Chemical Abstracts Indices

Chemical Abstracts published one volume per year through 1961, when the number of abstracts dictated publishing two volumes per calendar year. In 1907 only Author and Subject indices were provided, but by 1999 Author, General Subject, Chemical Substance, Formula, and Patent indices along with an Index Guide were provided with each volume. The historical evolution of the Chemical Abstract Indices has been tabulated.


Index Guide:

The Index Guide is, as its name suggests, a guide to the Chemical Abstracts indices. For example suppose you were interested in seeing what had been published on cayenne pepper. If you looked for cayenne pepper in the General Subject or Chemical Substance Indices you wouldn't find anything, because Chemical Abstracts does not index references to cayenne pepper under that name. If you consulted the alphabetically organized Index Guide under the heading cayenne pepper you would find that it would instruct you to see Red pepper, C. annuum longum, which is the name under which cayenne pepper is indexed by Chemical Abstracts.

The Index Guide also includes an appendix which describes the hierarchical arrangement of topics in General Subject Index. Knowledge of the hierarchical arrangement of topics can be used to narrow or broaden a search. For example, suppose you have been searching on thixotropy and wish to broaden or narrow your search. Looking up thixotropy in the Hierarchy Index at the end of Appendix I gives the location of the term thixotropy in the hierarchical listing at the beginning of Appendix I as 51b. In the area of the location of 51b in the hierarchical listing we find:

* Dispersion

* * Emulsification

* * Gelation

* * * Thixotropy

* * * * Rheopexy

* * Foaming

indicating that to broaden the search we would search under gelation or even more broadly under dispersion or to narrow the search we would search under rheopexy.


Author Index:

The Author Index lists the names of the individual authors, corporate authors, patentees, or patent assignees along with the title of the paper or patent and the abstract number. The entries are listed under the 1st named author. For example the paper:

Tebbal, S. and Hackerman, N., Effect of Liquid Film Thickness on the Carbon Dioxide Corrosion of Steel

would have the following two entries in the Author Index:

	Hackerman, N. See Tebbal, S.
and:
	Tebbal, S. ----- Hackerman, N., Effect of liquid film thickness on the carbon dioxide corrosion of steel, 199399a

Note that the a in the abstract number 199399a, is superfluous for abstracts published in recent years, since abstracts now have their own unique abstract number. Originally the abstract number only identifed a page column and the accompanying letter indicated the approximate location of the abstract in that column. The superfluous letter has been retained as cross check by Chemical Abstracts Service. Note also that the specification of the complete abstract number requires listing the appropriate volume number, i.e., 111:199399a.


Chemical Substance Index:

The Chemical Substance Index lists all specific elements and chemical compounds and their derivatives that are registered in the Chemical Abstracts Service Registry System. This includes elementary particles, both definite and indefinite alloys of metals, minerals, mixtures and polymers of specific compounds, antibiotics, enzymes, hormones, proteins, polysaccharides, and substances with trade-name designations. Consider a few of the entries for benzoic acid:

Benzoic acid [65-85-0]

B 1246g, R 28695b

Benzoic acid [65-85-0], properties

ion(1-) [766-76-7], electron configuration of, 16213u

Benzoic acid [65-85-0]

-----, 4-acetyl- [586-89-0], 56669d

Note that the B in the abstract number B 1246g indicates that this is the abstract of a book, while the R in the abstract number R 28695b indicates that this is the abstract of a review. Note also the 1- ion of benzoic acid has a different registry number [766-76-7] than benzoic acid [65-85-0] and further note that these registry numbers bear no resemblence to each other indicating that registry numbers are unique and have no structural significance. Finally note how the 4-acetyl-benzoic acid derivative of benzoic acid is listed.


General Subject Index:

The General Subject Index provides an alphabetical listing of all subject entries that are not listed in the Chemical Substance Index and provides you with enough contextual detail to allow you to distinguish one entry from another:

Amines, compounds

salts, lubricants, for polyester fibers, P 92956q

Amines, properties

molal vols. of aq., 30414c nitro, mass spectra of, 177697x

Note that the P in the abstract number P 92956q indicates that this is the abstract of a patent.


Formula Index:

The formulas in the Formula Index are arranged according to the Hill System in which:

For compounds containing carbon, C is listed 1st, followed by H (if hydrogen is present), and then followed by the other elements listed alphabetically.

For compounds not containing C, the elements are listed alphabetically.

For example the 1,1-dimethylethyl ester of acetic acid would be listed as:

C6H12O2

Acetic acid

1,1-dimethylethyl ester [540-88-5], 16075a

Patent Index:

The Patent Index lists patents that have been abstracted in Chemical Abstracts. The index is arranged alphabetically by the two letter code for the country issuing the patent and then numerically by the patent number. Consider the following listing for the Japanese patents 54/012643 B4 and 54/012653 A2:

JP (Japan)

54/012643 B4 See US 3986977 A

54/012653 A2 [79 12653], 90:11514h

FR 2270206 A1 (B1)

This listing refers you to the United States patent US 3986977 A to find the abstract number for the first patent listed and indicates that the French patent FR 2270206 A1 (B1) is a priority equivalent to the second Japanese patent.


Assignment Notes:

In part of your assignment you are asked to locate the volume and abstract covering articles published in a particular year. This is the year that the article was published, not the abstract. If the article was published toward the end of a calendar year or published in an obscure journal in a remote country, the abstract may not appear until the next year or, in rare cases, until several years later!