Chemisches Zentralblatt Subject indexes

From around 1850, cover applied and pure chemistry. Excellent abstracts of patents and literature, some not found in Chemisches Zentralblatt subject index fairly adequate. Wagner has a rather complete German patent number index in the chemical field. 

The period from 1929 to the present date may be covered by the use of the abstract journals, Chemical Abstracts and Chemisches Zentralblatt. The latter was considerably superior to the former until 1939, when the war prevented the Chemisches Zentralblatt staff from receiving many of the journals which were published. From that time to the present, Chemical Abstracts is quite satisfactory, and there is little need to use the German abstract journal. Both journals are provided with subject and formula indexes (although the latter are not always reliable for Chetnical Abstracts, whereas they are excellent in Chemisches Zetitralblatt), from which the desired compound may be located. Chetttical Abstracts also has a Decennial Index, the fourth of which covers 1937-1946, and the fifth, 1947-1956. 

In searching for patents on a certain subject, the index is used as in searching for information on any subject. In British Abstracts and Chemical Abstracts the reference entries under subject heading concerning patents are prefixed by the letter P, and in Chemisches Zentralblatt they are marked with an asterisk. The same prefixes are placed before the titles of patents in the author index, which also lists the names of the assignee. In Chemisches Zentralblatt the name of the country in which the patent was first issued is included after the title of the patent in the author index. 

Having almost finished the remarkable work of closing the war and postwar gap in coverage of chemical literature, the editors of Chemisches Zentralblatt are now preparing the publication of several cumulative indexes, indexes to the Erganzungsbande and the Sonderband 1950/54, and indexes to the more recent volumes. No cumulative index has been available in 1960 for the period since 1944, and the 1940-1944 volumes have only one cumulative (author) index. Annual subject indexing of Chemisches Zentralblatt is some three to four years behind in publication. 

In the absence, at the present time, of any subject indexing of the current issues of chemical abstracting journals of the world, Chemisches ZerUralblatf Das System is the first device providing a unilateral subject approach to the weekly issues of Chemisches Zentralblatt. Published in 1958, Das System (4) is a listing of 8662 "system numbers" allotted to chemical subject terms since the sequence of abstracts in each weekly issue of the journal is numerical, one may determine—by looking up pertinent system numbers—whether that issue carries any abstracts of... 

This review covers nearly the complete literature on fluorine-containing compounds of sulfur up through 1956. That is the last year for which a subject index for Chemical Abstracts or Chemisches Zentralblatt was available. Articles appearing through 1958 are also included when known to the reviewer. In the case of carbon compounds the review deals with the first member of an homologous series, for example... 

Beilstein is the most comprehensive list of organic compounds. The main series, volumes 1-27, 30 and 31, part I, covers the literature up to 1910. The first supplement, volumes 1-27, and the subject and formulae indexes constituting volumes 28 and 29, survey the literature up to 1919. The second supplement, volumes 1-27, and the subject and formulae indexes constituting volumes 28 and 29, covers the period 192(1-1929. For compounds not listed in Beilstein , t.e., for those which first appear in the literature after 1929, the indexes of the Abstract Journals Chemical Abstracts, Chemisches Zentralblatt or British Chemical Abstracts (to 1953) should be consulted. The Collective Formula Index to Chemical Abstracts, 1920-1946, is extremely useful. For general reference work Heilbron will be found less cumbersome than Beilstein , although of necessity not so comprehensive. 

An abstract is a summary of the important discoveries and conclusions in a paper and provides a way into the content of research publications. Abstract literature allows access to this information in a searchable format. Many of the early journals published annual author and subject indexes. Chemisches Zentralblatt, begun in 1830 and ending in 1969, is the one of the most reliable means into the very early chemical literature. A searchable database is available by subscription through InfoChem [9], which maintains a database for current literature as well. 

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