Subject Guides: Biochemistry: Journal Articles and Databases

Key Databases for Biochemistry

Google Scholar—Tips and Tricks

Search Tips

Browse Biochemistry Journals

Key Biochemistry Journals

Most Important Interdisciplinary Science Journals

Comparing Journals

Electronic Article Lookup

Full Text Finder quick search
When you already have an article’s citation details – works best with a DOI

Electronic Journal Search

MultiSearch

Academic Journal Articles

“Content providers” filter selected for providers more relevant to chemistry

Interloan

If you cannot find it at UC Library or online, request an Interloan and we will get it for you from another library. There is no charge for this service

Comparing Journals

To compare journal bibliometrics consider using:

See also Measuring Impact for more information.

PubMed or Ovid Medline?

A guide to some of the differences between Ovid Medline and PubMed:

Ovid Medline vs PubMed

PubMed Help

PubMed Online Guide

PubMed Online Training (U.S. National Library of Medicine)

PubMed basics (PDF)

Searching PubMed with MeSH headings (PDF)

PubMed Advanced Search (YouTube)

Key Databases for Biochemistry

To find specific articles within journals, try one of the indexing services below. Each database has its own subject focus, date range and usage quirks – contact me for ideas on getting the best results.

SciFinder Discovery Platform

SciFinderⁿ This link opens in a new window
Chemical Abstracts and Registry databases for a broad range of chemical literature and substance information. Coverage includes “chemistry” in its broadest sense, ranging from biochemistry to pharmacy to pharmacology to chemical engineering. In addition SciFinderⁿ includes PatentPak, MethodsNow, Retrosynthesis Planning and Biosequence Searching.
- System requirements
- If it is your first time using SciFinderⁿ, you need to register first.
  - Written instructions for registration
    Suggestion: use your UC username as your SciFinder username.
- Tutorials and user guides
Analytical Methods (CAS) This link opens in a new window
CAS Analytical Methods^TM is a curated collection of over 500,000 step-by-step analytical protocols, extracted from peer-reviewed literature and patent sources. Cut down on time searching for analytical methodologies with CAS Analytical Methods^TM, a platform containing collated methodologies highlighting analytes, matrices, reagents, instruments, consummables and validation information, in easy-to-read and downloadable documents.
Access CAS Analytical Methods^TM using your existing SciFinderⁿ username and password. If you do not already have a SciFinderⁿ username and password, you need to register first.
Formulus (CAS) This link opens in a new window
CAS Formulus® is a curated collection of over five million formulation records from peer-reviewed literature, patents and product inserts from the US FDA. Access a world-leading collection of formulations to evaluate ingredients, manufacturing processes and regulatory information in a user-friendly interface.
Access CAS Formulus® using your existing SciFinderⁿ username and password. If you do not already have a SciFinderⁿ username and password, you need to register first.

Scopus
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Multidisciplinary, especially Life, Health and Physical Sciences.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Full text of journals published by Elsevier Science. Primary science, medicine and technology. Some titles from social science and commerce.
Wiley Online Library This link opens in a new window
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Multidisciplinary collection of full-text resources covering life, health and physical sciences, social science, and the humanities. Formats included are journal articles, eBooks, reference works and laboratory protocols
MEDLINE This link opens in a new window
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Provides combined access to Medline and Medline In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations. Includes biomedicine, dentistry, nursing and related topics. Logoff when you have completed searching
EMBASE This link opens in a new window
Large biomedical database, provides greater coverage of European and International journals than Medline
MarinLit This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive coverage of marine natural products in journal articles, including new and revised compounds, synthesis, ecology and biological activities. Tutorial videos from RSC
Materials Science & Engineering Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text titles from around the world, including scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, government publications. Includes the METADEX and Polymer Library databases and specialized, editorial-controlled abstracting and indexing resources.

Open Access Databases (free)

AGRICOLA: Online Public Access Catalog This link opens in a new window
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All aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines in the National Agricultural Library's Online Public Access Catalog.

BindingDB
Database of measured binding affinities, focusing chiefly on the interactions of protein considered to be drug-targets with small, drug-like molecules
BRENDA : the comprehensive enzyme information system
BRENDA YouTube Channel
Short videos showing how to use the BRENDA Enzyme Information System. If new to BRENDA, start with “BRENDA tutorial - Enzyme Search”
CCCBDB: Computational Chemistry Comparison and Benchmark Database (NIST)
Experimental and computed (quantum mechanics) thermochemical data for a selected set of gas-phase atoms and small molecules. Tools for comparing experimental and computational ideal-gas thermochemical properties
ChEMBL
Database of bioactive drug-like small molecules; it contains 2-D structures, calculated properties and abstracted bioactivities
Chemical Entities of Biological Interest (ChEBI)
Dictionary of molecular entities focused on ‘small’ chemical compounds
ChemRxiv
An open preprint server for Chemistry, managed by ACS. More details on the “What You Need to Know” page.
ChemSpider
A free database of chemistry structures and their associated information. To draw and search on a structure or substructure, click “Structure search,” then click the pencil inside the diagram, then select “Draw or Edit”
CompTox Chemistry Dashboard (EPA)
A compilation of toxicological information sourced from many sites, databases and other sources (see the site’s “About/Disclaimer” for aims and limitations of the database)
Crystallography Open Database
Open-access collection of crystal structures of organic, inorganic, metal-organic compounds and minerals, excluding biopolymers
EMBL-EBI (European Bioinformatics Institute, Bioinformatics Services)
“The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) maintains the world’s most comprehensive range of freely available and up-to-date molecular data resources. . . our services let you share data, perform complex queries and analyse the results in different ways”

