CHEM 441: Forensic Chemistry
Forensic Chemistry Journals
While there are many good books dealing with forensic chemistry,
what you really need to bolster your research papers are journal articles.
Articles represent the most current research results available. Understanding
how journal literature works will make this searching much easier.
One way to find research articles is to browse the most relevant publications. Browse these journals to see the kinds of articles published in an
average issue (not all will be precisely on forensic chemistry). Some
good journals to start with:
Forensic
Science International
Journal
of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and
life science (2002-present)
Journal
of chromatography. B [several earlier titles] (1977-2002)
Journal
of Clinical Forensic Medicine
Journal of Forensic Sciences (2006-present) [NCSU subscription coverage]
Journal of Forensic Sciences backfile (1972-2005)
Only recently available at NCSU. The backfile link allows you to search for articles in the journal, but does not allow you to view them.
UNC-CH and Duke subscribe to this title, so Tripsaver requests for it should take only a few days to complete.
Note that if you're searching more than a few publications, or if you have a specific topic in mind, browsing becomes ineffecient. You can use research databases to search for specific topics across publications.
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Choosing a Database
You need to search chemistry databases to find journal citations. Databases index articles in numerous publications, allowing you to search for information on a topic through many journals at once. (If you aren't familiar with academic databases,
read more about databases in LOBO.) The databases that you want to use for this class
are:
1) SciFinder Scholar
The pre-eminent chemistry database, but a challenge to learn. Requires download of client software, must be used on campus. More
information on SciFinder Scholar.
Special feature: most comprehensive chemistry database; search for chemical information
2) Web of Science
Chemistry + other sciences. Allows article and author searches to
see who else has cited that article or author.
Special feature: citation data--sort by times cited to find important papers
3) PubMed
Very robust medical database. Where applications of chemistry to forensics
might be found. Many articles have links to fulltext.
Special feature: quick link to review articles via Review tab in search results.
These databases, plus more, are all found within the library's databases, or organized by subjects. In particular, check the chemistry and medicine subject pages:
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Searching Databases
Databases are not search engines--they are much more powerful and subject-specific. They search a specific set of documents, such as movies, flight times, or literature in a certain academic field. Databases also permit users to create accurate and meaningful sets of results. For example, by linking your main concepts with AND. Then, using limits, refine your search. I will show you more about this when I visit your class.
Example: In SciFinder I do a search on the terms: mass spectrometry
and forensic. This brings back too many citations to look
through. I then limit these to just review articles (summary
articles for a field of research) which brings me down to about 60, which I can browse more easily. I can
arrange these by publication date, refine by certain authors, etc.
More
on Boolean searching (LOBO).
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Understanding Citations
A citation gives you an abstract of the article, the author, the
article title, and the year, volume, page, and name of the journal
in which the article was published. It does NOT include full text.
Databases are collections of citations, not articles. They often provide a link to full text, however.
Example:
Ikegaya, H. et al. "Detection of the calcium antagonist nicardipine
and its metabolites by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry".
Forensic Science International. 130.1
(5 November 2002). pp. 25-28.
Here, 130 is the volume, 1 is the issue and the article is on pages
25-28. There are many different styles for writing citations, but
in all of them, the volume number should appear after the title.
Sometimes the full text online version of the article is linked from
the citation. This is great, you can go directly to the article and
print it out. Use the 
button if you see it. Click on this to see if there we subscribe to
an online copy of the journal.
There will not always be an online version of the journal.
We may still have the journal. The next section explains how to get
the print copies of a journal.
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Finding print copies of Journals
Don't ignore articles that are not full text online in your database!!
Some may have electronic access through a different source and others
can be found in print within the library. Here is what to do:
Given a citation with no link to full text (this citation is from
SciFinder Scholar):
Okeke, C. C.; Wynn, J. E.; Patrick, K. S. Simultaneous
analysis of cocaine, benzoylecgonine, methylecgonine, and ecgonine
in plasma using an exchange resin and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy.
Chromatographia (1994), 38(1-2), 52-6.
Take the journal title: Chromatographia
Go to the NCSU Library catalog.
Paste the title into the catalog search box. Make sure Journal
Title is selected. From the title list that results, select
the best match. Click on this record. Here's what you should see:
1) A box near the bottom called Electronic Access. If there
is a link provided, you can get to the fulltext for this journal for
the years mentioned. In this case, there is no electronic access.
There may be for other journals.
2) At the bottom is a call number: QD271 .C54. This number
allows you to find all of the issues of the journal here in the library.
QD is the number for all chemistry journals and books and all
QD materials are on the 6th floor. Call
number map
More
information about locating print copies of journals (LOBO).
One final note: if you can't find a journal title in the catalog
and it isn't available online, you can request a copy of the article you need through Tripsaver. Contact me with questions about this process or to get help before
abandoning your search!
Finding Articles flowchart
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Citing Sources
You must cite your sources completely. Not doing so is plagiarism... (More)
You may be asked to adhere to a certain citation style. Otherwise, pick a style (there are many: APA, MLA, CSE/CBE, Chicago, etc.) and
stick with it. You can use the citation builder tool to help generate citations. You can also use RefWorks or other citation management software. More complete citation guides are available online (linked from the citation builder site) and the definitive style guides are available at the D.H. Hill reference
desk. Use the same style throughout a document.
More information on citing sources
(LOBO).
A typical citation in your bibliography might look like this:
Ikegaya, H. et al. "Detection of the calcium antagonist nicardipine
and its metabolites by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry".
Forensic Science International. 130.1 (5 November 2002). pp.
25-28.
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