CAS ― Powering innovative solutions dedicated to advancing the scientific enterprise

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society, is the world's authority for chemical information and related solutions. Dedicated to the ACS vision of improving people’s lives through the transforming power of chemistry, the CAS team of highly trained scientists finds, collects and organizes all publicly disclosed substance information, creating the world’s most valuable collection of content that is vital to innovation worldwide.

Researchers and patent professionals around the world rely on SciFinder® and STN® from CAS for solutions that advance the scientific enterprise by enabling discovery and facilitating workflows.

In 2014, CAS established the foundation and built the infrastructure to transform the organization from a publisher to a solutions provider. In addition to providing the largest and highest quality content, CAS is now able to deliver innovative, new solutions for intellectual property and science professionals. CAS ended the year with a rich portfolio of new products ready for the market in early 2015. 

Consistent with past performance, CAS databases experienced robust growth, with more than 1.5 million patents, journal articles and other disclosed research sources added, for a new total of more than 40 million records available in the CAplus^SM database.

Updated daily, CAS added more than 1.4 million new single-step reactions to CASREACT®, with more than 77 million single- and multi-step reactions, plus synthetic preparations now available to researchers. More than 50,000 Markush diagrams were also added to the MARPAT® structure database last year from nearly 21,000 patents. Because of the work of the more than 1,000 scientists around the world who assemble, curate, and assure the quality of the CAS databases, researchers can efficiently and reliably explore the largest collection of disclosed chemical synthesis information from 1840 to the present.

The CAS REGISTRY^SM is the largest and most authoritative collection of chemical substance information available to researchers. In addition to covering substances from journals and patents, CAS REGISTRY includes substances from chemical catalogs, worldwide governmental regulatory agencies and reputable web resources. CAS REGISTRY added more than 13 million new substances in 2014. By year-end, it contained more than 91 million substances.

CAS REGISTRY also provides access to more than 65 million sequences. In addition to the 1.3 million experimental spectra already available in the CAS REGISTRY, the collection was enhanced with nearly 100,000 new carbon, proton and heteroatom NMR spectra to provide even more access to highly valuable property data. The continual growth and updating of organic and inorganic substances in the CAS REGISTRY database is reported with the REGISTRY counter on the CAS web site home page.

CAS covers 63 worldwide patent authorities to ensure comprehensive patent information within its databases, including multiple basics coverage from all covered authorities. Supplementing the disclosed chemistry added to CAS databases from document analysis, CAS also enhanced the search and display options for CHEMCATS®, the CAS chemical catalogs database, to help researchers more quickly locate the chemicals they need with direct access to hundreds of commercial chemical suppliers.

SciFinder provides the most relevant information solutions for scientists

Organizations around the globe rely on SciFinder for research discovery with access to comprehensive scientific information using an array of powerful tools that drive more confident research decisions. The world’s leading commercial, academic and government organizations recognize the value of ensuring unlimited access to SciFinder for their entire research teams spanning disciplines including chemistry, pharmaceutical, agrochemical, biotechnology research, and more.

CAS and PerkinElmer collaborated to provide a new research solution, pairing SciFinder, the choice for chemistry research™, with ChemDraw® software, the drawing tool of choice for chemists. This collaboration allows users to draw a structure using the ChemBioDraw Ultra 14 offering and then initiate a SciFinder session to search the structure. Researchers can now save considerable time when using both products. In addition, planned enhancements to the non-Java based structure editor in SciFinder were completed, and a new table view for Commercial Sources provided easier and faster access to the data users rely on to order research supplies. 

SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry celebrated its fifth year in 2014, with 18 students participating from around the world selected from nearly 400 applicants. This program provides students and post doctorates with the exclusive opportunity to share their research experience with CAS scientists and each other, and to take part in the Fall ACS National Meeting. To date, the program has hosted more than 85 students and post doctorates from 50 countries.

STN delivers unique content, unparalleled search power and precision, and proven reliability for intellectual property professionals

In 2014, STN celebrated its 30th anniversary. As the premier single source for the world's disclosed scientific and technical research, intellectual property professionals and patent examiners at the world's major patent offices and research organizations rely on STN to answer business critical questions and make informed decisions. Only STN integrates authoritative chemistry and patent content from CAS and other reputable sources along with the flexibility to search as broadly or narrowly as needed. 

STN has partnered with professional searchers for more than 30 years to provide high quality search results and dedicated service. The STN 30th anniversary celebration this year provided an opportunity to reflect on the growth of STN over the past three decades and a chance to give thanks to all those who have made that success possible. 

While celebrating the past, we continue building STN for the future. Ongoing development of new STN in 2014 provided new content and features as well as interface refinements based on user feedback. Major STN content enhancements this year included the launch of DEFULL (German full-text patents in English), the addition of Chinese dissertation content to CAplus, new CHEMCATS fields and expanded Digital Objective Identifier (DOI) availability.

STN Global Value Pricing was also launched in 2014, empowering users to maximize the value STN offers to their entire organizations by offering unlimited use of all STN content and features at a fixed price. Global Value Pricing reflects customer feedback and market trends by simplifying administration and letting users focus on searching rather than costs.

Researchers around the world rely on CAS

CAS continued to invest in providing authoritative and innovative solutions dedicated to advancing the scientific enterprise. Resources were added around the globe (e.g., Canada, Russia, Ukraine, South Korea, etc.) through ACS International, Ltd. (ACSI) to enhance customer service and support. Further, establishment of the ACSI representative office in China, as well as the new subsidiary, ACS International India, Pvt. Ltd., helps CAS better support our rapidly growing customer base. CAS made significant investments in its content and technology infrastructure to allow for efficient development of new solutions that will even more effectively serve researchers well into the future.