CHMC31 Intermediate Inorganic Chemistry

What are the specific functions of ChemDraw?
Please see the ChemDraw help page on this guide, as well as the ChemDraw User Guide, for a full overview of key features/functions of the software.

What to do when the ChemDraw license is about to expire?
Please see this support page on renewing ChemDraw.

How to contact you when we come across paid articles?
First, I would recommend doing a title search for the article in our catalogue, LibrarySearch. If that doesn't work, try searching the journal title that the article is published in to see if we have an active subscription to that journal, based on the year the article was published in. If not, you can request a copy of the article through our catalogue. If you need help with any of these pieces, my contact info is available on the Get Help! page of this research guide.

How to find specific articles for the topic I want to research?
Please visit the help sections at the bottom of both the SciFinder-n and Web of Science pages for additional resources that summarize and extend content covered in class. The Search Strategies page also covers key tips on identifying and combining concepts within your research topic.

I wasn't able to place specific concepts when looking for articles on Web of Science. Keeps giving me "no article found"?
I'd have to review specifics of the topic you're searching, but this is usually due to a) an error with the search syntax (i.e. how it's entered and being interpreted by the database) or b) lack of available literature on a topic. Happy to chat if you'd like to take a look at it together!
 

How do I efficiently go through all the references/literature sources and pick out important info?
Having a well-defined scope for your research question is the best starting place, as it will a) help you to focus on only results specifically relevant to that topic, and b) will limit the amount of literature you need to assess. If you have too many or too few studies, consider revising your research topic. About 100 results is a good number to aim for when doing a general literature search (though there may be more or less depending on your topic).

Some additional tips for scoping your search:

• Use chemistry-focused search tools (e.g. SciFinder-n) to weed out extraneous literature from the get-go
• Make use of databases' built-in filters/limiters (e.g. the journal article document type) to reduce the number of results

Once you have a focused search, I then recommend doing a quick scan of titles/abstracts from your search results to identify studies. For anything that seems relevant, do a quick scan of the full text, focusing on specific sections as you go (e.g. the Results and Discussion sections may be helpful for better gauging a study's relevance). For anything that passes all the preliminary scans, you can do a full read of the entire text. 

The following resources give some pointers on key things to be mindful of as you read scientific articles: