In Search of Organic Zeolites – Does Modern Information Retrieval Inevitably Become a ‘Sieving-the-Desert' Exercise?

Abstract

Information retrieval for planning and executing research projects and for publishing results is considered a routine task that is usually neither mentioned explicitly in a scientific publication nor described in any detail. In the information searches for the preceding publication (‘Building an Organic Zeolite from a Macrocyclic TADDOL Derivative or How to Teach an Old Dog New Tricks'), we were confronted with so many problems during retrieval of the desired information about related work that we decided to deviate from this tradition. We had to use the Cambridge Structural Database, the Chemical Abstracts structure and literature databases, and the Beilstein database to the full extent of their contents, indexing, and search facilities to retrieve the necessary information about ‘organic zeolites'. In the process, we found important limitations and deficiencies in any one of these databases, and we had to conceive search procedures that we considered rather unusual even after more than 20 years of experience in searching chemistry databases. The results and, particularly, the problems encountered underline the necessity for enhanced integration of individual compound and property databases and improved standardization as a prerequisite for this.