SciFinder Scholar (SFS) provides access to
- Chemical Abstracts literature database of over 23 million references (CAPLUS)
- CAS substance database of over 31 million registered compounds (REGISTRY)
- Reaction database containing over 7.5 million chemical reactions (CASREACT)
- Regulatory chemicals database compiled from an extensive group of state, national, and international regulatory agencies (CHEMLIST)
- MEDLINE database from National Library of Medicine.
You can search by topic, author, company name, or by chemical structure.
SciFinder Scholar uses proprietary software that has to be installed on the computer you are using. Mount Holyoke College is hosting a website from which valid MHC users (current student, faculty, or staff member) may download the software (access is restricted to users on our network). Please read the User Agreement carefully; SciFinder Scholar is not available for commercial research or for visitors. Due to the restrictive nature of the SFS license, there are no public stations for SciFinder Scholar access.
Please read the instructions before downloading, particularly if you are installing the software on a Windows machine, where the procedure is more complex. SciFinder Scholar versions 2004 and 2006 are being retired on April 1, 2006, and will no longer work after that date. Please use the instructions below to install SciFinder Scholar for Mac OSX and SciFinder Scholar 2006 for Windows! SciFinder Scholar download instructions: Mac OS X or Windows
For Mac OSX
- Click here to download Scifinder-Scholar-2007-OSX.dmg, a disk image of the program. (You will be asked for your MHC username and password.) Doubleclick on the downloaded file to open it. When it opens, you will see a window with a SciFinder Scholar icon in it. Drag the icon to your Applications folder, and when it finishes copying, you can then eject the folder with the disk image. You can also drag the icon from your Applications folder to the Dock, if you would like Scholar to be in the Dock.
For Windows (this program requires Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, or NT 4.0, with 80-85 MB free space on hard disk, and at least 32 MB RAM for Windows 98, ME and NT 4.0, or 64 MB RAM for Windows 2000 and XP) -
- Two files are required in order to install SciFinder Scholar on a PC: click here to download sfs2007.exe and enter your MHC username and password when requested. Then, if you have not installed a previous version of Scholar on your computer, click here to download site.prf, which contains data needed to connect the program to CAS's servers. If you have successfully used Scholar on your computer before and still have the old site.prf, it is unlikely you will need a new one. You can also click here to download SciFinderScholarToolbar.exe, a feature for Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows, if you would like to use it.
- On your computer, close your other programs (you may want to print this page first), then doubleclick on the copy of SF2006.exe that you downloaded, and let the install program run. If it asks whether to overwrite a previous version of Scholar, click Yes. During the install process, it will ask if you have a disk of Custom Site Files; click No.
- The installer will also ask if you want to install SciFinder Scholar Toolbar, which is a feature for Microsoft Internet Explorer. This will require additional space on your hard disk, and we have not evaluated the Toolbar for security, but you are welcome to install it and try it out if you like.
- If the previous version of Scholar was working on your computer, the new installation should be able to use the site.prf file that is already on your machine. You can check this by selecting the option to "Perform connectivity test" when the installer asks. The test will not work if your site.prf is not present or not correct. If this test fails, or if you have not installed Scholar and the site.prf before, let the installer finish and close, and then place a new site.prf in the folder C:\SFSCHLR on your machine. (Download site.prf here if you have not already done so.) Allow your computer to overwrite the old copy of the file, if it asks. With this file in position, Scholar should start, connect to CAS, and ask you to agree to its license, when you doubleclick on the SciFinder Scholar icon.
After downloading and setup, the Scholar icon should be in the Applications folder for Mac users (and you can put it on the dock if you like), or in the program menu for Windows users. Mac OS 9 users should not try to install the OS X version on their machines. If you need to install an older version of Scholar for either platform, please contact Sarah Oelker to obtain the files. Need help or more information?
If the program would not install as described here, please make a note of where in the install steps you ran into the trouble, and then contact Science Librarian Sarah Oelker or the chemists at the CAS Help desk (1-800-753-4227), or visit any of these webpages:
Chemical Abstracts options here at MHC
SciFinder Scholar Resources (CAS Learning Center)
Trouble connecting to CAS with SciFinder Scholar? We pay for 2 simultaneous logins which we share with others, so you may have to wait and try again. Please be considerate of others and close Scholar when you are finished searching; the program will automatically disconnect after 20 minutes of inactivity. Please notify Sarah Oelker if you still cannot connect to CAS with Scholar after several attempts.
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