Chemistry: Reference Works

Reference works are an excellent first stop in your research and are incredibly useful for the following:

• Getting an overview of a topic
• Finding physical or chemical data
• Getting ideas for a paper topic or narrowing your topic
• Brainstorming keywords for searching and learning the vocabulary used by authors in that area
• Discovering the key works on a given topic
• Discovering the key authors on a given topic
• Getting biographical information on key figures related to your topic

Encyclopedias provide excellent background/overview information and are an excellent place to begin research. They contain articles written by experts for a somewhat more general audience. They provide indexes indicating scope of coverage of a topic and point to articles in which a concept will be discussed. They also provide bibliographies for further reading.