Main Navigation

1. Home
2. Services
3. Collections
4. About Us

SciFinder Scholar Frequently-Asked Questions

For CAS Technical support, contact information and FAQ's, see the general tech support home page.

FAQs about specific UIC topics

• What are the system requirements if I want to install the SciFinder Scholar client on my computer?
• Where can I read more about the allowed terms of use of this product?
• Are all of UIC's electronic journals linked directly to references in the database?
• What if I can't connect to the Chemical Abstracts server? I had no trouble other times connecting and searching.
• How does SciFinder Scholar coverage compare to Web of Science and the Beilstein and Gmelin databases?

What are the system requirements if I want to install the SciFinder Scholar client on my computer?

See SciFinder Scholar Technical Support for the current list of hardware and operating system requirements for Macs and Windows. Linux is not supported. In general, a computer connected to the Internet and a printer are required. Additional software needs are a Web browser, Microsoft Excel for spreadsheet downloads, and a PDF reader.

Where can I read more about the allowed terms of use of this product?

Here are the key terms of use in our license with Chemical Abstracts Service. You will see a screen when you start the SciFinder Scholar application which states that you must acknowledge your acceptance of these terms to continue your search:"I hereby agree to all the terms and conditions set forth in this license agreement.

• 1) I am a current faculty or administrative staff member, or officially registered student of the University;
• 2) I will use SciFinder Scholar only for my own academic research done in the course of pursuing my degree, or in instructing my students, or, in the course of my own research funded by the government or a non-profit foundation and intended for publication in the publicly available literature;
• 3) I will NOT use SciFinder Scholar for commercial research; for example, research that is done under a funding or consultant contract where the results are delivered to a for-profit organization, or for research that involves patentability searching. If I require SciFinder for commercial purposes, I will have the search done using a commercial account by contacting the librarian responsible for chemistry searches on campus, by contacting CAS and having them perform a search for me, or by acquiring and using the commercial SciFinder product;
• 4) I will use my search results in the ordinary course of academic research and acknowledge that I may store search results in electronic form for the duration of research projects, provided that at any one time, I store no more than 5,000 records. I may share search results in a limited, reasonable way with other University students or faculty working on the same project, but I will not aggregate my electronic search results with those of anyone else. I will delete stored records when I no longer need them for the relevant research project, or after the completion of my degree program, whichever occurs first. If I need to use search results beyond what is described here, I will contact my University Key Contact to discuss and to obtain CAS permission. I ACKNOWLEDGE THAT I AM NOT PERMITTED TO DISTRIBUTE ANY CAS DATA OR SCIFINDER SCHOLAR, FOR COMMERCIAL GAIN OR OTHERWISE, OUTSIDE THE UNIVERSITY OR TO THIRD PARTIES.
• 5) I acknowledge that the University has entered into a license agreement with CAS to provide me with access to SciFinder Scholar, and that violation of the license by any user could result in a termination of the license for all users.
• 6) I will contact the University's Key Contact with any questions related to the use of SciFinder Scholar."

Are UIC's electronic journals linked directly to references in the database?

SciFinder Scholar is enabled for direct connection to most of UIC's online journals. For e-journals that the Library licenses, the user may view and print full text of articles at no cost. Other document providers whose contents we do not license may allow access to abstracts or offer the option of making a credit card purchase of an article. Please note that UIC Library's Interlibrary Loan service can often obtain documents at no cost to the user so it will rarely be necessary to order using a credit card. Check UICCAT to see if the Library has a print journal before making an ILL request. The Library provides a searchable A-Z list of e-journals.

What if I can't connect to the Chemical Abstracts server? I had no trouble other times connecting and searching.

If you have installed the SciFinder client and successfully connected to the CAS server on previous occasions, there are two likely problems for a failure to establish a connection:

• The CAS server may be temporarily down; wait a while and try again.
• UIC users may currently be at the maximum number allowed. We are licensed to allow 18 simultaneous UIC users to connect to the CAS server. The 19th user who tries to connect will be turned away. Wait a while and try again. We will monitoring use statistics to determine whether we have sufficient "seats" for simultaneous access. The CAS server is available 24/7 so you may want to take that into account when planning your searching.

How does SciFinder Scholar coverage compare to Web of Science and the Beilstein and Gmelin databases?

The Web of Science indexes approximately 5,700 journals in all disciplines; about 600 of these pertain to chemistry. Chemical Abstracts indexes approximately 10,000 journals in chemistry and related fields. CA also covers patents, conference proceedings, dissertations, technical reports, and some books. Web of Science provides access to the literature covered back to 1975. SciFinder Scholar covers the late 19th century to present. Both the Beilstein (organic chemistry) and Gmelin (inorganic and organometallic chemistry) databases are focused on property, preparation, and reaction information found in literature back to the 1770's. Scifinder Scholar, Web of Science, Beilstein, and Gmelin offer different searching capabilities and interfaces. Depending on your query, one or the other may be easier to use and/or more likely to lead you to the information you are seeking. For many searches the databases can be considered complementary.