Research Guides: Chemistry: Web Resources

Select Chemistry Websites

ChemSpider
A free chemical structure database providing fast text and structure search access to over 28 million structures from hundreds of data sources.
Royal Society of Chemistry
The RSC is the largest organisation in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences. Supported by a worldwide network of members and an international publishing business, activities span education, conferences, science policy and the promotion of chemistry to the public
Periodic Table of Videos
A modern take on the periodic table. Short videos on each of the elements.
Dynamic Periodic Table
An interactive periodic table; link to PDF to print as well.
ACS--American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is the world’s largest scientific society and one of the world’s leading sources of authoritative scientific information.
NIST Chemistry WebBook
This site provides thermochemical, thermophysical, and ion energetics data compiled by NIST (The National Institutes of Standards and Technology) under the Standard Reference Data Program.
WWW Chemistry Guide
The directory and search engine of chemistry related resources on the Internet. "Our search engine allows you to search the contents of more than 250 websites. It searches only the sites we specify, bypassing a lot of the junk."
PubChem
PubChem is world's largest collection of freely accessible chemical information. Search chemicals by name, molecular formula, structure, and other identifiers. Find chemical and physical properties, biological activities, safety and toxicity information, patents, literature citations and more.

Evaluating Websites

Before you use a website for a paper or project, you should evaluate it and make sure it is appropriate for your class research. The continuum of credibility below shows which sources you should be skeptical of using and which are more appropriate, or you can use the CRAAP test below that to help you determine if your source is a good one.

CRAAP scorecard for evaluating sources. The categories for scoring include:

Currency
- when was the information published or updated?
Relevance
- does this source answer your research or assignment questions?
Authority
- who is the author or publisher and can you verify his or her credentials?
Accuracy
- are the statements or facts backed up with evidence and sources?
Purpose
- is the information unbiased and impartial?

Each category can be scored from one to ten with one being the low score and ten being the high score. The higher the total score, the more reliable the website may be. Any source scoring below thirty might not be considered acceptable for academic research.

CRAAP Evaluation

Science.gov

Science.gov is a gateway to authoritative selected science information provided by 13 U.S. Government agencies, including research and development results. Science.gov brings together, through one interface, reliable resources selected by the respective agencies as important science information. Easy access options are provided through a search feature, a deep Web search feature for more detailed information, and a browse feature. Science.gov is the official USA.gov for Science Cross-Agency Portal.