Research Guides: Chemistry: Background Information

Encyclopedias & Dictionaries

If you're brand new to a topic, you can use dictionaries and encyclopedias to look up and find basic background information to get you started.

AccessEngineering This link opens in a new window
320+ full text titles with comprehensive authoritative content from a broad range of McGraw-Hill engineering publications.
Kirk Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology This link opens in a new window
This resource presents articles on chemical substances, including their properties, manufacturing, and uses, industrial processes and unit operations in chemical engineering, and fundamentals and scientific subjects related to the field. Environmental and health issues concerning chemical technology are also addressed.

Oxford Dictionary of Chemistry
Covers all areas of chemistry including, forensics, metallurgy, materials science, and geology. Includes biographical entries and chronologies charting the main discoveries in atomic theory, biochemistry, explosives, and plastics.

Review Articles

Chemical Reviews

Review articles can be useful for basic background information. They can also give you a sense of the history of a topic, what research has been done, and what questions are left to be answered. Citations and references can help you to identify the major researchers in a field as well as individual articles relevant to your own research.

Many databases allow you to refine your results to just reviews. Look for Document Type -> Reviews.
If you can, search a journal that focuses on publishing reviews, like one of those listed below.