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How to Use SciFinder N

How to use the world's largest chemical information database to find chemical references, compounds, and reactions.

Why Cite?

Citing your references, or the sources of information that you use in your research, is critical for a number of reasons.  Citing references:

  • strengthens the authoritativeness of your work;

  • shows you've incorporated other scholarly research into your work;  

  • gives a record of the sources you've used in your research;

  • provides the reader with valuable information, indicating where to go to find further information;

  • extends professional honesty and courtesy.  Writers have a responsibility to indicate when they have used someone else's ideas or words.

When citing a reference or compiling a bibliography, you'll be using the ACS style for chemistry classes.

Image source:  Reasonist.  Used with permission.

ASC Citation Tools

Citation tools automate formatting references.

Zotero works well with ACS:

If you do use this tool, be sure to review your results carefully.

You are responsible for the accuracy of your paper's citations. 

Refer to the ASC Style Guide for definitive information.

Image source: Jim Thomas.  CC-BY-SA-3.0. Wikimedia Commons.