How do I resolve chemistry and other science journal abbreviations?

CASSI will help with nearly all chemistry journal abbreviations. Search by abbreviation to get the full journal title.

Once you know the full title, you can look it up in the journals or catalog to locate the Libraries' subscription.

Some common abbreviations:

Angew Chem - Angewandte Chemie
Ber - PROBABLY Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft. MIGHT mean Berichte Biochemie und Biologie, or even something else beginning with Berichte.
Chem Ber - Chemische Berichte
Chem Ind - Chemistry & Industry (print only)
JACS - Journal of the American Chemical Society
JCS - Journal of the Chemical Society
JOC - Journal of Organic Chemistry
Org Syn Ann Vol - Organic Syntheses Annual Volumes
Org Syn Coll Vol - Organic Syntheses Collective Volumes

If not found in CASSI online or listed above:

Consider asking a librarian. We are glad to help track down citations and abbreviations.

Other tools we use:

The Journals tool can decode many abbreviations (enter the abbreviation as you found it, separating words with a space, and do an 'Anywhere in title' search). A few other (incomplete) online sources to check are the CAplus Core Journal Coverage List and this listing from UBC.

Standardized abbreviations are an essential part of correct and validated citation practice. Abbreviations are governed by the ISO 4 standard and maintained by the ISSN International Centre. The annually updated List of Title Word Abbreviations contains the words of the titles of serials processed by the ISSN network and their abbreviations, approximately 55,650 words in about 70 languages. Visit the list at
https://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php.

Other general resources are the Periodical Title Abbreviations reference books, which unfortunately have no online version. These are held at the D. H. Hill Jr. Library reference desk and branch locations. For chemistry journals specifically, try the CASSI printed volumes.