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Finding Current Developments
Trade magazines are one good place to learn about the latest developments in an industry.
- Chemical & Engineering News (C&E News)C&E News, from the American Chemical Society (ACS), covers academia, industry, and government news for chemistry and chemistry-related fields.
- Business Source PremierFind business articles from journals and magazines in marketing, management, information technology, operations, human resources, accounting, finance and economics dating back to 1965.
Finding Background Information
Encyclopedias and handbooks are a good way to get a broad overview and context for a subject and helpful for deciphering research articles. References at the ends of articles lead you to further relevant information.
Other helpful sources of background information are review articles and trade magazines. You can find those using databases like SciFinder-n, Scopus, and Web of Science and limiting by Document Type or Treatment Type.
- Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical TechnologyWritten by prominent scholars from industry, academia, and research institutions, Kirk-Othmer presents a wide scope of articles on chemical substances including their properties, manufacturing, and uses. It focuses on industrial processes and unit operations in chemical engineering and fundamentals and environmental and health issues concerning chemical technology.
- KnovelOnline access to books, databases, and conference proceedings from a number of publishers that cover all areas of engineering and includes content relevant to related sciences (e.g., chemistry and earth sciences). It includes interactive graphs and tables.
- Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry"The worlds's largest technical encyclopedia," this is also a very trusted source of information on a wide variety of fields that involve chemistry.
Finding Market & Industry Information
The following databases are key resources for finding information on science and technology-related industries and markets. Keep in mind that you may need to think a little more broadly when looking for information on an industry (e.g., adhesives rather than pressure-sensitive adhesives).
For help finding other types of business- and market-related information, contact Caroline Lilyard or see the Business Reference website.
- MarketsandMarketsProvides detailed niche market research reports on current trends and industries; including but not limited to: AI, Big Data & Analytics, Blockchain, IoT, Nanotechnology, and Wearables. Covered industries include Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Banking, Agriculture, Medical, and more. NOTE: Reports are read-only. Researchers may download report charts and tables. Additional download options available for faculty. Please contact busref@umn.edu for details.
- Frost & Sullivan Market Research ReportsUse for business research and to find Frost & Sullivan's market and industry reports for over 300 markets and 250,000 companies for industrial markets organized into categories for Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Chemicals, Materials, Food; Electronics and Security, Energy and Power Systems, Environment and Building Technologies, Healthcare and Medical Devices, Measurement and Instrumentation, Information and Communication Technologies, and Industrial Automation and Process Control.
- IBIS World (Business)Search industry reports for the United States, Canada, China, and global topics. Each report provides an overall current picture of an industry, including overviews, leading companies, sales information, and authoritative sources for researching hundreds of industries. Includes Business Environmental Profiles that summarize key drivers for industries in the U.S.
- GlobalData Medical This link opens in a new windowProvides medical device industry intelligence covering 16 therapy areas.
Finding Chemical Prices
Chemical pricing information is quite valuable and not readily available to academic institutions.
See also the Chemical Engineering Economics guide, particularly on chemical prices, from the University of Texas for advice. We subscribe to many of the resources listed so use Libraries Search to access them rather than the UT links.
- ICIS Chemical Business ProfilesCheck this list created by the University of Texas Chemistry Library to see whether your chemical has been profiled in recent years. The one-page Profiles include supply/demand, price, and market outlook and may include production capacity, market share, and average price over time.
- ICIS Indicative Chemical Prices A-ZICIS, publishers of ICIS Chemical Business (formerly known as Chemical Market Reporter), maintain this list of chemical prices that, for the most part, was current as of August 28, 2006 with some updates for the second quarter of 2007.
Finding Patents
Patents are a good source for technical detail, research data, and drawings. Most information in patents is not published elsewhere. Companies often publish in the patent literature before, or instead of, journals.
- Tutorial: Patents and patentabilityIn this tutorial you will learn about the different types of patents, how patents relate to inventions, what makes an idea patentable, and the parts of a patent.
- Tutorial: Patent searchingThis tutorial explains the benefits of using patents in your research and how to search using Google Patents in conjunction with the USPTO Patent Database.
- Google Patent SearchAllows for full-text searching of patent grants and applications from the United States and several other major jurisdictions.
- Derwent Innovations Index (Web of Science)Derwent Innovations Index merges patent information from Derwent World Patents Index with the patent citation information from Derwent Patent Citation Index. Users can conduct patent and citation searches of inventions in chemical, electrical, electronic, and mechanical engineering.
Finding Research Articles in Chemical Engineering
Articles are the primary way scientists communicate research results. Use an article index or database to find articles on your topic; the citation includes article information like article title, author, journal name, issue, year, and the abstract.
When you are starting to delve into a new subject, review articles are your best friends. Most article databases will allow you to limit your search just to this type of publication or document. The long reference lists in review articles are also a good way to identify key articles.
- Tutorial: Using citations to find journal articles and booksLearn how to use citations in journal articles to identify other relevant articles and books and use Libraries Search to find them.
- SciFinder-nSciFinder-n is the updated version of SciFinder and is the best database for topics related to chemistry and adjacent fields. It includes journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, and patents. Find substance and reaction information as well as suppliers and chemical regulatory data.
- Web of ScienceA comprehensive interdisciplinary collection of journal article citations. Subjects generally covered are within science and technology, arts and humanities, and social sciences. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
- PubMedSearches MEDLINE, which is the primary source of journal articles for the health sciences (fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, public health, health care systems, and basic sciences). Coverage is from the 1940s to the present. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
- Tutorial: How to read and comprehend scientific research articlesLearn tips on how to read a scientific article, how to find the main points of the article, and how to take effective notes.
Off-Campus Access to Library Journals & Databases
In addition to going through links on the library website, we have 2 other ways to access resources from off-campus.
- Proxy Bookmarklet for off-campus accessAdd this button to your browser toolbar and click on it to reload a page and authenticate as a U of M user.
- Virtual Private Network (VPN)Download and log in to VPN before accessing resources