- Borrowing
This page introduces you to some KPU library resources and other free online tools for your work in organic chemistry.
Please feel free to contact me by email (linked below) if you have questions about finding or citing sources for your assignments.
The authoritative source for chemical structures, properties, and other data.
The library subscribes to the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics online. Log in with your KPU ID if you are accessing from off campus.
Surrey and Richmond campuses also have print copies of the newest editions available for in-library use.
JoVE stands for Journal of Video Education. KPU Library subscribes to this collection, including core textbooks, experimental protocols, and laboratory manuals, all in video format. Each video has a downloadable transcript and most entries also have a reference list for further reading.
See the links below for resources relevant to organic chemistry.
The following are freely available, reliable sources for searching chemical structures, properties, formulas and more.
Use them in your lab reports, but remember to check their licenses to see what use is permitted. Look for a copyright statement on the home page that will indicate permitted uses.
For the web resources below, copying and re-using is permitted, but attribution is required; that is, you are free to use the information on the sites, but you must provide a statement as to their source.
For your lab report, remember to include a number, caption, and statement indicating the source of the image. The source should also appear on your reference list.
Wikipedia and its related sites may provide useful background information on a chemical compound, images, or other media. Exploring recommended links to external sites, further reading, and references often leads to information on government and research sites that is freely accessible to the public. Use your best critical thinking to determine whether a site is accurate, credible, and relevant to your research.
Think of Wikipedia as a starting point for your research. You should not be citing Wikipedia in your lab reports.
Zotero is a free browser tool that keeps track of your articles and webpages, and creates citations in several formats. Sign up for a free account, and your personal library will be accessible from any computer with an internet connection.
The library's Zotero help guide will walk you through how to set it up, add various kinds of sources to your library, and create both standalone citations and bibliographies.
See the library's APA Citation Style Guide for details.
Remember that all entries in a reference list must be double-spaced and indented.
Fixed-point properties of H2O and D2O. (2016). In W. M. Haynes (Ed.), CRC handbook of chemistry and physics (97th ed., pp. 6-9). CRC Press.
Water. (2016). In W. M. Haynes (Ed.), CRC handbook of chemistry and physics ( 97th ed., pp. 4-94). CRC Press.
Acetone. (2025). In J.R. Rumble, (Ed.), CRC handbook of chemistry and physics online (106th ed.). https://hbcp.chemnetbase.com/
Faculty of Science and Horticulture. (2016). Chemistry 2320: Introduction to organic chemistry I (Fall 2016 ed.). Kwantlen Polytechnic University Bookstore.
Royal Society of Chemistry. (2016). Aspirin (CSID 2157). http://www.chemspider.com/Chemical-Structure.2157.html?rid=b795e128-7c57-4f7f-8b99-448174924c45
Xu, W., Wang, H., Li, F., Zhong, L., Yang, W., Jiang, W., Tao, S., & Zhang, L. (2025). Intelligent chemical synthesis in an undergraduate teaching laboratory: Continuous flow synthesis SnAR reaction with automated robot-assisted condition screening. Journal of Chemical Education, 102(9), 4033-4038. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c01072
To make proper attribution to any photographs or figures you use in your work, first consider whether you are the creator of the image, or whether you have copied, or adapted it, from another source.
In the case of using your own photograph or figure:
In the case of an image that you have copied or adapted:
See the Library's APA guide, Tables and Figures tab, for more examples.
A note about personal communications, such as emails, interviews, class notes, etc: APA considers these types of sources to be "unpublished". As such, include a brief in-text citation for your source, but it is NOT necessary to include it in your reference list.
For example, an in-text citation referring to your classmate's notes, might look like this:
(J. Smith, CHEM 2420 lecture notes, June 24, 2015).........
See the Library's APA guide, Personal communications, for more examples.
See the ACS Style Quick Guide for complete details on citing various kinds of sources.
References should appear numbered in a list at the end of your report, enclosing the number in square parentheses. If you refer to the same source more than once, use the same number. Do not indent items on the list.
Journal names may be abbreviated in the reference list. To help decipher an abbreviation, use the Science and Engineering Journal Abbreviation tool from UBC Library.
Benzoic Acid (CAS RN 65-85-0). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 105th ed.; Rumble, J.R.Ed.; CRC Press, 2024; Section 3, p.8.
Acetone (CAS RN: 67-64-1). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics Online. 106th ed.; Rumble, J. R., Ed.; CRC Press, 2025. https://hbcp.chemnetbase.com/
Faculty of Science and Horticulture. Chemistry 2320: Introduction to Organic Chemistry, Fall 2016 ed.; Kwantlen Polytechnic University Bookstore, 2016.
Aspirin (CID 2244). PubChem. National Center for Biotechnology Information.https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/2244
Xu, W.; Wang, H.; Li, F.; Zhong, L.; Yang, W.; Jiang, W.; Tao, S.; Zhang, L. Intelligent chemical synthesis in an undergraduate teaching laboratory: Continuous flow synthesis SnAR reaction with automated robot-assisted condition screening. J. Chem. Educ. 2025, 102(9), 4033-4038. DOI 10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c01072
Note:
The journal Tetrahedron uses a style similar to ACS Style with some differences:
The reference for the article cited above would be:
W. Xu, H. Wang, F. Li, L Zhong, W. Yang, W. Jiang, S. Tao, L. Zhang, Intelligent chemical synthesis in an undergraduate teaching laboratory: Continuous flow synthesis SnAR reaction with automated robot-assisted condition screening. J. Chem. Educ. 102 (2025) 4033-4038.
