Starting Your Chemistry Literature Research
Please note: The information on this page is not an exhaustive list of every potential resource for Chemistry research. To view all databases and reference materials for chemistry literature research, please click here.
Encyclopedias and comprehensive texts on topics can be extremely helpful for beginning chemistry research.
What is an encyclopedia?
An encyclopedia is a resource that details information on various topics contained within. Encyclopedias vary in both breadth and depth; some are specific to a subset of a specific field of science, whereas some are concerned with entire fields of science in less detail.
How does this help with research?
If you are unsure what to investigate for your literature research, encyclopedias can help with the daunting task of finding a specific topic in chemistry to investigate.
On the other hand, if you have a general idea of what you might be interested in, an encyclopedia can assist you in finding a more specific topic within that field of research.
Furthermore, an encyclopedia or a comprehensive texts can illuminate important literature in a field of research, as well as important names you should be familiar with if you are going to investigate that topic.
An encyclopedia can also be used to as a source for broad information in a research assignment; for instance, at the beginning of your paper to introduce the topic. Be sure to properly cite information where appropriate to avoid plagiarism.
Below is a list of selected encyclopedias and comprehensive resources. Please note that this is a non-exhaustive list.
Available digitally:
Available in print:
Note: please check location for each of these resources. LIBRA is the University's offsite storage facility, and some may be held there and require requests ahead of time to acquire.
Some database resources can be helpful in finding data for your research or investigating more about specific substances. These resources will be more helpful once you have a better idea of what your research is about, and will help to illuminate certain aspects of your topic. Data provided in these resources can be important to illustrate your arguments with hard data or to ascertain arguments made in references you read.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of resources of this type. To search the University's print and electronic materials on substances, properties, and spectra, please click here.
When you have a good idea on the basics of your research topic, you can start to do some more precise reference searching. It is advisable to use more than one search tool, as different databases will yield different, important references.
When researching, it may be helpful to refer back to encyclopedias or databases listed elsewhere on this page for clarification on topics or improving the precision of your search.
When searching these resources, it is important to differentiate primary and secondary literature. Primary literature is original research done by the authors of an article, whereas secondary literature is evaluations, discussions, or interpretations of other literature. If you are looking to reference secondary literature in your research, it is generally a good idea to also consult the primary literature.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of some notable scientific literature and reference databases. For more resources of this type, please click here to search the University's catalog of databases for articles and patent information.
ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication: From American Chemical Society (ACS) Journals, this resource provides information on mastering science communication. This includes communicating scientific ideas to groups outside of the scientific community and scientific ethics. This resource is helpful in any context, but especially in any project that aims to communicate its findings in a public manner.
Citation Management Tools: The University of Pennsylvania's guide on Zotero, EndNote, RefWorks, and other reference organization and management tools can assist you as you move forward with research. Using these tools to their fullest potential can save much time and headache by making it easier to find sort and describe references you may use for your research.
Guide created and written by Matthew C. Murray.
