When you log in to CAS SciFinder, search options are presented at the top of the Home page. (You can click the CAS SciFinder logo to return to the Home page at any time.)
- Select the search type:
All All finds substances, reactions, references, and suppliers that match your query. You can enter search terms that identify the subject of interest (e.g., keyword, research topic, document identifier, patent information, substance name, CAS Registry Number) or draw/import a structure query. See All Search.
Substances Find substances by search terms, a chemical structure, or both.
Reactions Find reactions by substance name, CAS Registry Number, reaction number, and document identifier (e.g., patent number) or chemical structure that identifies a substance that participates in the reaction.
References Find references by search terms, a chemical structure, or both.
Suppliers Find suppliers by substance name or CAS Registry Number or chemical structure.
CAS Lexicon Searching the CAS Lexicon helps you find the CA indexing terms for concepts, chemical classes, and taxonomic vocabulary. By viewing and selecting CA Concepts and other related Concepts, you can pinpoint your reference search.
Retrosynthesis Perform a retrosynthetic analysis on a drawn or imported target structure using the Retrosynthesis search type or substance window.
CAS Sequences Find BLAST, CDR, and Motif biosequences by protein/nucleotide string or a.txt/.fasta file.
- Enter a text query or click the Draw button to import a structure with CAS Draw, ChemDoodle, or ChemDraw or draw a structure query using CAS Draw or ChemDoodle.
- Click the magnifying glass to submit the query.
Structure Query
To draw a structure query, click the Draw button in the search field. You have the option to draw the structure using CAS Draw or ChemDoodle. Select the preferred editor from the menu in the upper-left corner. Draw the structure, and then click OK.
If needed, you can click Edit Drawing to return to the Structure Editor, or Remove to delete the structure query. Click the magnifying glass to submit the query.
Find References Using Search Terms
Note: You may use the search field and Advanced Search Fields separately or in combination.
For example, I'll enter the substance ibuprofen in the search field. See Reference Search Terms for all input types.
As you enter the text, autosuggestions may appear; you can select from the list of suggestions or continue typing.
Click the magnifying glass or press Enter to submit the query.
Notes:
-
Terms that appear in the autosuggest list appear as indexed substances or concepts in matching results.
-
You may enter multiple numbers separated by a space, no commas or other punctuation. The search field has a 2000-character limit.
This search returns 40,449 reference results mentioning ibuprofen.
Tips:
-
Use Boolean search operators and modifiers to target your text search query. By default, multiple search terms without operators are implicitly joined by "or," and the query could return results containing from one to all of the terms along with their plurals and synonyms.
For example, a references search for turmeric immune cells returns over 11 million results; focusing the query by adding the and operator and quotation marks to search turmeric and "immune cells" returns 124 results.
-
You may also use wildcard characters. See Reference Search Using Wildcards for more information.
You may use the search field and Advanced Search Fields separately or in combination. For example, I'll add:
- AND Author Name: Dill, David
- AND Patent Identifier: US20180264013
Notes:
- The value(s) in the search field are combined with the output of the Advanced Search
Fields (operators are processed in OR/AND/NOT order): Ibuprofen AND (Author Name:
Dill, David AND Patent Identifier: US20180264013). Important: The first operator selected determines the relationship of Advanced Search Fields and operators to any terms entered in the search field. - You may change the order of the fields by clicking the Drag icon (
) and moving the field.
This search returns 29 results containing Ibuprofen that also have David Dill as the author and US20180264013 as a patent identifier.
Reference Search Terms
Search field terms may be:
- Research Topic/Keyword/Concept (e.g., analgesics)
- Substance (Chemical) Name (e.g., ibuprofen, amyloid ß, sigma bonds, interferon .alpha.)
Note: For more information, see Greek Letters and Equivalents Used in Searching. - CAS Registry Number (with dashes, e.g., 51146-57-7)
- Accession Number (e.g., 1986:230471)
- PubMed ID Number (e.g., 15980585)
- Digital Object Identifier (DOI) (e.g., 10.1093/nar/gki470)
- Patent Identifier:
- Patent Number (no spaces, e.g., US4571400)
- Patent Application Number (with dash, e.g., US1984-682902)
