1. Click on the SciFinder link in the Class Guide or Databases > S > SciFinder on the Libraries Homepage.
2. Log in using your UserID and password. The default search in SciFinder is always for a Research Topic. To perform another type of search, click on the search type on the left side of the SciFinder page.
3. To perform a search, begin with two or three key words or topics. Examples
Examples: Use of Recombinant DNA with Medicine
Fuel Production with Biomass
Genetic Markers with Disease
4. The initial results provides a range of options, showing the number of results for the phrase exactly as entered to the number of results for key concepts, either individually or combined.
Once a result option that gives an adequate number of results on the topic of interest is chosen, the Get References button becomes active. Click Get References to see the references on that topic.
5. SciFinder searches two databases, Chemical Abstracts and PubMed. To reduce the number of references retrieved, click on Tools and select Remove Duplicates.
6. To further refine the search, click on the Refine tab on the left side of the page. The search can be refined by adding another concept, narrowing by Author, Company Name, Document Type, Publication Year, Language or Database. For example, a search on Genetic Markers for Disease could be narrowed by adding the word Human to find studies on genetic markers for human diseases.
7. Look through the results list until an item matching the topic of interest is found. Click on that item to see the full record. The detailed record contains the title, author and abstract (1), Source information (2), CAS Section Code [Indexing] (3) and additional Concept terms (4).
8. Look at the Concept terms (4). If one or more appropriate term or terms are listed in the Concepts area, try repeating the search using them.
9. Search related concepts in parentheses separated by commas. The following search yields 288 results (as opposed to 187):
Example: (Genetic markers, Genetic Profiles) with Human Disease
10. SciFinder can be used to link to full-text articles, if they exist. Clicking on Link to Other Sources will search for full text of the article. The article below is available through a WIU Libraries’ subscription.
11. It is also possible to retrieve articles that cite an article. Scholarly articles always contain a bibliography of articles that were used to develop the ideas and research (Cited Articles). Later workers may cite an article in their scholarly article and research (Citing Articles). Clicking on Get Related Citations allows a researcher to connect to articles that were cited in a paper (Get Cited) as well as articles that cite a paper at a later date (Get Citing). The article below has been cited 111 times since it was published in 2007.
