A-Z Databases: ACS

Go to Databases A-Z and select 'ACS'.

At the top right hand corner of the page click on "Find my institution". Type in University of the West of Scotland and click on the link when it appears.

Log in using your UWS staff/student details.

Please ensure that in the top right hand corner of the screen you can see "Access provided by UNIV OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND".

ACS Publications provides access to a range of journals (currently 75 titles) and books (approximately 1700 titles) published by the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Also included is access to "Chemical & Engineering News" or "C&EN".  This is a news source for those studying, researching and working in the field of Chemistry.

Please note that not all content may be included in our UWS subscription.  Please refer to the "Getting the Full Text" section of this Guide.

Further information about ACS Publications is available from the ACS website.

There is only one search option available (at the top of the homepage).  This allows you to search all of the publications within the database, such as journal articles, book chapters or news items, using a range of search criteria, including:

• Keywords/Phrases
• Author's name
• DOI (if known)

Although this appears to be a Basic/Quick search once you have carried out a search you can refine the results using the following options:

Content Type

• Book
• Book Chapter
• C&EN Article
• Journal Article

Article Type

• Research Article
• Review Article
• Rapid Communication
• News

You can also refine by:

• Publication Date
• Contributor
• Publication Title
• Topic

All of the options available are listed on the left hand side of the search results page.

UWS Library does not subscribe to all of the content available from ACS Publications.

If a journal article is unavailable via our subscription, it might be possible to source a free copy on the internet that is provided under an open access arrangement. This can be checked using Google Scholar. Type in one author's surname and add the title of the article in quotation marks (to look for the words in the same order). If the article is freely available, you will see a PDF or HTML notation to the right of the citation.

You may also be able to get the article by requesting an Inter-Library Loan.

A set of "Website Demonstrations and Tutorials" is available from the ACS Publications website.  These will help you to use this resource effectively.

There is also an ACS Customer Support page (use the Search box to find answers to questions you may have),

You may wish to set up a personal account within ACS Publications.  Please note that while this allows you to access additional features of the database, such as following journals in which you are interested and receiving email alerts for new issues, it does not give you access to additional full-text content to which UWS Library does not subscribe!

Further information is available from the "Email Preference Centre".  Click on any of the "Sign in" options on the page and follow the instructions to set up a personal account.

The American Chemical Society has also published a very interesting, and informative, guide to scholarly communication.

Accessibility Statement

This work in this guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.