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Home   •   News and Events  •  Press Room  •  CAS Overview

CAS Overview

The World's Authority for Chemical Information

CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, is the world's leader in providing online access to chemistry-related research data. CAS produces the world's largest and most comprehensive databases of chemical information and makes them available through sophisticated search and analysis software for scientists engaged in new product and patent research, as well as academic research at the world's leading universities. CAS databases include

• more than 35 million records of chemistry-related literature and patents
• more than 64 million organic and inorganic substances
• more than 63 million sequences (updated daily)   

CAS was founded in 1907 with the aim of monitoring, abstracting, and indexing the world's chemistry-related literature. This aim was first accomplished through the well-known printed reference work Chemical Abstracts^TM (CA). CAS began developing computer-based publication technologies in the 1960s to automate the publication of CA. Today, CAS editorial processes combine the advantages of document analysis by highly trained scientists with the benefits of advanced information technology.

CAS indexes and abstracts patents, journal articles from more than 10,000 scientific journals, conference proceedings, and other documents pertinent to chemistry, life sciences, and many other fields. In 2009, CAS scientists provided

• abstracts and indexing for more than 1 million journal articles, patents, and other research materials
• CAS Registry Numbers and substance records for more than 10 million organic and inorganic substances 

Data produced by CAS is accessible to virtually any scientific researcher worldwide in industry, governmental research institutions, and academia. The CAS databases are distributed through licensed vendors and accessed through innovative research tools like SciFinder   and STN . 

Substance identification is a special strength of CAS. CAS REGISTRY^SM, the gold standard for chemical substance information, is the largest substance identification system in existence. When CAS scientists encounter a new chemical substance in the scientific literature, its molecular structure diagram, systematic chemical name, molecular formula, and other identifying information are added to REGISTRY and assigned a unique CAS Registry Number. Organizations around the world use CAS Registry Numbers in reference works, databases, and regulatory compliance documents.

CAS celebrates more than one hundred years of service to world science as an integral part of the American Chemical Society. That is more than a century in pursuit of a single mission: Provide access to chemical and related information that speeds scientific discovery and improve people's lives.
 
Many generations of scientists, information professionals, educators, and students have relied upon CAS' services, from the printed Chemical Abstracts to the efficient electronic research tools. 

What has not changed over the course of a century is the CAS commitment to helping scientists benefit from each other's research. As always, CAS helps researchers build upon the published work of their colleagues by making discoveries of their own. In this way, CAS helps to fulfil the vision of the American Chemical Society: Improving people's lives through the transforming power of chemistry.