Research Guides: Chemistry: Finding Articles

Finding Articles

Start with this general database when looking for articles in this subject area. Databases are a collection of million of articles in a specific field of study and may provide links to the full-text of an article.

Academic Search Complete covers many fields of study including chemistry, and provides general chemistry coverage.

SciFinder Scholar
Covers all branches of chemistry: organic, inorganic, physical, biochemistry, and analytical. Full text access varies
Related fields of study are also covered: biology, geoscience, physics, engineering, agriculture, life sciences, and medical literature. Create acct here.
American Chemical Society Journals
Covers over 140 years of original research in all areas of chemistry, including more than 1.3 million articles. Access 1997 - present
Covers: Physical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Cross-Disciplinary Concepts, Materials Science, Organic Chemistry, Biology and Biological Chemistry, Polymer Science, Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Engineering Industrial Chemistry, Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, Nanoscience, Medicinal Chemistry, Energy, Catalysis, Earth, Space, and Environmental Chemistry, Chemical Biology, Agriculture and Food Chemistry, Organometallic Chemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry, Chemistry Education, & Nuclear Chemistry
Science Direct
A major collection of science, technology and medicine research. Coverage is strong in the life and physical sciences. Access 1998 - present
Willamette Subscribes to the collections of Life Sciences, Health Sciences, and Physical Sciences and Engineering.

How do I know if a journal is peer-reviewed?

Most article databases, including the library catalog, have an option to limit results to peer review. If there is not an option to limit, try adding "peer review" as a search term. Many databases like Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) indicate whether an article is peer reviewed.
The easiest way of determine whether a journal is peer reviewed is by using the library's catalog. Search the library's catalog for the title of the journal, and the results will indicate whether it is peer reviewed. If there is no indication, then it is not peer reviewed.
Visit the journal or publisher's website. Publishers will highlight whether a journal is peer reviewed in the description of the journal.

NOTE: Even thought a journal is deemed peer reviewed does not mean every article in the journal is peer reviewed. Book reviews, editorials, etc., do not qualify as peer reviewed. For more information, visit our guide about Peer-Review.

For more in-depth research

The full list of WU databases is available by alphabetic list, subject, or type of resource.

Gale Academic Onefile
Provides millions of peer-reviewed, full-text articles from leading journals and reference sources. Extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects. 1980 - present
Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
Nature
A weekly international journal that publishes high quality peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology. It provides rapid, authoritative, insightful news and interpretation of topical and coming trends affecting science, scientists and the wider public. 2008 - present
PubChem
PubChem provides information on the biological activities of small molecules. It is a component of NIH's Molecular Libraries Roadmap Initiative. PubChem is organized as three interlinked databases within NCBI: PubChem Substance, PubChem Compound, and PubChem BioAssay. PubChem also provides a fast chemical structure similarity search tool.
PubMed
Provides access to over 30 million citations and abstracts of biomedical literature. Pubmed provides links to some full-text articles and related resources.
Science
The world's leading journal of original scientific research, global news, reviews, short features, and commentary in all fields of science. 1997 - present
SpringerLink
Includes more than 600 peer-reviewed journals, comprising more than 600,000 individual documents. Most titles include complete back issues to 1996. 1996 - present.

Journals in the library collection

Search for a journal title or browse journals by category

Chemistry

Willamette University Libraries