Chemistry Research Guide
- Find Background Info
- Find Books and Films
- Find Articles
- Citing Sources
Find Background Info
Background sources, such as specialized encyclopedias and dictionaries, are an essential piece of the research process. They can help you:
- Gather information about your topic and understand the scope of the research.
- Locate reliable sources and clarify keywords.
- Pinpoint important authors, texts, ideas, and keywords about the research area—knowing what the primary phrases and concepts are will help you a lot as you are searching library databases and online sources.
Credo Reference
Credo Reference is a multi-publisher collection of high-quality reference titles. Available titles also include a range of multimedia options, including thousands of high quality diagrams, photographs, maps, and audio files. Credo includes several books on topics in chemistry, including:
Find Books and Films
Print and e-books are valuable sources for academic research. They will help you to gain an overview of your topic and often contain in-depth information about the scholarship or history of research on a subject. Some books are written by single authors while others include essays or chapters by multiple scholars within a discipline. Don’t let the length of books intimidate you because you don’t need to read them from cover to cover. Look at the table of contents and index to find the sections that are relevant to your work.
Find Books Using GriffinSearch
GriffinSearch is a good starting place if you are looking for books, journal articles, films, and other materials available in the library. In addition to searching the Giovale Library catalog for physical materials, GriffinSearch finds e-books and articles from several of our databases. To get started, search by keyword or type in the title of a book here:
WorldCat
WorldCat lets you search for books, articles, videos, and other material that are available in libraries worldwide. If you are doing in-depth research on a topic and are considering requesting resources through Interlibrary Loan, WorldCat can help you discover resources that might not be in the Giovale Library collection.
Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
Interlibrary Loan is a service where patrons of one library can borrow books and other materials, and access journal articles that are owned by another library.
Explore Interlibrary Loan Materials
Utah Academic Library Consortium
Giovale Library participates in the Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC) and Westminster University students have reciprocal circulation privileges at UALC partner libraries. Each UALC library has different circulation policies, but all require a current, valid, legal photo identification and proof of current enrollment at Westminster. Some libraries may also require other verification methods, so it is recommended that you contact the library you are interested in for details.
Academic Videos Online (AVON)
AVON provides unlimited access to a comprehensive selection of videos curated for the educational experience.
AVON Science and Engineering Channel
Popular Titles and Featured Texts
The Chemistry of Fires at the Wildland-Urban Interface
Residues: Thinking Through Chemical Environments
Predictive Models for Soil Contaminants: A Source Book for Research and Development
Exploring Speciation
Find Articles
The Giovale Library provides access to a number of subject databases that you can use to find journal articles on topics within a specific discipline or field of study. The databases listed on this page are those that are most useful for finding research published in the field of Chemistry.
ACS Publications (American Chemical Society)
American Chemical Society’s collection of full-text journals, magazines, and proceedings.
Search ACS Publications (American Chemical Society)
Science Database (ProQuest)
Science Database (ProQuest) contains full text articles from broad, interdisciplinary science and engineering sources. Science Database features ongoing full -text from prestigious and highly selective publishers such as Nature Publishing, Springer, Emerald, Cambridge University Press and many others.
Search Science Database (ProQuest)
GriffinSearch
GriffinSearch is a good starting place if you are looking for books, journal articles, films, and other material available in the library. In addition to searching the Giovale Library catalog for physical materials, GriffinSearch finds e-books and articles from several of our databases.
PubChem
PubChem is an open chemistry database at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). PubChem is a key chemical information resource for scientists, students, and the general public. PubChem mostly contains small molecules, but also larger molecules such as nucleotides, carbohydrates, lipids, peptides, and chemically-modified macromolecules. It provides information on chemical structures, identifiers, chemical and physical properties, biological activities, patents, health, safety, toxicity data, and many others.
Citing Sources
Citation Resources
Properly citing your sources shows that you’ve done research to become knowledgeable about your topic and helps you avoid plagiarism. Explore citation resources to learn how to correctly cite sources based on style.
Need help with your research?
Get in touch with:
Emily Swanson
Library Director
801.832.2257
eswanson@westminsteru.edu
Librarians are happy to answer questions via email, phone, or in-person.
Contact Emily with a question or to schedule a research help appointment.
Faculty: Contact Emily to suggest edits to this research guide.
Chat with a Librarian
Use the chat box below to ask the library staff a question. If chat is unavailable or we don’t respond quickly, please use the email form on our Get Research Help page and a library staff member will contact you as soon as we are available.