Chemistry Research Guide

Use 'penicillin' as starting point to explore and practice how you can go about researching and finding background information on a specific molecule:

1. Start by searching 'PubChem' for information about Penicillin.
   1. Find the following three pieces of information:
      • 2 Synonyms
      • The molecular weight
      • The APA Citation
2. Now, search for background information on Penicillin using Credo Reference
   1. When was Penicillin developed/discovered?
3. Come up with a list of search terms to find a research article about penicillin.  Think about narrowing your topic using the who/what/where/why questions.
   1. Here are a few examples:
      1. Penicillin AND specific population of people
      2. Penicillin AND a specific industry

Padlet activity

Other search strategies to experiment with:

1. Run an overly broad search.  How many results do you have?
2. Use filters to limit results to the past five years, and include only magazine source types.  How many results do you have now?
3. Now, run a search using a synonym or similar term to your initial search. How do the results compare?
4. Narrow that same search down by using the advanced search feature and two or more search terms. How many results do you have now? How to the results compare?