Chemistry Reference Resolver

Alex Zhurakovskyi's unmissable tool allows fast access to papers simply by typing in the reference or DOI. Also supports MSDS and Sigma-Aldrich reagent search.

Image: books by Abdo from the Noun Project

Mendeley is (amongst other things) a versatile reference manager. Store, organize, and easily cite as many papers as you need. Ensure you download the desktop version, MS Word or LibreOffice plugin, and particularly the bookmarkable web importer.

Chemical Vendor Search

I made this tool to save me time searching multiple vendor sites for chemicals. Works best by typing in the CAS number. Powered by Google, so check any missing vendors' websites in case the products are non‑indexed. There's also a US version.

ICL ROAR Resource Links

A list of digital resources, handpicked by the ROAR team at Imperial College London. This is full of learning resources on automation and related topics in chemistry.

nmrpeaks.com

If you can't identify a peak in your NMR, type in its frequency (and multiplicity if desired). This handy web and iOS tool will give you a list of suspected impurities. Works with many common solvents, for ¹H and ¹³C NMR.

Chemistry Tips & Tricks

Titled Med Chem Tips and Tricks, this page from the ACS contains useful tricks for any kind of synthetic organic chemist, particularly those based in industry. There's probably something on there you didn't know already!

Not Voodoo X

Clever tricks for new researchers, and some that might be news to an old hand too. The workup section is not to be missed.

Melanie Sanford group

Melanie Sanford (University of Michigan)'s group handbook is one of the best there is, and it's publicly-available. Contains handy safety tips, and a comprehensive glassware cleaning section.

Image: Kettle by Jennifer Maestas from the Noun Project

A simple tool to approximate a boiling point at a given pressure, given a reference boiling point (and pressure). Created by Witek Mozga.

Organic Chemistry Info

Created by Prof Hans Reich from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this reference contains NMR reference data, A-value tables, Mayr reactivity scales, and much more. The most valuable section by far is the Bordwell pK_a tables.

Chemistry by Design

View and test your skills on a database of total syntheses. Also available as an Android and iDevice app - unfortunately, an active Internet connection is required.

SynArchive

A searchable database of total syntheses.

Automatic Compound Numbering

How to update numbered chemical compounds automatically in MS Word. Devised by Prof Margaret Scheuermann (Western Washington University). Absolute lifesaver for long writes like theses or book chapters.

SCRE

A useful Excel-based tool to centralize all characterization information for your compounds and generate a standardized SI- or thesis-ready report. Made by researchers at ICIQ.

Totally Synthetic ChemDraw stylesheet by Paul Docherty

The cult favourite ChemDraw stylesheet by Paul Docherty, originally posted on his site Totally Synthetic (no longer updated). Click here to download, and save the file in your ChemDraw Items folder.

Chemdraw Tips

Some of my ChemDraw tips. Useful for beginners and those less familiar with time-saving shortcut keys.

Chem-Station templates/span>

Easy toolbar-access ChemDraw templates for hard-to-draw structures, including common metal catalysts, organocatalysts, and photoredox catalysts.

Image: Benzene Lightning by Joey Sabey from the Noun Project

Dr Alex Goldberg produced this life-changing extended hotkey set for ChemDraw. Click on this link, and download the file as hotkeys.xml into the ChemDraw Items folder. Click here to see the additions. No longer completely life-changing from Version 17 as similar are now implemented by default.

Character Map

A handy set of special scientific characters to copy & paste. Possibly better than memorizing all their alt codes.

Chemistry Dictionary

Sick of red, wavy lines under everything you write? Professor Adam Azman's 104,000‑word Chemistry Dictionary for MS Word will put an end to that. Autocorrect will start doing your bidding instead of recasting aminal as animal for the hundredth time.

Seminar on Seminars

Ken Suslick (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)'s popular presentation on how to make effective presentation slides.

Constructing an Abstract

Dr Stu Cantrill of Nature Chemistry has put together a must‑see recipe for how to write an abstract for any kind of scientific paper.

Free Paper Grader

More than a spellchecker: this free tool analyses vocabulary, grammar, and sentence length, without falling into the usual MS Word traps.

Photo by Artem Sapegin on Unsplash

I volunteered for 1mwtt on the bootcamp that got me started with Python and JavaScript. I now save hours every week at work with basic Python skills: even a beginner can significantly increase their own productivity with data-based lab tasks. 1mwtt runs inclusive and accessible tech bootcamps for women and gender minorities.

PythonInChemistry logo

pythoninchemistry is an open source teaching initiative from Bath University. I've not done the course but I hear great things about it for total newbies to Python. They plan on continually adding new resources.

Photo by Artem Sapegin on Unsplash

People often ask me how I got started as a total beginner to basic coding. A while ago (for this website!), I learned about html and CSS on FreeCodeCamp. They do much more, including Python, data science and Git, and although I haven't tried those tutorials, I've heard good things too.

R for Data Science by Hadley Wickham

The guy who taught me R has been working with it for over a decade. He swears by this book, and it's all available for free online, thanks to author Hadley Wickham – Chief Scientist at RStudio. This is a general introduction for newbies to R (some basic programming skills may be useful), on how to use it for data science.

Photo by Artem Sapegin on Unsplash

A long and valuable list of pertinent tips on how to make your Python code more readable for future developers.

Highlightable periodic table

I made an offline script so you can create your own highlighted periodic table in MS Excel. I've been using it as a checklist of all the elements I've ever used in the lab!

The Periodic Bagel podcast

Podcast of fun chemist interviews and epic bantz, created by Chemjobber and Alex Goldberg.

IBM RXN logo

IBM RXN is an AI-driven reaction prediction tool. Input your reactants, and if you wish, reagents (eg: Pd) to see the AI-predicted products, with a confidence percentage.

OUSS logo

OUSS is the world's oldest, student-run scientific society. You don't have to be a student or academic to be a part of it. Check out their popular Facebook page full of interesting science content.