The Synthetic Chemical Literature from 1960 to 1969

Computer Techniques for the Indexing of Chemical Reaction Information

“…The need for adequate means of retrieval for chemical reaction data has been apparent for many years; thus the preface of the first edition of Weyl's classic work on organic chemistry contained the statement that a scientist could hardly hope to be familiar with every one of the innumerable methods described therein.1 More recently, both Meyer2 and Vails3 have called attention to the importance of providing access to reaction information, and this need is likely to become still greater with the introduction of computer-aided synthesis design systems.4•5 As there are now over four million compounds known and as any one of them may be transformed into many others by suitable reactions, it is clear that the amount of potential data is quite enormous, and Hendrickson has pointed out that there are large classes of reaction for which there are as yet no known members;6 at the same time, the number of reactions actually reported is steadily increasing. 7 There are often many ways in which a molecule or substructure may be synthesized and yet there are currently few aids to help the chemist in his search for a viable synthetic pathway. The difficulty of the problems involved may be evidenced by the widespread recognition of the achievements of synthetic chemists such as Corey and Woodward, and by the frequent use of terms such as "elegant" in reviews of syntheses: synthetic organic chemistry has been described as "an art in the midst of a science".…”

Synthetic Chemical Literature

“…2 Garfield examined the synthetic chemistry literature in 1973. 3 This work provides an updated view based on synthetic methods. In this study, we confirm that 25 years later, despite the increase in the number of journals published, Bradford's law still describes the distribution of novel synthetic techniques in organic literature.…”

“…Garfield examined the synthetic chemistry literature in 1973 . This work provides an updated view based on synthetic methods.…”