Europe PMC This link opens in a new window
An open-access database of biomedical and life-sciences literature, including research articles, preprints, micropublications, books, reviews and protocols

iScienceSearch
The Internet search engine for chemists and biologists; a federated search service that retrieves chemical compound information from a wide variety of databases.
medRxiv
An open preprint server for medicine and health sciences, managed by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. More details on the “About medRxiv” page.
PubChem
PubChem Structure Search allows the PubChem Compound Database to be to be queried by chemical structure or chemical structure pattern. The PubChem Sketcher allows a query to be drawn manually. Users may also specify the structural query input by PubChem Compound Identifier (CID) , SMILES , SMARTS , InChI , Molecular Formula , or by upload of a supported structure file format.

PubMed This link opens in a new window
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Medicine and related disciplines

Science.gov
Searches databases and websites from US federal government agencies with a focus on science information, including research and development results
ScienceOpen
A freely-accessible research network that aggregates open-access articles from a variety of sources.
Spectral Database for Organic Compounds
An integrated spectral database system for organic compounds, which includes EI-MS, FT-IR, NMR, 13C NMR, laser Raman, and ESR spectra.
Springer Nature Experiments
Open-access database that cross-searches Nature Methods, Nature Protocols, Springer Protocols and the Protocol Exchange.
– Guide
ThermoLit
NIST Literature Report Builder for Thermophysical and Thermochemical Property Measurements
ToxInfo.io
Databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals and environmental health.
Wikipedia Chemical Structure Explorer
May be easier than SciFinder for “common” compounds of significant environmental, toxicological or commercial interest

For certain aspects of biochemistry, you could also explore the databases linked from other Subject Guides, e.g. Chemistry or Biological Sciences

Google Scholar – Tips and Tricks

Provides a simple way to search broadly for scholarly literature

Use Scholar Preferences

to import references into EndNote, BibTeX, etc: amend Bibliography manager details in the Search results section
- Import one citation at a time using the “Import into . . .” link
- Log in to import several citations at once (instructions on the EndNote Guide )
to show Full-Text @ UC Library, choose ”University of Canterbury“ in the Library Links section

Use Google Scholar Library to organise your references

Search Tips to Find Specific Articles

1. When you already have an article’s citation details, find it with one of these tools:

Electronic Article Lookup

Full Text Finder quick search

Search in MultiSearch or one of the key Biochemistry databases.

2. If the citation you have is limited or not quite right, try browsing within the journal:

Electronic Journal Search

Print Journal Search
Search by journal title in the library catalogue. Check what years/volumes we have in the Holdings tab.

Full title – use the “Browse Alphabetically: By Title” option, e.g. biochimica et biophysica acta
Abbreviated title – use “Journal Title” option. Type an asterisk directly after each part of the abbreviation, e.g. biochim* biophys* acta

Browse Biochemistry Journals

Online

Journals UC Library subscribes to: Biochemistry and Animal biochemistry
Free, open-access journals.

In print

Find via the Library catalogue.

See also

Bio Journals from ACS Publications – generates a list of journals related to particular specialties and related journals that give a slightly different perspective each field. Results are based on primary and secondary areas of research provided from over 4,000 scientists working at the interface of chemistry and biology

Key Biochemistry Journals

It is useful to be familiar with the key journals in your field, as well as reading more broadly. Search within each title using keywords or browse the Tables of Content of recent issues.

Most Important Interdisciplinary Science Journals

Nature
Science
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The third most highly cited journal. Much easier to search online than to read it in the print version. Full text back to the first issue in 1916 is available via JSTOR
PLOS Biology
This freely accessible peer-reviewed journal has made a big impact on publishing in the Biological Sciences

Library Subject Guides

Biochemistry: Journal Articles and Databases

Electronic Article Lookup

Electronic Journal Search

MultiSearch

Interloan

Comparing Journals

PubMed or Ovid Medline?

PubMed Help

Key Databases for Biochemistry

SciFinder Discovery Platform

Open Access Databases (free)

Google Scholar – Tips and Tricks

Search Tips to Find Specific Articles

Browse Biochemistry Journals

Key Biochemistry Journals

Most Important Interdisciplinary Science Journals