The chemist’s index — substances, reactions, and literature.
At a Glance
| Publisher | CAS (a division of the American Chemical Society); the platform is SciFinder-n |
| Coverage | the CAS databases — 200M+ substances in the CAS Registry, reactions, and the chemistry literature (CAplus) |
| Access | institutional subscription |
| Free alternative | PubChem (substances), Reaxys is the paid rival |
| Regional | global. |
Our Take
SciFinder is the authoritative discovery tool in chemistry, uniquely combining the literature with the CAS Registry of substances and a vast reaction database — so you can search by structure, substructure, or reaction, not just keywords, which no general index supports. For chemists it’s close to indispensable. It’s a premium product, and its structure-search power assumes chemistry-specific skills. Use it for substance, structure, and reaction searching in chemistry; PubChem covers the free-substance layer and Reaxys is the main paid alternative.
Power Tips
- Search by structure and reaction, not just text — SciFinder’s substance and reaction databases answer questions no keyword index can
- use it to establish substance identity and synthesis routes, then trace the literature via CAplus.
Alternatives & Complements
Reaxys · PubChem · Web of Science · Scopus.
Get Database Intelligence Weekly — search smarter, everywhere. [Subscribe CTA — replace with your signup block]