing the Internet: Formats for Bibliographic Citation (Council of Science Editors)

Formerly the Council of Biology Editors, the Council of Science Editors has posted a link to the National Library of Medicine's lengthy guide to citing internet resources in biomedical literature.

Scientific Style and Format: the CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, 7th ed. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, England, 2006. (O'Neill Stacks T1 .S386 2006)

Relevant here for its application in the biomedical sciences.

Finding the right name can make all of the difference to success in searching for information on a particular chemical. Many standard chemical reference tools offer synonym or other indexes (molecular formula, Chemical Abstracts Registry Number, etc.) in an effort to deal with the multiplicity of names. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has the ultimate authority over naming conventions, but other types of names are often used in information exchange. Chemical Abstracts Service names often differ from IUPAC names. Chemical Abstracts Registry Numbers, such as Benzene's RN of 71-43-2, can provide an unambiguous identifier, and can often be used in searching chemical databases. A search on SciFinder Scholar by known synonyms, structure, Chemical Abstracts Registry Number, or molecular formula, etc. may retrieve substance records listing up to 50 synonyms for a given compound.

Finding various names for a Known Substance or Structure

AutoNom
AutoNom can be downloaded for free from the MDL web site to be used with ISIS Draw or in conjunction with the Beilstein Commander database interface (using ISIS Draw as the Structure Editor). From a structure drawing AutoNom will assign an IUPAC name, when possible.

Names, synonyms, and structures of organic compounds: a CRC reference handbook. Lide, D.R. and Milne, G.W.A., Eds. CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 1995. (O'Neill Stacks QD291 .N36 1995)

Note: most data handbooks and web sites offer at least a few synonyms for a given compound.

Finding a new name

AutoNom
(see above)

 

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry -- Recommendations on Organic & Biochemical Nomenclature, Symbols & Terminology (IUPAC)

International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology -- Recommendations on Organic & Biochemical Nomenclature, Symbols & Terminology (IUPAC)

Molecular Visualization Freeware (University of Massachusetts)

Here you'll find downloads and additional informaton on the various free molecular 3-D visualization options available. Of these, Protein Explorer is the newest entrant into the field, more powerful and easier to use than its predecessors, Chime and Rasmol.