How to register for and log in to SciFinder
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1
Registration ........................................................................................................................................ 1
On-campus access .............................................................................................................................. 2
Off-campus access ............................................................................................................................. 2
Recommended configuration for optimal SciFinder performance .................................................... 3
Transferring from the client version? ................................................................................................ 3
Forgotten your login details? ............................................................................................................. 3
Introduction
SciFinder is a web-based database interface from Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS, a division of the
American Chemical Society) which provides access to several important chemistry, life science and
medicine databases.
You can use SciFinder to obtain information on chemical substances using text, structures, chemical
names, molecular formulas or reactions. There are seamless links between a given substance, the
reactions it participates in and the bibliographic information (journal articles, patents, etc.) which
describe the substance and its reactions. SciFinder gives you the ability to set up alerts and session
history retention and to export citations to a reference management program. You can also add your
own comments and tags to references in SciFinder. SciPlanner is a synthesis planning tool. New
features added at the end of 2011 include:
Relevance ranking of structure search answer sets
Additional mass spec and NMR data for ~75,000 substances
New streamlined display formats for references and substances, and
Bioactivity and target indicators added to substance detail displays and substance Analyze
options.
Registration
You must register in order to gain access to SciFinder. It is essential that you register with your KTH
e-mail address, for example [email protected] or [email protected].
SciFinder login_instructions 20120102
First, go to the KTH Library home page at http://www.kth.se/kthb . Move the mouse over Search
Tools, and then click on Databases A-Z. Enter the word “Scif” and click on SÖK.
In the list of databases, click on SciFinder REGISTRATION and on the Next button on the
“Welcome to User Registration for SciFinder” page. Click on Accept to confirm that you will only
use SciFinder for educational, non-commercial use, then complete the form.
If your registration is successful, you will normally receive a message from CAS within 15 minutes
with the subject SciFinder Registration - Your Confirmation Required. It is essential that you
confirm this message within 48 hours of receipt; if you miss this deadline, the message will be
removed from the system and you will have to start all over again.
N.B. you can register from a computer on campus, or via the KTH proxy server using your KTH
library card number and PIN code (see Off-campus access, below.).
On-campus access
If you wish to access SciFinder from a computer directly connected to the KTH network, simply go
to https://scifinder.cas.org and sign in.
Note, however, that if you are using your own lap-top computer to gain wireless access to the
internet via eduroam or KTH-Open, you will have to follow the instructions for Off-campus access,
below.
Off-campus access
SciFinder uses IP authentication to allow registered users to access the databases. Therefore, if you
wish to access SciFinder off-campus, or if you use eduroam or KTH-Open to connect to the internet,
you must have a valid kth.se account and enter the database via the KTHB proxy server.
First, go to the KTH Library home page at http://www.kth.se/kthb . Move the mouse over Search
Tools, and then click on Databases A-Z. The proxy login window appears. Log in with your kth.se
account details or enter your KTH library card number and pin code.
When the Find Database page appears, enter the word “Scif” and click on SÖK. Click on SciFinder
in the list of databases, and you will be taken to the SciFinder login page; sign in as usual.
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Recommended configuration for optimal SciFinder performance
CAS does not support Internet Explorer 6 platform for the web version of SciFinder, due to its
inability to support newer web standards. If you are using Internet Explorer 6 as your primary web
browser, you will experience performance issues with SciFinder.
CAS strongly recommends that you upgrade your IE6 browser to one of the latest supported versions
of Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari in order to achieve optimal performance when using the web
version of SciFinder.
The hardware and browser configurations below represent optimal target configurations for
SciFinder on both PC and Mac platforms:
Windows-Based PCs:
CPU: 3GHz Core Duo
RAM: 2GB RAM
OS: Windows XP SP2
Browser: Firefox 3.6 or higher, IE7 or higher
Java Plug-in: Java 6 Update 26.
Apple Mac OS X:
CPU: 2.66GHz Dual Core Xeon
RAM: 2GB RAM
OS: OS 10.6x
Browser: Firefox 3.6 or higher, Safari 4.x or higher
Java Plug-in: JRE 1.6.0_24 for Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7
Information on the use of other operating systems is available at
http://www.cas.org/support/scifi/sysreqs.html
Transferring from the client version?
The older version of SciFinder, known as SciFinder Scholar 2007, was phased out on December 31,
2011.
If you have previously used SciFinder Scholar, you will find a good deal of help on the CAS web
site, including how to convert answer sets saved in the client version so that they are readable in the
web version. Follow the link http://cas.org/movetoweb/index.html
Forgotten your login details?
If you have forgotten your login details, go to the sign-in page for SciFinder and click on the link
“Forgot Username or Password?”. Enter either your Username or e-mail address, answer the security
question on the next page, then click on Submit. You will shortly receive an e-mail from CAS with
the necessary information.
Roger Bishop
Manager, Information Retrieval, School for Education and Communication in Engineering Sciences
[email protected]
Document Revisions
2011-08-10 with information for users of eduroam.
2011-08-25 with information on new links in SAMSÖK.
2011-09-13 with minor text revisions.
2011-12-21 describing how to access the database list from the new start page for KTHB
2012-01-02 with information on recent updates to content and optimal operating system configurations.
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