Chemical Engineering

Finding Journal Articles Using Databases

The best way to search for peer-reviewed journal articles is to use a literature database. Databases index the research articles in journals and have powerful search filtering tools. Most databases also have quality standards that journals need to meet to be included, which limits your chances of encountering predatory publications.

Here are some of the most useful databases to get started with for chemical engineering:  

SciFinder-n 

If you need: a definitive chemical sciences database, ability to search by chemical structure
SciFinder is the online database of the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS). It searches chemical science journals as well as patents. SciFinder allows searching by research topic, chemical structure, and chemical reaction scheme. In order to use SciFinder, you must register for an account using your Gatorlink email address. There are also video tutorials on the CAS website.

Web of Science

If you need: chemical engineering and general science resources too
Web of Science is a general science database known for its citation searching capabilities. It's an excellent choice for finding how your research intersects with other scientific disciplines. This database can also help you study how an idea has evolved over time.

Scopus 

If you need: broad scope, ability to look at author networks
Scopus is a wide-coverage database, making it a great choice for researching interdisciplinary topics. This database also includes author and citation networks, allowing you to look at data about particular authors' publications, awarded grants, and collaborations.

MEDLINE (PubMed)

If you need: anything medical and health related 
PubMed comprises more than 26 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. PubMed has a variety of unique filtering capabilities not available in other databases (including Clinical Trials, Phase I; Human vs. Animal studies, etc.).

Reaxys   

If you need: chemical synthesis schemes, ability to search by chemical properties
Reaxys is a chemistry database that allows for searching by structure, chemical property, or citation information. There are also a number of video tutorials hosted by Reaxys to get you started on using the database.

Need something else? Take me to the long list of science databases, or the UF-wide list of databases A-Z

Finding Preprints

Preprints are early versions of research articles which have not yet been peer-reviewed. Scientists may choose to disseminate their research as preprints before submitting to an academic journal, which can make the research reported very cutting edge, but these reports should be read critically as they have not yet been reviewed by other experts.

You can use the Web of Science Preprint Index to search several different preprint repositories at once.

You can also browse individual preprint repositories related to your research:

• engrXiv ("engineering archive"): Engineering. 
• ChemRxiv ("chem archive"): Chemical sciences.
• bioRxiv ("bio archive"): Biological sciences.
• arXiv ("archive"): Physics, mathematics, computer science, and other fields.

Connecting from off campus? You will need UF authentication to access many of the electronic resources in this guide, including databases, journal articles, and e-books. Learn how to connect from off campus.