This book constitutes the Proceedings of the conference 'Chemical Structures: The International Language of Chemistry' which was held at Leeuwenhorst Congress Centre, Noordwijkerhout in the Netherlands, between May 31 and June 4, 1987. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Chemical Structure Association, the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Information, and the Chemical Information Groups of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the German Chemical Society. The purpose of the conference was to bring together experts and an international professional audience to discuss and to further basic and applied research and development in the processing, storage, retrieval and use of chemical structures, to focus international attention on the importance of chemical information and the vital research being carried out in chemical information science and to foster co-operation among major chemical information organisations in North America and Europe. Subjects covered included integrated in-house databases, substructure searching methodology, spectral databanks, new technologies (microcomputers, CD-ROM, parallel processing and expert systems) and chemical reactions. The keynote address was given by Mike Lynch of the University of Sheffield. In this, the opening chapter of the book, Mike discusses progress made in chemical information science in the last fifteen years and describes his own approach to research. In a plenary session, Myra Williams of Merck, Sharp and Dohme considered future trends from the point of view of the information manager and strategic planner in industry. She emphasises the need for integration, open architecture and a uniform user interface.

Keynote Address R & D in Chemical Information Science: Retrospect and Prospect

Future Directions in Integrated Information Systems: Is There a Strategic Advantage?
Current Approaches and New Directions in the Management of In-house Chemical Structure Databases
Development of an Integrated System for Handling Chemical Structures and Associated Data
(Inter)facing DARC-ORACLE
Using OSAC to Keep Structures in Their Place
Development of the Pfizer Integrated Research Data System SOCRATES
CAS and MDL Registry Systems at Eastman Kodak Company
Integration of Chemical Structures with Information in Support of Business Needs
Poster Session: Moving to an Online Environment for Chemical Information at Merck and Company
Customisation for Chemical Database Applications
Problems of Substructure Search and Their Solution
Substructure Search on Very Large Files Using Tree-Structured Databases
Substructure Searching in Files of Three-Dimensional Chemical Structures
Browsing and Clustering of Chemical Structures
The Sheffield University Generic Chemical Structures Project-A Review of Progress and of Outstanding Problems
Generic Searching of Patent Information
Poster Session: A Search System of Generic Names in the List of Existing Chemical Substances of Japan with Generic Structures
Building a Structure-oriented Numerical Factual Database
Poster Session: ECDIN, Environmental Chemicals Data and Information Network
Poster Session: Potential Enhancements to the CAS Chemical Registry System
Substructure Analysis as Basis for Intelligent Interpretation of Spectra
Computer-aided Spectroscopic Structure Analysis of Organic Molecules Using Library Search and Artificial Intelligence
Systematic Drug Structure-activity Evaluation Correlation
TheImpact of Microcomputers on Chemical Information Systems
Use of Microcomputer Software to Access and Handle Chemical Data
CD-ROM: A New Electronic Publishing Medium
Analogy and Intelligence in Model Building (AIMB)
Poster Session: Analogy and Intelligence in Model Building (AIMB)
A Multiprocessor Architecture for Substructure Search
The Evolution of the CAS Parallel Structure Searching Architecture
Reaction Indexing: An Overview of Current Approaches
The Implementation of Atom-Atom Mapping and Related Features in the Reaction Access System (REACCS)
Poster Session: Reaction Indexing in an Integrated Environment
Poster Session: Computer Assisted Synthesis Design Using Chiron and REACCS
Prediction of Chemical Reactivity and Design of Organic Synthesis
Reaction Retrieval and Synthesis Planning
CAOS/CAMM Services: Synthesis Planning and Molecular Modelling Tools
Joint Compound/Reaction Storage and Retrieval and Possibilities of a Hyperstructure-based Solution
Reaction Planning (Computer Aided Reaction Design)
Poster Session: Machine Generation of Multi-step Reactions in a Document from Single-step Input Reactions
Poster Session: Cheminform - Printed Issue and Database
Poster Session: Conventions, Practices and Pitfalls in Drawing Chemical Structures
Grammar in Chemical Indexing Languages.