Research Guides: SciFinder-n: SciFinder vs. SciFinder-n

SciFinder and SciFinder-n Data Sources

Both the classic SciFinder and the new interface SciFinderⁿ provide integrated access to the following indexes.

Chemical Substances (CAS REGISTRY® and CAS Registry Numbers®, FAQ)
References (CAS Content Collection, CAplus^SM (1907- ) Core Journal, pre-1907 coverage)
Reactions (CAS Reaction Collection, CASREACT®)
Chemical Suppliers (CHEMCATS)
Regulated Chemicals (CHEMLIST®)
Markush Representation in Patents (MARPAT®)
Formulations (CAS Formulations)
Chemical Industry Notes (Trade Publications, CIN®)

In addition, searchers in SciFinder also retrieves results from the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE (1950 - ) database and the legacy Chemisches Zentralblatt (ChemZent, 1830 -1969) database.

SciFinder vs. SciFinder-n

	SciFinder "classic"	SciFinder-n
Coverage	1830 - present, see SciFinder and SciFinder-n Data Sources above	Same; with some irregular additions only available in SciFinderⁿ, e.g., Wiley Spectra (NMR, RAMAN and IR, Mass Spectra ) added between March to June 2020.
Searching	Reference, structure, and reaction can only be searched separately Topic search mainly based on indexed terms No autosuggest of search terms Only one search session per user at a given time	Can combine keyword and structure searching Can search across the substance, reaction, and references simultaneously Can search with boolean operators, truncation/wildcards, parentheses, e.g. (machine learning OR AI) AND catal* Can search Exact, Substructure and Similar Structures in one search Topic search based on indexed terms along with title, abstracts, keywords Provide AutoSuggest of search terms Allow concurrent search sessions in multiple browser tabs Allow biosequence search
Results	Can be sorted by date, CAS accession number, author name, number of citations, title, and publication year Narrow down results using Analysis or Categorize tools depending on the size of the search results	Grouped by relevancy (Best, Good, Fair) that is determined using the combination of hits in indexed terms as well as title, abstract, and keywords. Reaction results grouped by scheme Can assemble highlighted Markush structures Allowed fast retrieval of large sets Narrow down results using Concepts; Concepts not hirearchically mapped but can be searched Fulltext link clearly labeled, now with "Find it @ Wheaton" included
Search history and alerts	Search history not kept Can save answer sets and set Keep Me Alerted	Live search history kept for each user account in a calendar and can be rerun Can create an optional alert for saved searches with the ability to tag documents Saved answer sets can be shared with other users
Drawing tools	CAS Draw Integration with ChemOffice/ChemDraw	CAS Draw and ChemDoodle (Touch screen enabled) Integration with ChemOffice/ChemDraw
Additional Modules	Additional cost for MethodsNow and PatentPak. Retrosynthesis planning not available.	Citation map to visualize cited and citing articles Retrosythesis planning MethodsNow (linked step-by-step synthetic protocols extracted from references) PatentPak (Patent fulltexts mapped with substances)

Related Open Tools and Platforms

CAS Source Index (CASSI) - look up or confirm titles, abbreviations, CODEN, ISBN, and ISSN of publications indexed by CAS since 1907
CAS Common Chemistry - open community resource for ~500,000 chemical substances from CAS REGISTRY®. API access available.
Pistoia Chemical Safety Library (CSL) - open platform with crowd sourced data collection with hazardous reactions. Can be used to alert scientists to potential dangerous experiment.