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CHEM 184/284 (Chemical Literature) - Huber - Winter 2024: Home

A two-credit course in the techniques and tools for effective searching the literature of chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering and related fields.

Chem 184/284 - Chemical Literature

Chemistry 184/284 is a two-credit course in the techniques and tools for effectively searching the literature of chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering and related fields. Students will be introduced to how information is organized in the chemical sciences, including data collections such as Reaxys and indexes to the literature such as SciFinder-n, as well as the different types of primary literature and other resources useful to the chemical researcher.

Undergraduates should register in CHEM 184; graduate students in CHEM 284.  The course is taught each Winter Quarter, and meets twice weekly from 2:00-3:15pm on Tuesdays nd Thursdays. 

Barring further changes, the course will be taught in-person in Room 1312 Library.

Syllabus - Winter 2024

This is the definitive syllabus for the quarter, and may be updated or changed as necessity requires. Lecture quizzes are to be completed and turned in by the following lecture. Quizzes should be answered in GauchoSpace

Monday, January 8, 2023 -Winter Quarter begins

Tuesday, January 9 - Lecture 1: Overview of the Organization of Information

Thursday, January 11 - Lecture 2: Techniques of the Efficient Information Searcher

Friday, January 12 - Last day to drop courses without a fee.  Last day to add courses without an approval code.

Monday, January 165- Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday

Tuesday, January 16 - Lecture 3: Part I: Library Catalogs vs. Article Databases vs. Search Engines; Part II: Finding Books in the Library: Call Numbers, and the UC Library Search.

Thursday, January 18 - Lecture 4: Data Collections, Part I 

Friday, January 19 - Last day to add courses or change grading options without a fee.

Tuesday, January 23 - Lecture 5: Data Collections, Part II: Beilstein + Gmelin = Reaxys

Mid-Term 1 Given Out Today.  Due: Tuesday, February 6!

Thursday, January 25 - Lecture 6: Primary Literature, Part I: Journals, Copyright, Open Access, Repositories, Preprints

Monday, January 29 - Last day to add classes.

Tuesday, January 30 - Lecture 7: Primary Literature, Part II: Conference Papers, Patents, Technical Reports, Dissertations nd Databases for Science and Engineering

Brief description of term project topics due by Thursday, February 2!

Thursday, February 1 - Lecture 8: Indexes and Databases for Science and Engineering

Brief term project descriptions due TODAY!

Monday, February 5 - Last day for undergraduates in Letters & Science or Engineering to drop classes.

Tuesday, February 6 - Lecture 9: Citations Part I- Searching Them, Web of Science, Part II - Creating and Managing Them, EndNote Web, Part III - Evaluating2with Citations, Impact Factors and Journal Citation Reports

Mid-term Exam 1: DUE TODAY!!

Thursday, February 8 - Lecture 10: Chemical Abstracts Service and the Legacy of Print

Tuesday, February 13 - Lecture 11: SciFinder-n Part 1 - Introduction and Exploring References by Author

Thursday, February 15 - Lecture 12: SciFinder-n Part 2 - Exploring References by Research Topic 

Monday, February 19 - Presidents' Day. holiday

Tuesday, February 20 - Lecture 13: SciFinder-n, Part 3 - Exploring Substances: Substance Displays, Name Searching, Molecular Formula Searching and Property Searching, Biosequence Searching

Mid-term Exam 2 given out today; due Tuesday, March 5

Thursday, February 22 - Lecture 14: SciFinder-n, Part 4 - Exploring Substances by Structure Searching

Tuesday, February 27 - Lecture 15: SciFinder-n Part 5 - Exploring Organic Reactions; Retrosynthetic Plans; CAS Analytical Methods; CAS Formulus

Thursday,, February 29 - Lecture 16: The New Web and Mobile Science 

Friday, March 1 - Last day for undergraduates in LAS or Engineering to change grading options.

Tuesday, March 5 - Lecture 17: Altmetrics

          Mid-term Exam 2 DUE TODAY!!

Course Evaluation as ESCI. Ends Friday, Mar. 10

Thursday, March 7 - IN-CLASS PRESENTATION of FINAL PROJECTS  

Tuesday, March 12 - IN-CLASS PRESENTATION of FINAL PROJECTS

Thursday - March 14 - IN-CLASS PRESENTATION of FINAL PROJECTS

Friday, March 15 - Last day for graduate students and students in CCS to drop courses or change grading options.

Monday, March 18 - Submissions open for Library Award for Undergraduate Research (LAUR) Submissions close April 30.

 Tuesday, March 19, 2024 - WRITTEN FINAL PROJECTS must be turned in NO LATER than 11:59 pm!!

Friday, April 5, 2024 - Start date for submissions for the Library Award for Undergraduate Research Deadline is April 30.

© 2024 Charles F. Huber

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Based on a work at guides.library.ucsb.edu


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