CHEM 195: Research Practices in Chemistry

In this tutorial, we have covered how to:

• Describe the importance of the scientific literature and knowledge of it to your research
• Identify the differences between types of scientific information
• Identify and access the resources available to you at William and Mary and beyond
• Construct basic author, keyword, and citation searches in both general and subject-specific databases in order to trace the scholarly conversation around a topic
• Identify potential research topics, lab groups or researchers you might be interested in working with for your research course
• Cite information in American Chemical Society (ACS) format and use citation and data management tools in order to manage and ethically use information

Have more questions or need more help?

This is just the beginning of your science research journey and know that librarians are here for you! For help, you can always make a research appointment, chat us, come up to the desk and ask a question, or send an email to our reference desk or directly to Camille Andrews at ceandrews01@wm.edu.

And don't forget the other resources available to you, like your professor or PI for science questions or the Writing Resources Center for help with writing your lab reports and papers!

CHEM 195 students: Now that you have the basics of searching, you have two more tasks to complete. First, return to Blackboard and complete the post-tutorial quiz. This quiz will help us improve this tutorial for future students and will be assessed only on completion. Second, complete the searching assignment which will allow you to practice your new skills. A template document is available.