Research guide to chemistry and life sciences resources

Be efficient in your research and use the various databases, reference works and additional literature in the field of chemistry and life sciences.

Databases

Standards, Patents

Reference works

Bachelor's and master's theses

Databases

We recommend that you search the databases in order to research and review up-to-date and discipline-specific content on a topic. They mostly contain references to resources as well as full text articles from journals. Depending on the database, additional types of publications such as conference reports, book chapters, pictures, videos and much more are included.

Overview

The table below provides an overview of the databases in the area of chemistry and life sciences. Please note that databases marked with an asterisk (*) require special access information. You will find more information in the details of each database.

Name	Subject	Content
Agricola	agriculture, food sciences, forestry	references
Agris	agriculture, food sciences, forestry	references
Approved Methods of Analysis – AACC International	food sciences (cereals)	assay methods
Bloomsbury Food Library	food studies	full texts
CAB Abstracts	agriculture, biotechnology, food sciences, forestry, environmental technology	references
ChemSpider	chemistry	facts, references
European Pharmacopoeia Online*	pharmacology	full texts, facts, standards
FSTA - Food Science and Technology Abstracts	food sciences	references, laws, standards, patents
GreenFile	environmental technology	references, some full texts
hortigate	agriculture	full texts
KOSMET*	cosmetic science	references
Livivo	Nutritional science, environmental science, agricultural science	references
Merkblätter Gefährliche Arbeitsstoffe*	chemistry	facts
OECDiLibrary	agriculture, food sciences, economics, social sciences	references, some full texts
PubMed	medicine, pharmacology	references, some full texts, facts
Reaxys	chemistry	references, facts, patents
Schweizer Nährwertdatenbank	food sciences	facts
SciFinderⁿ*	chemistry	references, facts, patents
Springer Materials	engineering, material science	full texts, facts
USP–NF - United States Pharmacopeia and National Formulary*	pharmacology	full texts, standards, patents
VCF - Volatile Compounds in Food database	food sciences	facts
Web of Science Core Collection	multidisciplinary	references
WISO	economics, social sciences	references, some full texts

* Requires access information. You will find more information in the details of each database.

Open access portals

Search for scientific publications that are worldwide freely available, also known as open access publications.

Reference works

Reference works are the ideal starting point for your research. In addition to defining concepts, they help you to gain an overview of a topic, narrow down a topic and find key concepts for future work.

All electronic reference works can be found and searched in ZHAW swisscovery. The selection of titles below provides you with a quick introduction to your specialist area. General reference works can also be found with the monolingual (in German) and multilingual dictionaries (in German).

Title	Additional information
A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation	There are further reference works from Oxford on the topic of environmental technology.
A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition	There are further reference works from Oxford on the topic of food sciences and nutrition.
A Dictionary of Plant Sciences	There are further reference works from Oxford on the topic of life sciences
Comprehensive Renewable Energy	-
CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics	-
Encyclopedia of Food and Health	-
Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology	There are further reference works from ScienceDirect on the topic of life sciences
Encyclopedia of Industrial Biotechnology: Bioprocess, Bioseparation, and Cell Technology	-
Food Composition and Nutrition Tables: Die Zusammensetzung der Lebensmittel - Nährwert-Tabellen	-
Handbook of Clean Energy Systems	-
Handbuch der Bodenkunde	-
Handbuch Lebensmittelhygiene	Registration free of charge required. Then it can be found in the table of contents: QM /QS, Hygiene & Mikrobiologie
Hommel interaktiv 15.0	Handbuch der gefährlichen Güter (ZHAW login required)
Römpp Online	-
Schweizerische Lebensmittelgesetzgebung	-
The Encyclopedia of Fruit & Nuts	-
The New Encyclopedia of Insects and their Allies	There are further reference works from Oxford on the topic of life sciences.
The Prokaryotes	-
Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry	-
VDI-Wärmeatlas	-

Bachelor's and master's theses

Selected bachelor's and master's theses from the School of Life Sciences and Facility Management are available in the ZHAW digitalcollection.

The Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology and the Institute of Food and Beverage Innovation present the bachelor's theses in an annual publication (in German).